Water Box Tank Upgrade/Transfer.. Need some advice

[Morrissey]

Hey all,

I am planning on moving my waterbox 20 into a new set up. It is the marine x 60.2. Its around a 36 gallon display with a decent sized sump. My current tank has been set up over a year while being moved once. It is doing well overall, however It does have some algae issues. Rock has GHA, This is from lack of routine maintenance and haven't been able to fully address it.

I have roughly 20 pounds of live rock, which I feel has beneficial bacteria despite the GHA patches. My first thought was to set up the new display with dry rock and new sand. Take a a few pieces from the wb20 and begin to seed the new rock. This will allow time for the new sand to settle and new rock to establish. Once settled then move rest of rock and live stock to new set up. I only have a few corals along with a swissguard basslet, 2 clownfish and a cardinal.

My main concern is, should I transfer current rock despite algae or just cycle new tank and start fresh leaving this rock behind? I can keep lights off while a few pieces are added so that may keep the existing GHA from spreading to new tank. This new tank will have a powerful skimmer, Tunze 9410 and routine water changes will be kept up with again so I feel my nutrients will be kept in check far better.

Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

 

[Quietman]

I think the benefits of having cured live rock outweigh some GHA transfer since you're likely to have GHA anyway. It's just ubiquitous in the hobby and is much more a management issue than a prevention/elimination issue. And I'm not sure a little bit isn't really a good thing as it does out compete almost every other organism for nutrients and GHA is better than a lot of other types of algae/organisms.

I would take any and all steps to remove it before transferring. I've had good success with H2O2 dipping and targeting cleaning (naturally you want to minimize use so you keep the beneficial bacteria) so only apply/dip the key problem areas. Blacking out might help some but IME GHA will just return. Just to be clear, I do not believe any of the above will prevent GHA in new tank, just make it easier to manage and give you a leg up on keeping it under control going forward.

I'm not going into a bunch of GHA controls here as you can find that everywhere. I will add that I have a RSR170 and with the 9140 DC (great skimmer) and controlled nutrients to <5/<.02 always, I still have GHA. And if I don't manually remove it, it will grow enough to start waving around even with min nutrients. It's just too efficient at nutrient up take and my tank is too small for a tang. I'm trying an ATS now to see if at least I can control 'where' it grows.

 

[Morrissey]

Sounds good! I really appreciate the help. I am going to try and reduce GHA the best I can before I move a majority of the rock. I agree It's honestly just finding balance and keeping up with maintenance to manage it. The tank is going to go through some less then desirable stages as it matures regardless.