New member here...Tank moving advice?

[nerdwolf]

Hey everyone, my name's Jason. I live in Mt. Juliet with my wife, and 3 year old son, and I'm in the process of aquiring a 57g rimless tank setup to replace my 2 extremely boring biocubes (8 and 14). I'm impressed by the amount of experience and knowledge in this group, and looking forward to meeting some of you in the coming months.

Here's a little info about the new (to me) tank - it is currently occupied by 2 Ocellaris clowns and a Blue Tang (all SA), some sort of rock anemone, various cuc, a couple of hammer colonies, some good sized green paly colonies, and a bunch of live rock/sand. The tank has been on a minimum maintenance schedule for a while I'm guessing, as there is quite a bit of thread or hair algae (not sure which) on the rocks. I just ordered a new HID lamp for it, which I'm guessing has something to do with the algae bloom (it has fairly new t5 bulbs, but the MH hasn't been changed in over 2 years). Probably won't keep the existing light setup, as I really want to try a DIY LED setup, but it'll do in the interim.

Anyway, I've never attempted to tear down and move a system this size and have a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with:

How much of the water do I need to save, and how much can I replace at one time?

I want to replace the existing substrate (live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater) with aragonite - How much of the existing sand should I keep to seed the new substrate?

How long can the lps, soft corals, and live rock survive without tank lights, say in rubbermaid totes? I've got some work to do with plumbing, scraping and repainting the back of the tank, etc that would be easier to do while the tank is down than once it's running.

Any other advice on things I may not have thought of are also appreciated.

 

[New Wave]

hey nerdwolf... nice to have you! if its possible.. since the two other tanks are smaller... just leave them set up while you are building the newer system... that way you can take your time and do it right... id say the MH is pretty much worthless... if youre going to change the light to led... sounds like what you have will be fine under t-5's without the MH

here's my advise...

ditch the sand... maybe you can seed with a cup or two if the old sand... but if you move some of the current rock... that will probably be seed enough...

the other stuff you were asking... i probably wouldnt keep the stuff in a rubbermaid more than a day... make sure you keep a good temp... and water movement for oxygen.

but again... best thing is to keep the old setup going while you put in the new.

just one opinion...

THINGS TO LOOK FOR...

PO4... if there is excess po4... may be better to ditch the rock too...
BUGS>>>> LOOK FOR BUGS>>> may be better to ditch everything...
im not trying to discourage you... just things to look for... sometimes with old setups... it may be less expensive to build new... than to fix the old...

the fish will be fine in a tub.. just light, water movement and heat.. (regular lightbuld)... the lps... maybe you can find someone to "babysit" for you... assuming they are in good health... but... definately take your time examining BEFORE you buy... and take your time setting it up...

 

[gmoney243]

actually corals can live a week or so easily without light long as the other params are stable especially flow thats how they breath and eat so ive read at least never tried lol. but as mel said i wouldnt risk that i would put the stuff in the old tanks while u clean and setup the 57g properly.

+1 on using new sand with just a cpl cups for seed and everything mel said.

nothing much to moving a tank that size just get a friend to help you carry it or a dolly and be carefull.

go or the diy leds for sure its not that hard just takes some time cause its lots of tedious work.

 

[nerdwolf]

Cool, thanks for the advice guys - That's what I needed to know. I probably should have mentioned that I'm getting the tank from my mother, so I'm very familiar with it. I actually built a custom sump/fuge starting with a 8' x 4' sheet of acrylic, did all the plumbing and setup, and taught her how to maintain it. I just think she lost interest in the tank recently and let the maintenance slip a bit, probably didn't realize the bulbs need to be changed every year, and was running her skimmer really dry because she's afraid of it going crazy and overflowing when she's not around.

So assuming I can get rid of the algae I'd prefer to keep the rock, and I'm not concerned about parasites or disease as I'm sure everything's healthy. I really just want to avoid having to cycle the tank again, especially with a bunch of animals in it. I'm sure most of the beneficial bacteria is in the rocks and sand, and I wasn't sure how compromised the biological filter would be if I completely replaced the live sand with dry crushed coral. That and there are amphipods and bristleworms living in the sand, and I hate the thought of throwing them out completely.

