Such thing as 'too much' new water?

[tonymission]

I'm adding a second 80g tank to my frag system. I have a 64g sump holding maybe 40g at most. Almost done with my plumbing and it's all valved off so I'm not in a massive hurry to open up the new system / dump in the new water.

Mixing 4 part ESV salt so my ALK/CA/Temp/Sg will be identical to the frag tank system.

Does anyone see a problem with roughly 70-80g of new saltwater being added to the system at once?

 

[cment]

As long as parameters match I dont see a problem. I would check and make sure your pH matches too or some of those pretty looking SPS in your tank could take a dive....

 

[marquiseo]

Yep. I killed my TCK Lightning Bolt because I added too much new water to the new tank when I switch everything over last night. It RTN'd last night. All the others are doing fine. I added 20G of old water and 35G of new. The temp was the same parameters are still spot on from the mix. The coral was placed at the same lighting length. The only change was the water.

 

[reeferman]

as long as all the params,including temp,are the same,there should be no problems whatsoever.the only problem i could see would be if your nutrients were dropped too low too quickly because of the dilution.

 

[tonymission]

MarquiseO;1000260 wrote: Yep. I killed my TCK Lightning Bolt because I added too much new water to the new tank when I switch everything over last night. It RTN'd last night. All the others are doing fine. I added 20G of old water and 35G of new. The temp was the same parameters are still spot on from the mix. The coral was placed at the same lighting length. The only change was the water.

You tested your Alk on the new water first? Did you transfer to a new tank? All my frags will remain in the tank they're in now. Just started up a secondary tank. Nothing is coming out even for a second.

I'm literally down to the decimal point exact on my ALK right now. Just waiting for the temp to come up before opening the return valve.

 

[tonymission]

reeferman;1000278 wrote: as long as all the params,including temp,are the same,there should be no problems whatsoever.the only problem i could see would be if your nutrients were dropped too low too quickly because of the dilution.

Thank you for bringing that up. Should I just feed the active tank heavily right now? Maybe shut off the skimmer? Anything else I can do. I'm already rather LNS and been trying to get my nitrates up to about 5 but not there yet.

 

[brandonmason]

I'm not entirely sure I'd dump that much at once. I've heard of 30% water changes causing a system imbalance which resulted in a crash. If you're not in a hurry break it into 3-4 groups and play at safe as I've seen your shopping list and counting on the survival of some of those sticks

 

[marquiseo]

tonymission;1000298 wrote: You tested your Alk on the new water first? Did you transfer to a new tank? All my frags will remain in the tank they're in now. Just started up a secondary tank. Nothing is coming out even for a second.

I'm literally down to the decimal point exact on my ALK right now. Just waiting for the temp to come up before opening the return valve.

yep. It was 12. I raised my ALK in my old tank over time before the change over because I knew the RSCP salt had a dkH of 12. Yep everything is transferred over.

 

[tonymission]

BrandonMason;1000310 wrote: I'm not entirely sure I'd dump that much at once. I've heard of 30% water changes causing a system imbalance which resulted in a crash. If you're not in a hurry break it into 3-4 groups and play at safe as I've seen your shopping list and counting on the survival of some of those sticks

Eeek! Got me to pause! And trust me I want to be able to share all these goodies at some point!

What exactly is a system imbalance though? Seems like a generic term for "the water chemistry changed". Remember I'm still running around 120g and that water is staying in the system. I also do water changes very often and my only biological filter is a fuge with ceramic media balls.

What do you think if I barely opened the valve off the return into the new tank... new tank is filled with new water (again, ESV so the mix is exact, no batch differences) and I trickle the return water into the new tank essentially turning that over very slowly and thus bringing in the new water to the sump very slowly. Does that make sense? If a 3/4" valve was opened the bare minimum, would that be a slow enough turnover?

 

[tonymission]

MarquiseO;1000311 wrote: yep. It was 12. I raised my ALK in my old tank over time before the change over because I knew the RSCP salt had a dkH of 12. Yep everything is transferred over.

New salt, new tank, high alk. Lots of variables there. I know corals can get used to high alk and actually grow pretty fast at 10-12 dkh but there are just going to be some pieces that will say no way Jose to that level. I lost a RR yellow mamba and RR Diablo for that reason when I wasn't paying as close attention to ALK.

 

[northgahillbilly]

I recently did a tank swap and matched PH, Alk and temp on 30 gallons of new SW to mix with 20 gallons of old water. Everything went fine, that being said, if you can go slower, it definatly wont hurt anything. Could you open the valves for a few min, let ~20% mix, and do that over a few days untill youve got it all mixed in an then run it normally?

