Kind of an emergency. Help!!

hansnfrans

hansnfrans

New member
I am bringing my 55 gallon home from school this upcoming weekend and need to move the fish into a 120 gallon tank. Unfortunately there is no water in the 120 gal and I need to get it up and running fast. What I have to put in the tank is 50 gallons of water from the 55 and 15 gallons water from water changes on my 29 gallon reef (this is the ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œusedââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ water and has been circulating in 5 gallon buckets). This will give me 70 gallons of ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œcycled waterââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ to put into the 120. The remaining 50 gallons is going to have to be freshly made water. How bad of an ammonia/nitrite spike do you guys think that Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll experience? The inhabitants of the 120 will be a 3.5ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ Humu Trigger, 5.5ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ Niger Trigger, 17ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ White-eye Moray, 5ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ Honeycomb/Brownspot Grouper. Also I will use 50lbs of well established Live Rock. I am going to filter with a Pro Clear 75 gallon wet/dry (for now), a turboflotor 1000 and a Seaclone 150.
 
Water contains little bacteria and will not be a usable bio filter. You need to have the live rock in there and give it 1-3 days before you put fish in.
 
I think I'd just run the aquarium shallow for a bit, plus a little bit extra every day. If you can let the live rock cycle as much as possible, it's to the good, or add maybe your most urgent (and hardy) fish first, to ramp up the bioload by degrees, keeping the others in buckets as long as possible---I'm guessworking, here, but the main thing is not to crash that water, which is your lifeline. I'd advise not to hit it with the full fish load, even if you have to run it half full, and then to add fishes one at a time and don't feed anything but a token amount...enough to get the system working, but nothing to put too much fish poo into that water. Their bodily detritus and slime-shed alone will probably be enough work for a limited biosystem.

And I'd really suggest you talk to Randy in the chemistry forum about this situation: he'll walk you through it if anyone can.
 
Are the fish and Live rock from the 55 gallon? If so the only thing you have to worry about is a little die off on the rock causing a spike. How much of a spike depends on how it is transported and for how long.

You can do what masson suggested and put the rock in a few days earlier to repopulate bacteria die-off but honestly I think the LR with the 70 gallons old and 50 new is all you need. Any spike would probably be minimal and recover quickly, especially since you had a heavy load on that rock to begin with. If you did get a spike using acropora nuts water to do a couple 50% water changes would be helpful. I would also do as sk8r suggested and stop feeding now and until the water tests fine in the 120.
 
I appreciate the advice guys. I was thinking of running it shallow for a little while and since I won't be able to utilize my overflow box and sump, I was going to put 2 turboflotor multi SL's inside of the tank to provide both water flow and filtration.

Acropora nut- That's alot of water to change out every week. I hope you own stock in one of the salt-manufacturing companies :) I would love to take about 50 gallons of that water from you. That would be a huge help. I have to build the stand for the 120 this Sunday. Would it be possible to get the water from you the following weekend (assuming you'll be doing another water change that weekend)? Please let me know at your earliest convenience. Thanks!!!
 
If you can get the wet dry running on a tank now and get some bacteria in the bioballs that will help you with a bio filter on the new tank.
 
no problem bring some large rubbermade tubs and i will pump it right out of the tank.I go threw 2 -3 buckets of Tropic marin salt a month.
 
Acropora nut- That would kill me financially!! Of course I think my parents would kill me before that for having a tank that big in the house :) I was going to use 5 gallon buckets, would that work okay? I will let you know asap when I can set this tank up and get that water from you. This is very helpful, thanks again.
 
I believe the salinity on my 55 gallon right now, is about 1.022 or 1.023. It would be that much less water that I have to trasport from you and I could just dilute it with RO water at my house.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
75 Gallon FOWLR Trigger Species tank?
Replies
3
Views
313
snakeybird
S
Guygettnby
Nyos 220 on a 120g?
Replies
8
Views
538
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
P
50 Gallon Stocking Help
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
Urka
U
G
120 Gallon Aquarium uneven by 1/5 of an inch
Replies
2
Views
463
griss
griss
Jyetman
Emergency Sump Placement help
Replies
2
Views
513
griss
griss
Back
Top