Moving a fish tank

[wellcraft]

Hi guys, I sold my 29 nano reef tank to my bro in law. Was full of live rock and full of corals, 2 clowns and 2 fire fish. I moved everything to his main fish tank while we move the tank to his office.

My question is, we are going to put all of the live rocks corals and only the clowns for now since he wants to keep the 2 fire fish on his main tank. Should I used a few gallons (10) of the current and add lets say 20 gallons of new fresh salt water on the nano or should I start with fresh salt water all the way?

Also should I vacuum the gravel and live it as clean as possible or should I replace it with new gravel?

I'm assuming I should keep the old gravel since it has all the bacteria needed to run a fully cured tank, I'm right?

This tanks has been running for about 2 years now, when I bought last year I just took everything apart and put everything back together without vacuuming the gravel or cleaning everything a few hours later, just changed like 10 gallons of water. Everything ran pretty good the whole year but I want to do the right thing now.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

JR.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

The best thing to do would be to vacuum about 50% of the substrate, leave the rest alone. Transfer as much of the old water as possible. This will expedite the re-cycle process. Shouldn't take more than a week that way.

 

[bycjoe]

I moved a 29 biocube recently, we didn't even disturb the sand bed, left the sand in there and refilled slowly at first with a piece of Tupperware to stop the sand from getting disturbed. We also had reused the majority of his water but it doesn't hurt to keep 5 gallons on hand just incase, I think we dumped the 5gal bucket that had the majority of his livestock and coral just because it looked dirty after the trip.

So I'd take out the live stock and live rock and transport it in 5 gallon buckets with sealing lids and move the sand in the tank, I'd replace the sand if you had to take it out though. Just a few cup fulls of the old to start the bacteria going again IMHO

 

[rdnelson]

Bycjoe;881588 wrote: I think we dumped the 5gal bucket that had the majority of his livestock and coral just because it looked dirty after the trip.

Good move. Durring the transport time the ammonia levels will climb due to high concentration of bio load and no filtration. No sense dumping that in the tank.



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[wellcraft]

Cool guys, after I posted my question I decided to stir all the crush coral with my hands to disturb all the water, then I tried to filter the water with a sock but it only worked for a 5 gal bucket. The water is very dirty now.

I went to my bro in laws house to borrow his canister filter to filter the water overnight to see if it really cleans the water.

Going to try to filter everything, clean the crush coral by siphoning and reuse it, use some of the water and add also new fresh salt water.

Will I have any problem since I stir the whole substrate and disturb all the sludge?

 

[rdnelson]

In that case,start with all new water. You have released all the nasty stuf that was trapped in the sand. Also, either buy new sand or rinse the old sand very well in a bucket by running a hose on it while stirring. Then drain it and fill the bucket with straight RO/DI water to remove any stuff left by the tap water.


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[wellcraft]

Will do as you said, by doing this can I still add the corals and the fish the same day or do I have to start a new cycle? Would like to add the same day if possible because this will be in an office and he wants to do everything at once.

I have old clean crush coral and water.


Thanks a lot for helping.

Regards.

JR

rdnelson99;881663 wrote: In that case,start with all new water. You have released all the nasty stuf that was trapped in the sand. Also, either buy new sand or rinse the old sand very well in a bucket by running a hose on it while stirring. Then drain it and fill the bucket with straight RO/DI water to remove any stuff left by the tap water.


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[wellcraft]

BTW, if I'm replacing the crush coral and all the water with new one, should it be a good idea to use some water from his tank if this can help some? The live rock and the corals are currently in his big tank with other corals.
Maybe use like 5 or 10 gallons from his tank.

 

[rdnelson]

No Benoit to using old water. It does not have hardly any bacteria in it. The beneficial bacteria resides on the surface area of the live sand and live rock. By washing the sand or by letting it sit there will be no live bacteria. But the live rock should be enough to sustain the current bio-load. Just don't add anything for a month or so.


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[rdnelson]

That should say no benefit


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[wellcraft]

Ok, let me see if I understand correctly, just put the everything back together, add new sand, new water all the live rock and that's it for about a month, then add all the corals and the 2 clowns?

I now understand about not adding the water from the other tank.

Thanks.

JR.

 

[rdnelson]

Close but not exactly what I meant. What is am saying is rinse the sand well if it is old or used or new dry sand. Then use it, new water and all the live rock and you should be able to put all fish and corals back in on the same day. Just try to keep the live rock submerged in the old tank water as long as possible. If it sits out some bacteria will start to die and you may have a small ammonia spike.

Forgive me if you already know this but..... Dead organisms, left over food and fish poop start to breakdown in the tank. This creates ammonia. Ammonia will kill fish and corals. One type of bacteria consumes the ammonia and produces nitrite. Nitrite will also kill fish and corals. Another type of bacteria consumes nitrite and produces nitrates. In small amours nitrate is not harmful to corals and fish. As nitrate increases it is a problem. We handle that by removing some when we do water changes.

So, if you have enough good bacteria on the live rock everything should be fine. You may need to do some frequent water changes for a few weeks to give the bacteria a chance to grow but it shod be fine.

Hope that helps



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[wellcraft]

Ok, got it now.

Part of the live rock is currently in the sump of the big tank and the rest is in a 10 gal tank with the 2 clowns and crabs, so they are fully submerge and that tank has been running for a long time with no problems, is the same tanks were the corals are now.

The live rock was out of the water for just a few seconds, the time it takes when getting them out of the tank and putting them in a bucket. The nano was running with no problem for the past year.

 

[rdnelson]

Should be good to go.



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[rodasphoto]

Seachem also sells Stability

 

[wellcraft]

Thanks a lot for the help. We should be doing this during the weekend.