Questions on timing of moving to a bigger yank

[ttf5003]

Hi,

I’ve been running an IM Nuvo 40 for 7 years now and I’m finally upgrading to a Red Sea Reefer 350 Peninsula. I’ve got a few questions about when to get things up and running. I’ve also got a pretty bad green hair algae outbreak on my live rock in my 40 gallon that I’m slowly getting under control. I’d appreciate any comments on my plan.

The new tank has to go where the old one is so I’ll be draining about 20 gallons of water out, sliding the tank over and then pumping that water back in.

Setup new tank, leak test with fresh water? Is the leak test necessary or should I just start with Saltwater? It’s a lot of buckets either way.

Add new sand. I purchased two bags of special grade that I already rinsed. I don’t plan on moving any of my existing sand bed.

Add fresh saltwater. Add dry rock that my Local Fish Store where I am buying the Red Sea from will help me aquascape.

Drain 10 gallons of water from existing tank into a Brute. Start taking out live rock, put in brute and scrub as much hair algae off with a tooth brush as possible. Blast with turkey baster. Place somewhat cleaner live rock into new tank with the dry rock.

Move corals over at this time as well as the fish. I’ve got two clowns, a watchman goby, six line wrasse, and a splendid dotty back. I won’t add any more fish for at least a month if everything is going well. There are also bio blocks and chaeto in the back of the 40 gallon I will move over.

When should I start up the red sea reefmat, right away or should I wait a bit?

Same with the skimmer, should I start that right away?

When should I order pods to seed the refuigum? My current tank is podless and my wife would like a mandarin one day.

When should I order a bigger clean up crew? That’s part of the problem with my green hair algae outbreak, my snails have been dyeing off and I need to replenish. I don’t want them to starve in the new tank but I would like enough CUC to keep the algae from spreading to the new live rock.

I also have one Kessil 360 on the current tank at a max intensity of 60%, I’m not sure how high to turn the new Red Sea LED90 lights.

I’d appreciate any other pointers. I’ve got a 4 year old and 7 year old that love their fish very much and I really don’t want lose any.


Thanks,

Travis

 

[ryanjohn1]

There’s quite a few threads about exactly what you’re doing. Go into the search bar and start throwing key words in it. I’m doing almost same thing you are whenever my new figi cube tank ships to me.

 

[Reef By Steele]

So I moved a Red Sea 525 into a Red Sea S1000 so 139 gallon total volume to a 240 gallon total volume. I too added dry rock (but my LFS runs a big trough with water so mine was wet, but not sure if it had any advantage over dry. I used new “live” sand from Carib Sea which I did not rinse as I didn’t want to age t the bacteria it is supposed to provide. I didn’t move any old sand. I split the live rock from the 525 as I kept both tanks. IMO you should have enough bio filter for your current fish with moving your existing rock and the other bio media you listed. I would recommend adding pods very soon after setting up as they will help greatly with your GHA problem. We can help you with that, please give us a look at www.reefbysteele.com. I would seed both the fuge and the DT. I would also start dosing live phytoplankton from the start. Ours has a blend of ten strains 3 of which are diatoms (not to be confused with the diatoms that cause the brown powdery stage) and will actually eliminate or greatly reduce any diatom outbreak you might experience. This will also help you in your GHA issue as live phytoplankton will help as it competes against the GHA by consuming nitrates and phosphates. Early regular dosing can help reduce or eliminate an ugly phase (I wish I had known as this move was the worst ugly phase I experienced), which probably came because I moved almost all of the fish from the 525.

For clean up crew, I would ask the guys at www.reef cleaners.org when and how much to add. Again assuming your bio material will carry the load for your existing fish I would think you won’t have an ammonia spike, but might want to add your new clean up crew in stages. I really love their dwarf cerith snails.

Lighting, I use Aqua Illuminations and they have an acclimation mode that brings them up to intensity over a period of time. If the new lights have the same feature I would use it.

As you do the move, reach out with any questions. And good luck with your move.