What corals should I transfer to a new upgraded tank first?

[mrpontiac80]

I have a 2 yr old waterbox 65.4 aio. I have set up and started a 180 gallon mega matrix. The 180 is new sand, new dry rock, and started with FritzZyme turbo start 900 and I moved 2 pajama cardinals over.

the 65 gallon is a mixed reef doing pretty well. I decided against an instant transfer because of a few things like vermited snails and I don’t want to loose acros that have started doing very well. I also have a reefbreeders 48” photon v2 over the 65 gallon and will be using it over the 180 along with a new 24” reefbreeders. But for now, I have 2 AI Prime 16 HDs over the 180 because well corals need light. But this is obviously not enough for some.

so what corals should I move over first? Acans? Zoas, Duncan’s, candy canes, a couple of leathers? Goni, alveopora, torches, hammers, frogspawn, chalices. These are all options. I’m just looking for the best option for success while slowly transferring things over to weaker lights, and adding biodiversity
Below are pics of what I have to move and the tank it’s going into

 

[CoachRichardson]

Make sure the ALK doesn’t n high is the same before you transfer anything.

 

[mrpontiac80]

My 65 is. Stable at 8.6

my 180 is currently 8.9
Think that’s too much of a swing?

 

[CoachRichardson]

No, that’s close enough. Don’t know what my autocorrect changed above but glad you understood. I didn’t realize my salt mix was so much higher than what I normally keep my tank and I had so much new water mine jumped a couple points. Lost two frogspawn and many other corals that made it through still haven’t fully recovered almost two months later.

 

[mrpontiac80]

No, that’s close enough. Don’t know what my autocorrect changed above but glad you understood. I didn’t realize my salt mix was so much higher than what I normally keep my tank and I had so much new water mine jumped a couple points. Lost two frogspawn and many other corals that made it through still haven’t fully recovered almost two months later.

Thanks for the response! I moved over an acan, a leather, a purple candy cane that fell off the rocks a month ago, and a rock with some mushrooms on it. I’ll see how these do and slowly keep transferring things over. I need to eventually get it all transferred so that I can sell my 65 aio waterbox to afford more lights for the big tank. Just don’t want to loose anything if possible.

 

[NewCaliCaptives]

Thanks for the response! I moved over an acan, a leather, a purple candy cane that fell off the rocks a month ago, and a rock with some mushrooms on it. I’ll see how these do and slowly keep transferring things over. I need to eventually get it all transferred so that I can sell my 65 aio waterbox to afford more lights for the big tank. Just don’t want to loose anything if possible.

have you finished yet? Interested in how this went, i’m looking at upgrading my waterbox aswell to a larger tank but don’t want to lose any corals that are doing well. Was going to do all live rock and transfer the rocks aswell.

 

[mrpontiac80]

have you finished yet? Interested in how this went, i’m looking at upgrading my waterbox aswell to a larger tank but don’t want to lose any corals that are doing well. Was going to do all live rock and transfer the rocks aswell.

Everything is doing great! So on march 1st I decided to just swap everything over and get it done. I removed the new rocks on the right side of my 180 and I pulled out 25 gallons of water from both tanks and put the 65 gallon water in the 180. Just hoping to carry over what ever was in the water column such as nitrates and etc. Next I transferred all the rocks and coral and then fish and inverts.
then I crossed my fingers.

Tomorrow will be two full weeks after the transfer. Everything is doing well. In the words of Jake Adams, lower light doesn’t kill coral compared to too much light. So I set all my lights at 50% of the power they were previously. I took par meter measurements before, so I knew where I wanted my end results later. Every day for a week and a half, I increased the lights by 3-5%.

some things got ticked off like the toadstool and devils hand leather and zoas, but almost all of them have bounced back.
I will likely remove and replace some old rock at some point once I feel the tank is more established.
I did get some diatoms on the sand but they are clearing up already.

 

[NewCaliCaptives]

Everything is doing great! So on march 1st I decided to just swap everything over and get it done. I removed the new rocks on the right side of my 180 and I pulled out 25 gallons of water from both tanks and put the 65 gallon water in the 180. Just hoping to carry over what ever was in the water column such as nitrates and etc. Next I transferred all the rocks and coral and then fish and inverts.
then I crossed my fingers.

Tomorrow will be two full weeks after the transfer. Everything is doing well. In the words of Jake Adams, lower light doesn’t kill coral compared to too much light. So I set all my lights at 50% of the power they were previously. I took par meter measurements before, so I knew where I wanted my end results later. Every day for a week and a half, I increased the lights by 3-5%.

some things got ticked off like the toadstool and devils hand leather and zoas, but almost all of them have bounced back.
I will likely remove and replace some old rock at some point once I feel the tank is more established.
I did get some diatoms on the sand but they are clearing up already.

wow that looks awesome! Really glad to see the acros looking good, you started with dry rock and didn’t transfer any rock over so it’s essentially a completely newly cycled tank?

 

[NewCaliCaptives]

just kidding i just found your other thread, hoping someone responds to that one because your very last response is essentially the same worry have about how “established” will it be when mixing new rock with old rock.

 

[mrpontiac80]

wow that looks awesome! Really glad to see the acros looking good, you started with dry rock and didn’t transfer any rock over so it’s essentially a completely newly cycled tank?

I used all the old rock after all, and used a lot of new dry rock. I think you saw that, but just in case, want to clarify

 

[mrpontiac80]

just kidding i just found your other thread, hoping someone responds to that one because your very last response is essentially the same worry have about how “established” will it be when mixing new rock with old rock.

Which thread?

edit, I think I found it. Needless to say, I decided to place them where I want them. Not done yet, but will eventually finish.