Downsizing aquarium

[Nano Chris]

I currently have a 90 gallon reef and i am downgrading to a 34gallon RedSeaMax. Here is my situation i have those vertimid snails on my lr, now what i decided to do is take out a portion of lr scrubb it down and let it dry out clean it a few times than add it to the max when i get it (in about a week or so - im ordering it thursday whe i get paid) i want to put the rsm right where the 90 is currently. The reason why i want to basicly start the 34 gallon as new is because i want to try to prevent algae problems and the vertimid snails and bubble algae i have in the 90.

I have a 20 gallon i was thinking of transfering the corals and fish into for about a month or so till i get the rsm stable and ammo/nites to 0. I was thinking of puting a little lr and ls in there for filtration and the nasurus snails. I would be transfering the water from the tank into the 20.

Than when the rsm i setup for a while than i would slowly transfer the fish, than wait a few weeks than the corals. Do you think this is a good idea. If i move the stuff into the 20 do you think there would be a chance of a ammo/nite spike?

 

[FISH WHISPERER]

It's absolutely "doable" to move from any larger tank to a smaller tank without incurring a spike. I've been up all night - and probably shouldn't be answering, but you've had no takers yet. I'd be more concerned with your goal of trying to prevent the introduction of either the algae problems or the snails in a transfer. I've seen too many times where people host from one tank and get pretty much a carbon copy of life in the new tank. If you want a completely fresh start, then start completely fresh with the new tank. Another option you could consider would be to cycle the new 34g completely. Then move stuff over, bypassing the 20g. If you wanted as much "insurance" as possible, and you had the space room - you could cycle the 34g and also the 20g. Then, move everything into the 20G as per your plan. If you don't see any undesirables - you can move everything into the now-ready 34g. Attack the issues in the 20g if they surface. Your main goal is isolating that algae, right? If you're going to the trouble of a new tank to get rid of it, I would minimize the usage of water from the old system. Using the 20g as a "step" in the process will let you assess if you have introduce algae/snails from the host tank.

I don't know about the state of your live rock, but "drying it out" leads to die-off of beneficial stuff. I know you want to rid yourself of algae, but going straight to "dry-out" seems a little extreme. You can keep much of the live rock "live" and attack algae by "blacking it out" as opposed to drying it out. Light is algae's best friend. Try targeting just the algae by eliminating light - and you won't kill your live rock in the process. HTH.

 

[Nano Chris]

I think ill setup the rsm and the 20 gallon transfer everything to the 20 and do as you said if any issues come up it wouldnt happen in the rsm i can attack them.

For the lr it has the snails attached "tubes" i mean litterly a crap load, there are also a load of small ones. So i plan on drying them out to kill them and cleanthe lr. See in order to introduce coraline back into the 34g i would put my tunze nano in there (covered in coraline) and let it repopulate. I might get the process started today.

 

[bues0022]

Bubble algae can survive very long periods of time without light. I knew of someone who cooked their rock for 2 months, and still had bubble algae. Scrub the rock, and rinse in fresh SW. Also, I think you'll end up with those little snails no matter what. You'll end up getting them from a frag or from another rock or whatever. I'd just take the rock out, scrub it, and toss it back in the water.

 

[Nano Chris]

The good thing is the bubble algae isnt on the lr that i took out that i want to put in the rsm.

 

[herostar]

Sounds like it'll work fine. I'd be careful re-introducing the rock back into the tank though. Through the drying of the rock a TON of things are going to die off... I'd put the rocks into a qt tank for a week or two before putting them into the RSM to prevent a large ammonia spike.