I say not a fish because I already have 5. Please hold off on all flaming .. I know 5 fish is lots for 20g. I have had no problems, no territory problems, and no problems with paramaters.. just so we're all clear (also, why im upgrading :lol: )

I am probably maxed to a 45g tank already. But.. I may add one more fish, and I want it to be something colorful and active.. that's why I don't want a fish that will hide in the sand all the time :razz:

What would you personally recommend for moving the sand? I am leaning towards a cucumber myself.

What fish do you have? In my 50g I had 13 fish or so. It depends on the size of the fish, not the number. And it depends on your filtration, I ran that on a CPR BakPak II, and I ran an 18w UV sterilizer. No sump, no fuge at that time, and I had no algae problems with that equipment and bioload.

Coral Beauty, yellow tang, 2 clowns, firefish, 2 lyretail anthias, clown goby, scooter blenny, couple other gobies, and can't remember the other 2 right now.

Sand sifting fish don't hide in the sand at all, they hover around and scoop up the sand and sift it, my dragon goby is one of my favorite fish to watch! He is always out in the open, and it is great to watch him sift huge mouthfulls of sand and drop it everywhere (including my corals, I think he aims for them too!)

Wow 13 fish eh.. interesting.

The fish I have now are , 2 true percs, 1 yellow watchman (which i plan to get rid of soon.. but im not sure because I dont think I am doing BB after all that :rolleyes: I realized I would probably miss sand too much... and I do find it looks somewhat un-natural to some degree.. so sand stays, oh well.. I'll stay on top of cleaning it.

Anywhoo.. 2 true percs, 1 yellow watchman, 1 lawnmower blenny, and the flame (being the biggest by far in the tank) You barely ever see the YWG and lawnmower. Now that I think about it.. I may remove the blenny instead.. I never see the little guy! Like... hardly ever, once a week or so...

Compared to the bacteria on your LR, there is little bacteria in the water. I would go with Steve's recommendation that you can start with all new water.

That being said, you will have to acclimatize your fish to the new water.

Also, about scrubbing your rock to get rid of hair algae... Make sure you rinse it really, really well in pails of old tank water. You don't want stray bits of hair algae to get into your new system.

Also, if you have bubble algae, DO NOT scrub it off. Doing so will break open the bubbles and possibly release spores (or whatever it is that they use to reproduce) into your new system and you will have much worse bubble algae in the new system. No amount of rinsing will get rid of the spores (or whhatever.) I can give you more details on bubble algae removal if you need it, just ask.

Also, understock where ever possible to avoid algae problems down the road.

My lawnmower blenny is out and about all the time. Maybe when you re-aquascape you will have better luck. I leave a big area of open sand in the front middle of my tank for my fish to congregate in, just a couple small rocks for the gobies to purch on. My orange spotted watchman gobie took about 6 months before he decided he didn't need to hide anymore, so give it time.

Sure it is always possible to understock, but he primarily wants this tank for fish. I say load up, and stay on top of filtering the water. As long as the inhabitants are all peacefull too, they need a certain amount of swimming room, and an area to claim there own territory.

Lots of rock for bacteria, good skimmer, UV sterilizer maybe, and 15% weekly water changes. Monitor the nitrates and keep them reasonable, use RO water so you dont feed phosphates to the tank. This worked really well on my 50g with the above bioload.

Bev, when the time is nearing to setup the new tank.. I'll definitely be coming to you for BA removal advice! Thanks for your offer :)

Ever since I've had the blenny he has been very, very timid and shy. This is not typical lawnmower personality (from what ive read) The only reason I would remove him now is because it's easiest. I wouldn't be able to (not easily) remove him in the new system. He also does not eat prepared foods.. and I fear one day he will just starve to death on me.

Nope, if your moving rock over there is more than enuf bacteria to handle a immediate start up.. the amount of bacteria in the water is actually way less than that in the rock.

Steve

Bev, where are you getting this info from? When I was at a meating with Anthony Califo he chuckeled when some one said that at the meating and explained that a bubble algae is a single cell algae and cannot contain spores.. If you have some other info on this I would like to read it..

Steve

A quote taken from Reefkeeping Magazine's article "Bubble" Algae: Selected Descriptions, Controls and Comments, by Horge Cortez-Jorge Jr.:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

"Much has been said about the danger of liberating spores when popping the vesicles of bubble algae. This is particularly true for members of Order Valoniaceae, but even then, the vesicles are said to be a sporulant risk only when having reached at least a third of their full size. Even if spores escape when you botch the job of vesicle-removal ('vesectomy', anyone?), those escapee spores have to run the gauntlet of herbivorous filter feeders, filtration equipment, and the wild lottery of hitting a good, unoccupied spot to settle and grow. Those spores will eventually be released anyway if you don't remove the vesicles."

The whole article is quite interesting. I use a modified screwdriver method described:

"My weapon of choice ought to be a small stainless-steel flathead screwdriver, sharpened to wicked excess, and used to gouge out the offenders at the anchorage, even including a thin veneer of rock. Bare fingernails can be unreliable for removing certain 'bubble algae', and can invite injury and infection. I have seen small manicuring scissors, carefully bent in a curve, used to snip off vesicles 'at the root' -but this almost surely leaves the anchorage structure intact, and likely ruptures the vesicle."