Tank Transfer

phixman · Dec 26, 2018

I need help with tank transfer, basically I'm upgrading from a nuvo 20 gallon to a 93 gallon Red Sea 350. In summer, I filled the tank with salt water, added all dry rock, sand, and a baseball sized live rock. I also added a bottle of instant Ocean bio spira and put a shrimp in there for a few days then removed it. I left for a month and half on a trip and left the tank off( no heaters, lights, pumps, powerheads) , when I came back it was filled with algae, turned the pumps on and it was gone. I'm almost certain I have some green coraline on some of the rock, I see brittle stars and a bunch of Spirorbid worms. Also, did a 30 gallon water change 2 weeks ago, decided to remove sand, and the middle island (50% of rock).

Information about current tank: I know my nutrients are low, but I over feed and my nutrients stay at 0, a couple months ago, started to feed more due to pale colors, and colors improved, I feed flakes or pellets daily, 1ml of fuel, 1ml of amino , friday and Monday I feed reef roids. This is why I decided to go bare bottom ( low nutrients).
Nuvo Fusion 20
hydra 26 hd about 250-300 par at peak
deep sand bed
Mp10 running at max on purple pulse
live stock:
Black damsel with yellow tail
Six Lined wrasse
Corals:
A lot of sps, lps, shrooms
Levels:
Alk: 6.7-7.3
Calc: 400
Mag: 1320
PO4: 0
NO3: 0
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77-78
Ph: 7.7-8.3

New Tank
Alk: 6.7
Calc: 400
Mag: 1350
PO4: 0
NO3: 0
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77-78
Ph: ?
I have also upgraded lighting to Radions xr30's g4, will be testing pars levels to match my current tank since I'm using my friends lighting schedule.

I have never upgraded tanks before which is why I've been going super slow. In addition, I have pests in my current tank which I don't want in my new tank, flatworms, red turf algae and had red bugs before leaving in summer , ended up dipping 90% of sps in revive for 15 minutes and 1 minute rodi, haven't seen them since. Do you guys have suggestions on the best method to transfer sps over to minimize stress and casualties and not transfer over any pests?

RobZilla04 · Dec 26, 2018

A little confusing to read through, but if you are saying the new tank is covered with algae then don't move anything until you get that under control. The test results, particularly Po4 & nitrates, can be deceiving since the algae are quickly taking those up as soon as they are available. Also likely is the new base rock (limestone, pukani, etc) is leaching phosphorus thus the algae will continue until there is no more.

Once algae problem is handled, you'll have to remove the corals from the old tank, inspect, dip, and acclimate them to the new tank and new lighting.

phixman · Dec 26, 2018

The algae is gone on the new tank, the one I have all the issues in is my old tank. I have some red turf which I don't want in the new system( getting some mexican turbos today). I do however have some pests which I don't want in the new system (flatworms, and had/have red bugs). Is there a way to minimize or eliminate the chances of moving a pest to the new tank when transferring sps and other corals? Mostly looking for tips on how people go about moving coral from a system to another.

RobZilla04 · Dec 26, 2018

Dipping and quarantining would be the only way to ensure you don't transfer something from the old tank to the new. If you can setup a small QT tank that would give you time to observe them. Otherwise you can run some of the products designed to eliminate those pests while the coral is the old system.