How would you switch (move over) a reef tank?
 

Hey Canreefers,
I would appreciate any thoughts on how to move my 80g reef to my inwall 230g. I have about 120lbs of existing healthy live rock plus 220lbs of new eco rock. Both tanks are within 10' of each other.

I want to move this reef
http://www.calgaryarea.com/aqua/reeftank.jpg


To this 230g inwall below.
http://www.calgaryarea.com/aqua/reefnew.jpg

Thanks in advance for your input.

Both tanks are barebottom. If the parameters are matching and the new rock in the new tank is already cured and cycled, you should be able to move it all over at once. If the rock is not cured yet then I would highly recommend you cycle it.

The eco rock has no organics to cure and should slowly seed from the existing live rock, shouldn't it?

Next time you do a water change, put all that water in the new tank, get the new tank to about 50/50 of water from the old tank and the new. continue testing for a week or so, but everything should be good to transfer over. Shouldnt need to re-cycle with 50/50 water. You will need to re-place every piece though as flow and lighting will be different then the other tank.

Make sure you cure the new base rock. I didn't and am thinking it may be the cause of my high phosphate battle!!

The Eco Rock is probably a phosphate sink right now, test the water and see what you have. There are some great products out there you can use to knock that phosphate out real fast like Lanthanum chloride which I think is best used during the curing process rather than after the tank is running.

I would hesitate to transfer your tank is one day to a tank with that much base rock. Personally, I would want the new tank running for at least 3 months using a fair amount of live rock to seed that base rock.

I'm confused why he wouldn't be able to make the move over...The Eco-rock doesn't need to cycle really...there are no dead organics. What it needs now is the liverock from the current tank to further seed the new rock. As long as he doesn't increase the bioload or change anything else (match salinity and temp) then what is there to fail. If the Eco-rock is high phosphates, then get rid of that first.

+1 on the above. Just add some LR from your current tank with no corals, turn your lights on, and keep your temp slightly higher if you can easily. Test in a few weeks. If your parameters are good your transfer will be fine. Temp and salinity are your main concerns as mentioned before.

Oh yeah... Forgot to add.. Your current tank is CRAZY!!! Very nice work indeed.

And if you are not in a rush, do it in stages. Might as well not put all your eggs in one basket.

Without any life on the base rock, it's like skipping the clear coat on your new fancy paint job - there is no protection. It leaves the rock open for all sorts of nasty cling-ons - particularly the form of nuisance algae or cyano. Even after taking care to remove any trace (or massive) phosphate from the base rock there will be phosphate and nitrate introduced to the tank as soon as the old tank is moved over and the fish and corals are eating and pooping. Once that algae starts to move in, and it usually does when you start with base rock (remember, no protection on the rock), then many of those algae will also release toxins as a form of chemical warfare to inhibit growth of real estate competitors (your coral in particular and also coralline algae). Now you have a nasty mess. The number of tanks I've seen start with base rock that have major trouble with algae and cyano in the first year hugely outnumber those that have no issues.

Try something...add a piece of base rock to your established reef in a lit area of the tank (putting it in the dark is cheating), and see what happens to it. I will bet you 9 times out of 10 that piece of base rock will get covered in nuisance algae even if the established live rock doesn't have a trace.

This is just what I've observed over the last few years when base rock has become so popular.