How to set up tank after moving it?

[Petejacobs99]

im trying to find some advice on what I should do about a new tank I am receiving. A friend is giving me his 90 gallon stocked with sand, fish, and easy to keep corals. I am wanting to set this up for sps but I'm extremely worried about pests. I am not sure if I should keep all the live rock and sand or put dead sand and dry rock in it after I move it and reset it up. Has anyone had any bad experiences with pests or unwanted things in a tank after getting one from someone else and keeping their rocks?

 

[CStrickland]

Yeah, pests are a thing to worry about. But the thing is they can come into your tank in so many diff ways. You are going to add frags of coral that can carry hitchikers no matter what, dipping and qt are good practice for sure, but not 100%. On the other hand, there are a lot of really good critters on rocks too: sponges clean the water, little snails eat leftover food and algae, and a broad spectrum of bacteria to process nitrogen waste (poop and pee).

So what you're thinking about is a trade off where you lose all of that good stuff, which can take years to replace, to keep out a few baddies. Even though there's a good chance you'll add a baddie with the first sps you buy.

If I were you, I would hang out in the hitchiker sticky for a while and get a feel for what is a pest and what is a friend. There's only a few harmful critters. If your buds tank is doing well, it's unlikely they have a major problem, and a little research will teach you what to keep an eye out for, and settle your mind. Then if anything pops up you'll be armed and ready to destroy it.

Also, if you want to post a pic of the tank, we can take a gander and make sure there's nothing obvi that will be an issue. I'm assuming the tank isn't overrun will aiptasia or algae, that'd be a diff story.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[thegrun]

Has your friend had any issues with pests? If no then I don't see where you would have any issues, if yes we would need more specific information as to what the problem was to give you good advice. I would not reuse the sand in either case, it will contain a lot of trapped detritus which could set off a new cycle if you reuse it and would also likely cause both nitrate and phosphate problems.

 

[Petejacobs99]

The biggest pest in there are hundreds of asterina stars. Those worry me. I have heard of them eating zoos and I would not want them crawling on my sps. I will definitely be replacing the sand then. He's got Xenia covering about 40% of his rock work. Luckily though I'm a manager at my LFS and my boss said he'll trade me pound for pound on the Xenia covered rocks for dry rock. Should I do dry sand or live sand? Ill probably be taking the fish in to work with me and keep them in a tank there while the tank recycles and settles down.

 

[thegrun]

Use dry sand, it's a lot less expensive since you are not paying for the water that "live" sand is packaged in. Be sure to wash it well before you add it to the tank to remove the fines (dust).