Acquiring a established tank... thoughts?

[young_reefer]

Hello,

As I contemplate my options to get back into the hobby, I've come across an opportunity to buy an established tank (over 3 years). However, I'm not too thrilled about the rock placement and live stock. I originally wanted to buy just the tank and stand, but this opportunity seems like a good one.

I've never aquascaped an established tank, so I'm afraid I'll be stressing it too much. However, since I have to move the tank to my house, I thought I'd take the opportunity to aquascape it to my liking and add new rock... but I want to go with dead rock, since there is less chance of hitchhikers. Would adding 25% more rock cause a major cycle? Should I do a massive water change? Sorry for the mumbling, but I'm keen on not losing this opportunity.

I've searched about it on the internet, and there are different opinions. One opinion sounds more logical, in that it recommends making minor changes at a time - which means that I'll need to live with the current aquascape. I'd really appreciate your feedback.

Cheers!

PS: Any other related recommendations are welcome!

 

[rovster]

I think just moving the tank is enough to stir up quite a bit. Although you could probably make a move you're going to have to tear down the rock to safely carry the tank anyway unless it's a nano. If you wanted to be safe you could pull all the sand and rockscape however you'd like. You can set up a separate tank for all the livestock. You could do several water changes over the course of a few days before transferring the livestock back over. If you're dealing with healthy fish and not so sensitive inverts this may be overkill if you're careful with the transfer but if you're looking at transferring a bunch of SPS or delicate fish you may want to take the extra step. You are going to get a lot of differing opinions on this. How big is the tank and what's in it? Sand?

 

[Ocean Mang]

Acquiring a established tank... thoughts?

I highly recommend replacing the sand bed when you move the tank.

Also you could set up a separate quarantine type of tank to house the fish and corals while everything stabilizes. Just put some of the live rock in that tank, that will be enough biological filtration with something to move the water like a hang on back aqua clear.

 

[Rogger Castells]

I think that it's inevitable to do a cycle when moving a tank, I've done it a few times and I believe that the last time I did it, I simply dumped the old sand except for a couple of cups that I laid first before the fresh sand, just to seed the new sand. That was my most successful move as far as casualties.

 

[young_reefer]

I think just moving the tank is enough to stir up quite a bit. Although you could probably make a move you're going to have to tear down the rock to safely carry the tank anyway unless it's a nano. If you wanted to be safe you could pull all the sand and rockscape however you'd like. You can set up a separate tank for all the livestock. You could do several water changes over the course of a few days before transferring the livestock back over. If you're dealing with healthy fish and not so sensitive inverts this may be overkill if you're careful with the transfer but if you're looking at transferring a bunch of SPS or delicate fish you may want to take the extra step. You are going to get a lot of differing opinions on this. How big is the tank and what's in it? Sand?

Thanks for sharing. It's a 72g, sand, about 40lb rock, few corals and couple of small fish.

 

[young_reefer]

Thank you all for the feedback. However, I've decided against it and continue planning my own reef tank project. Even if it takes me longer to get it built, cycled and ready, I'm looking forward to the experience, the learnings (the pain) and the joy of having setup my own.

Plus, I kind of want to go slightly bigger, maybe ninety or larger.

Happy reefing!

 

[Rogger Castells]

Best of luck!