 

[New Wave]

If the sandbed is less than 2 inches... You should be ok... However... There are Tons of horror stories about disturbing a sandbed... Po4 can build up even in a maintained aquarium without the use of a reactor or scrubber to remove it... If the po4 is high... The algea will be a constant issue... Not to say you cannot eventually get it out... But the cost of Rock is less than the cost of removing the po4 in some cases... Or... Just get a cole tang however if you plan to add sps... Po4 can be an issue... I believe the club has a po4 meter? Being that the tank is small enough... You an just drop thr water lever to the sand.... Throw the rock In some buckets... Move the whole thing... One shot... Without disturbing the sand bed... Within a reasonable distance.... Just replace 10% of the water... No biggie.

 

[gmoney243]

yea if its ur moms tank then id say just transport and use it all unless the sand looks nasty. i would try to keep the rock as wet as possible jus to keep bacteria die off to a minimum. algae scrubber is the cheapest way to get rid of po4 but if u have algae problems u at least need a refuge with chaeto but i would def put an algae scrubber or bio pellets to keep algae in check.

 

[nerdwolf]

Sounds like I'm going to need to invest in a hanna PO4 checker...I never really worried about phosphate before, but I'm starting to think that's the problem. I noticed a little of this fine, greenish brown algae in my biocube yesterday, and today it was all over the bottom rocks and my koralia nano. This is exactly what my mom's tank has been getting, only she gets a lot more of it. The only real similarities between her setup and mine is that we both feed frozen Emerald Entree, and we use top off water from the same RO/DI unit. The TDS meter always reads 0 coming out, but I wonder if her reservoir is contaminated with something that's causing this. Does that seem plausible?

I put some chaeto in her refugium earlier this week. GFO and bio pellets both seem like decent solutions, but I'm having trouble distinguishing when to use one or the other? Seems they are about the same amount of effort to implement, but don't bio pellets also export nitrate? I'm sort of leaning towards the biopellets at this point - does anyone know a reason I wouldn't want to use them? Thanks again for the responses guys, it's been very helpful.

 

[gmoney243]

GFO and biopellets both use nitrates and phos .. but frankly biopellets are a better solution .. but imo even better and cheaper is algae scrubber they wont work as fast but everything has its pros and cons. algae scrubbers are much cheaper and safer long as u build it properly it will keep ur water clean and algae from the display tank. they are better if you start them with a new tank but u can implement them at any point to get rid of phos/nit plus many many more thing such as metals copper ammonia nitrite and they wont strip your water to clean or to fast and leave lots of good micro foods for corals to eat. ive gone from 1.8po4 to .2 in last 2 months using just an algae scrubber with only 2 WCs 15g and a 30g i did yesterday the 30g change took me from .4po4 to .2 and my tank is full of Mels po4 rocks he gave me lol needless to say im biased to scrubbers.

 

[nerdwolf]

needless to say im biased to scrubbers.

I can see why given your results with it, and I'll probably have to give it more serious thought... On the surface, the scrubber seems like a lot more work to get set up initially and the DIYs I've seen all leave something to be desired, both in safety and aesthetics. I pray those people have the good sense to use GFI outlets. I do need to figure out where the nutrients are coming from though...

 

[caudill187]

I have moved two systems and have ditched the old substrate both times, with no hint of a cycle. The rock is enough. I would say keep at least 50% of the water.

 

[mrsaltwatertank]

when are you moving?

 

[adamfinke]

Im moving a 90g setup tomorrow. Thanks to all the posts, answered alot of my questions. I just hope everything mixes well when I get it home. I have 60gals of RO/salt water mixed man I'm shaking in my boots.

 

[nerdwolf]

adam, good luck...come back and tell me what you did wrong so I can learn from your mistakes. :bigsmile:

mrsaltwater - I can pick it up whenever I want. I just tend to get anxious as soon as things start to go into bags and buckets. When are you moving, are you still selling APEX controllers, and why won't your website tell me my tank personality?

 

[gmoney243]

adam how far are u moving? i recently bought about 10 items from FL to TN and drove them up and they all still alive and well 3 months later .. you shouldnt have any problems as long as you get your stuff in a warm tank with good params within 24hours