bare bottom and topless...

[stevestank]

No... I'm not mark Foley soliciting any of my fellow reefers.

I have a question for all who might offer some expert advice. I'm transferring all my livestock from my 75+ gallon bow front/bow back to a 125 gallon tank. I'd like to keep it topless but I'm undecided if I want to put any substrate in the new tank.

I'm taking mental notes on the logistics of this. First I will siphon the salt water out of the water column into a large rubbermaid container. Then I'll remove my rock, corals, and fish about half way through siphoning the water and place them in the rubbermaid tub. I'll start a power head or two in the tub to keep livestock water O2. I'll work quickly at this point. Once the water is down to about an inch or two over the existing crushed coral/sand substrate, I'll vacuum some detritus until I'm basically left with wet substrate. Then, I'll take a plastic shovel and shovel the substrate into the new 125 and work backwards... i.e. place the livestock and water into the 125 from the rubbermaid tub.

Will this process be detrimental to rock/corals/fish if I'm careful to not stir up too much substrate when I pour the water into the 125?
I'll pour the water over a big basketball size red pipeorgan coral.

Or... should I just go bare bottom and place my liverock directly on the bottom glass?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. This is the first time I've transferred things from one reef tank into a new one.

Any other advice? Am I on track?

Steve

 

[johndawg]

Both ways will work, just depends on your preference. I would make sure either way that you have plenty of new salt water prepared. If you add substrate to new tank, it will take some time to settle befoer you add rock and corals again. Be prepared for that.
John

 

[stevestank]

Making about 30 gallons of water tomorrow and Saturday. I suppose I should re-acclimate my livestock by taking a pitcher full of water out of the rubbermaid bin and trading it with the new water once every half hour or so. I'll be adding the substrate to a bare bottom with no water in the tank. I hope it doesn't cloud up when I add new water and put a bunch of nutrients or detrimental things in the water column. My livestock will already be shocked from the move. Has anyone transferred a major reef tank to another empty tank? How'd it go? Thanks John.

 

[Jim_Leyland]

i just moved from a 55 to a 75 with a 30 sump.. it was alot of work lol.. i re-used my sand as well.. i put the sand in then i added the water waited a day or 2 to put the rock and corals ( what few i do have ) in the new tank.. i had to make about 55gallons of water so i did re-acclimate my fish just to make sure there wasn't a big shock.. that's one major WC lol.. everything seems to be doing fine as that was about 2 weeks ago.. good luck and don't rush to much!

 

[stevestank]

Thanks Jim. I'm not sure if I can wait a day or two to get my livestock back into a tank. I do have a H.O.T. Magnum with a micron filter on it. Maybe I'll run that for an hour or two, clean it, and run it for another hour or so. I'm wondering how long my livestock will be OK in a big rubbermaid tub with no lighting or skimmer on it?

 

[cowcio]

If you were to ship the livestock, which many people do, it would be out of the water for at least 12 hours, with no skimmer, filtration, lighting or anything to that affect. Shipping also causes a lot of other stress that you will not be inflicting on your livestock.

If you are careful pouring in the water, the sand will not stir up much at all. In a few hours it will surely settle and you can slowly add more water and livestock.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8326635#post8326635 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stevestank
Thanks Jim. I'm not sure if I can wait a day or two to get my livestock back into a tank. I do have a H.O.T. Magnum with a micron filter on it. Maybe I'll run that for an hour or two, clean it, and run it for another hour or so. I'm wondering how long my livestock will be OK in a big rubbermaid tub with no lighting or skimmer on it?

 

[stevestank]

Hey thanks Cowcio. Would you venture to guess that adding livestock might be OK if the water column is somewhat clear and able to see how many fingers I'm holding up from one end of a 125 to the other? Maybe I'll use the H.O.T. micron filter for a solid 5 to 7 hours and make sure I pour the water slowly over my big pipe organ coral. Maybe that'll be OK. You think I'm worried about this too much? You are correct. I've gotten excellent looking specimins shipped over 24 hours and they did fine... at the same time I've barely gotten some livestock home from LFS's.

 

[Tbohinc]

There are storms and high waves which kick up sand and make water cloudy on a reef all the time as long as it's not for a few days you will be fine

 

[cowcio]

I would pour the water in using a bucket and not the coral.

Stick a bucket in the middle of the tank on top of the sand and fill it with water. Then pour slowly until the tank fills to as high as the bucket. Take the bucket out and with any luck, your sand stirring with be minimal, if not non-existent.

 

[Fdfiremedic]

I just recently tore down my 2 tanks to combine in 1 large tank and was faced with the same problem. I had my fish in a ruubermaid for about 4-7 days. All I did was change some water out every day and make sure you have a heater and air in the rubbermaid using a powerhead or filter or even airstone. I didnt lose any fish from that. Where I did lose my fish was adding them to soon after kicking up my sand bed and throwing something biologically off. I wouldnt put the fish back in the tank right away. Let the magnum filter the tank for a day or so then SLOWLY put the fish back. Remember when putting the fish back in you are adding a new Bio load. Its like starting all over. Thats just my 2 cents but take it from a guy who lost almost ALL his fish that way.

 

[stevestank]

Thanks Fdfire guy...

I hear what you are saying loud and clear. I'm just trying to balance everything and do the most effective transfer of livestock. One concern I have is that my sand/crushed coral/garth grunge/live rock/ etc... are alive as well as the calurpa/miracle mud/chaetomorpha/and liverock in my sump. I'm mostly worried about all of those things having "die off" because I couldn't transfer them into a tank with decent water quality "quick enough." If that's the case, I'm guessing I'll have an amonia spike and a secondary cycle that may stress my fish to death. That reminds me... I'll dump some Cycle Bacteria tank starter in the new tank. Did you add your liverock quickly when you made the transfers? Did you acclimate your fish slowly when you placed them back into your main tank? Did you take a moment to check your water parameters? Sorry you lost your fish. Trying my best to learn from you and others in the hobby. Anyone else want to chime in?