Reef Bass
colors and textures
As many of you know, I recently moved from my home of almost 17 years. What a joy that was, especially moving the reef. 
Grant was stupendously helpful with the tank move.
I had planned to set up my new tank at the new house, and to retire my old tank at that time. That wasn't how things worked out though. I ended up moving the old tank and setting it up in a temporary location at the new house.
I filtered 40 gallons of RO/DI water for mixing and heating at the new house. As much clean water as could be siphoned from the tank was removed and put into buckets for transfer to the new location, containers for livestock transfer or use during the tear down and cleaning.
Fish, crabs, shrimp and snails went into buckets. Every coral was removed and inserted into a container and all the cups went into a cooler which helped to keep them all relatively warm and safe during the entire process. I recommend this technique for minimizing stress on the corals themselves during an obviously traumatic event.
All the rocks came out and went into buckets. Grant had the great suggestion to set up a Brute with some tank water and to scrub each rock with a nylon brush. Most of the algae came off easily but the stuff which resisted initial scrubbing would not be removed. Still very much worth doing.
I had been preparing for sandbed transfer by vacuuming my sandbed regularly in the months and weeks leading up to the move. I debated transferring the sand, versus simply installing new, and decided to move it. Whlie my preparation vacuuming clearly made a difference, there was still nasty stuff under the rocks that couldn't be vacuumed easily without removing the rocks. I stirred the sand as the last of the water in the tank was drained and discarded. Then the sand went into buckets.
With the tank now empty I scraped it down inside and out with a razor blade and hosed it clean.
After taking everything over to the new house, the tank went on the stand I had stored in my garage for 17 years (I did use it again! Ha!) and all transported water went in. Then the sand went in using small container loads gently lowered into the tank and poured out to minimize turbidity. Then all rocks just placed on the sandbed.
Heaters went into the tank. One Vortech positioned and reactivated. In the mean time the 40g RO/DI was mixing and heating. When it matched the temp of items in the cooler, it was added to the tank.
With the tank now full enough, salty enough and warm enough, livestock was introduced. The cups containing corals were lowered into the tank and placed on the rocky bottom without their lids. This enabled some flow for the corals while preventing them from touching as rocks weren't positioned and corals weren't mounted.
While not at all complete or even sufficient, the tank sat like that for a day or two as I continued my moving adventures. I scrubbed out the sump and hooked it into the tank simply using vinyl tubing, as this whole setup is temporary. With the sump going again I could put the heaters back where they belonged and get the protein skimmer going again.
I hung my metal halide lights and opted to not hang my T5 supplemental fixture, again because this arrangement is temporary and I wanted to minimize drilling holes in my rental.
It had been probably 5 days since I moved the tank before my halides were shining again and I definitely lost color, except for brown which was too prevalent. In order to not light shock my corals by returning immediately to my previous lighting schedule, I started running two short light cycles separated by a 4 hour interval daily. I think it worked well. Corals started regaining color nicely and without any sign of light shock.
With the lights back on I could turn my attention to positioning rocks and mounting corals. And to getting the reef controller and dosing equipment going again. I did weekly 20% water changes in the meantime. I still need to get my gfo and carbon reactor back online.
Overall, the move was hugely successful, as I only lost a couple small weak frags and some color in the process. Color is returning nicely and things are have grown visibly. Unfortunately, my flame hawkfish went carpet surfing while I was positioning rocks at the new house, so I'm down to only three fish at the moment.
Here is a full tank shot from yesterday. At picture time I do miss the extra visual color pop that the ATI Blue+ T5 bulb provided. When I get the new tank going there will be a blue+ bulb over it. You can see the acan I got from Guy below and left of the cleaner shrimp.
Grant was stupendously helpful with the tank move.I had planned to set up my new tank at the new house, and to retire my old tank at that time. That wasn't how things worked out though. I ended up moving the old tank and setting it up in a temporary location at the new house.
I filtered 40 gallons of RO/DI water for mixing and heating at the new house. As much clean water as could be siphoned from the tank was removed and put into buckets for transfer to the new location, containers for livestock transfer or use during the tear down and cleaning.
Fish, crabs, shrimp and snails went into buckets. Every coral was removed and inserted into a container and all the cups went into a cooler which helped to keep them all relatively warm and safe during the entire process. I recommend this technique for minimizing stress on the corals themselves during an obviously traumatic event.
All the rocks came out and went into buckets. Grant had the great suggestion to set up a Brute with some tank water and to scrub each rock with a nylon brush. Most of the algae came off easily but the stuff which resisted initial scrubbing would not be removed. Still very much worth doing.
I had been preparing for sandbed transfer by vacuuming my sandbed regularly in the months and weeks leading up to the move. I debated transferring the sand, versus simply installing new, and decided to move it. Whlie my preparation vacuuming clearly made a difference, there was still nasty stuff under the rocks that couldn't be vacuumed easily without removing the rocks. I stirred the sand as the last of the water in the tank was drained and discarded. Then the sand went into buckets.
With the tank now empty I scraped it down inside and out with a razor blade and hosed it clean.
After taking everything over to the new house, the tank went on the stand I had stored in my garage for 17 years (I did use it again! Ha!
) and all transported water went in. Then the sand went in using small container loads gently lowered into the tank and poured out to minimize turbidity. Then all rocks just placed on the sandbed.Heaters went into the tank. One Vortech positioned and reactivated. In the mean time the 40g RO/DI was mixing and heating. When it matched the temp of items in the cooler, it was added to the tank.
With the tank now full enough, salty enough and warm enough, livestock was introduced. The cups containing corals were lowered into the tank and placed on the rocky bottom without their lids. This enabled some flow for the corals while preventing them from touching as rocks weren't positioned and corals weren't mounted.
While not at all complete or even sufficient, the tank sat like that for a day or two as I continued my moving adventures. I scrubbed out the sump and hooked it into the tank simply using vinyl tubing, as this whole setup is temporary. With the sump going again I could put the heaters back where they belonged and get the protein skimmer going again.
I hung my metal halide lights and opted to not hang my T5 supplemental fixture, again because this arrangement is temporary and I wanted to minimize drilling holes in my rental.
It had been probably 5 days since I moved the tank before my halides were shining again and I definitely lost color, except for brown which was too prevalent. In order to not light shock my corals by returning immediately to my previous lighting schedule, I started running two short light cycles separated by a 4 hour interval daily. I think it worked well. Corals started regaining color nicely and without any sign of light shock.
With the lights back on I could turn my attention to positioning rocks and mounting corals. And to getting the reef controller and dosing equipment going again. I did weekly 20% water changes in the meantime. I still need to get my gfo and carbon reactor back online.
Overall, the move was hugely successful, as I only lost a couple small weak frags and some color in the process. Color is returning nicely and things are have grown visibly. Unfortunately, my flame hawkfish went carpet surfing while I was positioning rocks at the new house, so I'm down to only three fish at the moment.
Here is a full tank shot from yesterday. At picture time I do miss the extra visual color pop that the ATI Blue+ T5 bulb provided. When I get the new tank going there will be a blue+ bulb over it. You can see the acan I got from Guy below and left of the cleaner shrimp.
