Patrick Cox
Active member
I need some input on when to transfer my livestock to my new tank. I have a 57G reef that has been running for about 18 months. I plan to transfer the small amount of livestock in this tank to my new 75G tank that is up and running but very young. I do not plan to transfer any of my old live rock to the new aquarium. In fact, I only have one piece of live rock left in my old aquarium and the biological filtration is being handled by some bio balls that I seeded before removing the live rock. My choice to replace all of my rock was because I had lots of aiptasia and flatworms in the old rock and I also wanted a new look.
My current tank has been running without live rock for about a month and the biological seems to be fine. (no ammonia or nitrite.) However, I am now having a problem with alkalinity. I guess the live rock is part of what keeps alkalinity up? Today I noticed that my corals were not looking great so I tested the alkalinity and it is down to about 4.5 dKH. I went ahead and added some buffer to start increasing alk but I am now wondering if I should just transfer my livestock to the new tank. My rock was cooked and I added biological during that process and I also bought some Dr Tim's Nitrifying bacteria that I plan to add when I move my fish over.
My livestock is as follows:
2 percula clowns
1 BTA
1 Elegance Coral
1 Branching Frogspawn
1 Duncan
2 small zoanthid colonies
I plan to dip all of the corals before moving them over.
So, I am wondering what is the lesser of two evils - continuing in the tank without live rock or moving over to the new tank with an immature biological filter. I have better equipment in the new tank though (skimmer, reactor, lights, refugium...) so I am thinking that might be the better option.
Thanks for your advice!
Pat
Here is my new build thread if interested...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2225793
My current tank has been running without live rock for about a month and the biological seems to be fine. (no ammonia or nitrite.) However, I am now having a problem with alkalinity. I guess the live rock is part of what keeps alkalinity up? Today I noticed that my corals were not looking great so I tested the alkalinity and it is down to about 4.5 dKH. I went ahead and added some buffer to start increasing alk but I am now wondering if I should just transfer my livestock to the new tank. My rock was cooked and I added biological during that process and I also bought some Dr Tim's Nitrifying bacteria that I plan to add when I move my fish over.
My livestock is as follows:
2 percula clowns
1 BTA
1 Elegance Coral
1 Branching Frogspawn
1 Duncan
2 small zoanthid colonies
I plan to dip all of the corals before moving them over.
So, I am wondering what is the lesser of two evils - continuing in the tank without live rock or moving over to the new tank with an immature biological filter. I have better equipment in the new tank though (skimmer, reactor, lights, refugium...) so I am thinking that might be the better option.
Thanks for your advice!
Pat
Here is my new build thread if interested...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2225793