 

[marquiseo]

tonymission;1000319 wrote: New salt, new tank, high alk. Lots of variables there. I know corals can get used to high alk and actually grow pretty fast at 10-12 dkh but there are just going to be some pieces that will say no way Jose to that level. I lost a RR yellow mamba and RR Diablo for that reason when I wasn't paying as close attention to ALK.

The salt is old. that is the same bucket i have had for a month and half. I let my dkH slowly fall in my tank to 9 and it stayed there. I had to raise it before the change over to let it find equilibrium. I am letting the dkH fall back down now. Sad thing is that I can't test it until my new hanna checker comes. The old one stop working today. L.Lo error.

 

[tonymission]

NorthGaHillbilly;1000320 wrote: I recently did a tank swap and matched PH, Alk and temp on 30 gallons of new SW to mix with 20 gallons of old water. Everything went fine, that being said, if you can go slower, it definatly wont hurt anything. Could you open the valves for a few min, let ~20% mix, and do that over a few days untill youve got it all mixed in an then run it normally?

Now that is a great idea!! I was close, but that's better. Thank you!

Couldn't think of an easy way to break it down into 3-4 chunks like Brandon's suggestion. I don't have a lot of days where there's a solid 4-5 hours to put into this "build" so at least wanted to get water/plumbing done today. Hang the light tomorrow and fool around with bulb arrangement. New tank will be an 8bulb Sunpower t5 fixture as I've just been seeing too many awesome SPS tanks on R2R doing the same thing and wanted to have multiple options.

 

[tonymission]

MarquiseO;1000321 wrote: The salt is old. that is the same bucket i have had for a month and half. I let my dkH slowly fall in my tank to 9 and it stayed there. I had to raise it before the change over to let it find equilibrium. I am letting the dkH fall back down now. Sad thing is that I can't test it until my new hanna checker comes. The old one stop working today. L.Lo error.

I've seen that error message on mine before... Strangely started working again. Did you power off and try again? Any solids in the vial?

 

[brandonmason]

tonymission;1000317 wrote: Eeek! Got me to pause! And trust me I want to be able to share all these goodies at some point!

What exactly is a system imbalance though? Seems like a generic term for "the water chemistry changed". Remember I'm still running around 120g and that water is staying in the system. I also do water changes very often and my only biological filter is a fuge with ceramic media balls.

What do you think if I barely opened the valve off the return into the new tank... new tank is filled with new water (again, ESV so the mix is exact, no batch differences) and I trickle the return water into the new tank essentially turning that over very slowly and thus bringing in the new water to the sump very slowly. Does that make sense? If a 3/4" valve was opened the bare minimum, would that be a slow enough turnover?

I'd rather not drop names but is someone I'd trust with my kids and doubt there was any chemical imbalance. But slow would probably be fine....

 

[northgahillbilly]

tonymission;1000327 wrote: Now that is a great idea!! I was close, but that's better. Thank you!

Couldn't think of an easy way to break it down into 3-4 chunks like Brandon's suggestion. I don't have a lot of days where there's a solid 4-5 hours to put into this "build" so at least wanted to get water/plumbing done today. Hang the light tomorrow and fool around with bulb arrangement. New tank will be an 8bulb Sunpower t5 fixture as I've just been seeing too many awesome SPS tanks on R2R doing the same thing and wanted to have multiple options.

I expect that will be a gradual enough change to cause no probs. I switched to T5 myself recently, and Ive been blown away with the results. Great colors coming out and with as many bulb combs as there are, the ability to change things up is almost limitless.

 

[oz]

Take some of those ceramic ("cultured") balls from your sump and put them in the new tank with a powerhead and heater for a few days too prior to mixing systems for extra conditioning.

 

[marquiseo]

tonymission;1000328 wrote: I've seen that error message on mine before... Strangely started working again. Did you power off and try again? Any solids in the vial?

It's broken. I changed the battery, still not working. I used a microfiber cloth to wipe the insides, still not work. I even ran it without the vial and it still didn't work. It got the error every time.

 

[tonymission]

Oz;1000339 wrote: Take some of those ceramic ("cultured") balls from your sump and put them in the new tank with a powerhead and heater for a few days too prior to mixing systems for extra conditioning.

Thanks Chris. I'm on it.
Already had the mp and heater going over there.

 

[reeferman]

tonymission;1000300 wrote: Thank you for bringing that up. Should I just feed the active tank heavily right now? Maybe shut off the skimmer? Anything else I can do. I'm already rather LNS and been trying to get my nitrates up to about 5 but not there yet.

maybe give a big ol dose of fuel before opening valve.
if a 30% wc crashed a system,something was amiss in the makeup water[unmatched params].
i change 20-35% weekly with no issues at all.never lost a single piece due to a wc.