When tank transferring, do you remove fish first or coral/rocks first?

[JoJosReef]

In my tank, I am imagining moving the rocks/corals first will make catching the fish 1000x easier, especially since I have sand sleepers that dive into hard-to-reach areas of the sand bed. But, removing the rocks will likely stir up the sand bed a lot, and who knows what that will do to the water chemistry. Any thoughts?

 

[VintageReefer]

Remove all easy corals and easy rocks.

The rocks on the bottom layer will stir up silt when removed. So maybe when you get to them, switch to trying to catch the fish. Hint. Make it super easy. Get a BIG NET. If you can get one that’s the width of the tank that’s the best. Or, two nets. Fix them side by side to make the size you need. Like two 9” nets can connect to make a 18” net with a seam in the middle. Or overlap to be a custom smaller size.

Then you put the net wall in, make sure the net itself isn’t bunched up. And just chase the fish into it


Do this in dim, red only leds

Fish can’t see red that well and make it just bright enough for you to be able to see and work with

 

[naterealbig]

Rock and sand first, for sure. Tank will get cloudy, but 20 minutes or so with the pumps off will allow things to settle enough to see.

 

[mfinn]

One more thing I've found useful when removing all the fish is to lower the water level. Less water = less room to escape the net.

 

[Seancj]

Corals and rock first. Drain water to only a few inches to catch fish easier. Drain the rest of the water. Last is sand.

 

[sgdnycct]

Great tip on using red light! I can also say red light has a much lower impact on human night vision which should help with those trickster fish!