changing out tanks
 

Hello people,

I have a 20 gallon tank....that "I" will classify a reef tank, since it has some mushrooms, xenia, and a galaxea.. :)
I Want to move the contents into a 20gallon long tank, better for light etc. Then use this 20 gallon for a sump for the new tank. My question is this, the tank has been running for 3 months now...well maybe a little more. I have 2 true percs, various inverts, 1 rainford goby. What is the best way to go about moving from one tank into the other....will i kick up ammonia from the substrate?
will bacteria die when i transfer etc etc...
Any ideas?

Personally, I & some other reefers I know have transferred or moved tanks & their contents without too many problems. Make 10 gallons of freshly prepared sw first, just in case you do find that there is a spike in nutrients. Also, having a bottle of Prime handy might be a good precaution.

I would treat it as a big water change & mix half new, half old water & transfer everything over after testing the water.

Anybody else?

Anthony

heh...what does too many problems mean :)

should i rest the liverock on eggcrate inthe sand this time around? or just place it in the sand/substrate like it is now...?

I have moved my large tanks more than once, and never had any problems.

I have always rinsed the majority of my substrate really well, but kept some untouched to seed the rest. You lose a lot of the life in your sandbed, but I like getting rid of the gunk build-up in my sandbed while I can.

If your tank is only 3 months old, I don't think it will matter much either way, you probably dont have a lot of gunk OR life in your sandbed yet, so it shouldn't matter.

Because you are doubling your water volume, I wouldn't worry about it. And your bacteria in your rock, assuming you have enough rock, should support your life well enough without the sandbed.

Had a bit of nitrite when I tested the tank after a few days (before adding anything) but cleared up right away. Could have just been the vial was contaminated.

Anthony

I would just move it. I doubt very much if you will have problems. I do that stuff all the time without any problems. BTW how long have you had the Goby :question: I had one for a few weeks, but it just disappeared.:sad:

hmm
 

two days :) i swear i like him the best :) he is so cool looking, a friend of mine has some, he said they have a habit of burrowing, trying to burrow under rock and it topples over on them. Thats why i was thinking of putting the eggcrate down then rock...

Well I hope you have better luck than me. Rainford Goby is notoriously hard to keep. It appears they live in beds of hair algae. They appear to eat the zooplankton that grows in those beds. Most of us don't want bunches of hair algae, so they usually don't live very long.:sad:

well i moved the tank over, woke up and found him dead....so less than a week.
I won't get another one, now that i've read a few places that they are hard to keep. I guess i didn't look long enough...plus who knows if the tank move had anything to do with it.