210 G Move ASAP answer

Justusfish · #1 03-12-2007, 01:06 AM

Thanks for the quick reply.

I love those answers, as it means I don't have to worry about fish in a 65 gallon drum for days and days. How long should I let the salt "keep" in the water after mixing it in though? 2 hours? 4 hours? 8 hours or are you saying instantly after mixing?

Justusfish · #2 03-12-2007, 01:08 AM

I just read phantom's post and now am a bit confused. Some say right away, and others say wait. Phamtom, even with 65 gallons of old water and the live rock that's not good enough and I have to treat the cycling as if everything is brand new?

DanG · #3 03-12-2007, 01:40 AM

How long was the rock was out of water?

Reefer Rob · #4 03-12-2007, 01:42 AM

I just switch over from a 72G to a 180G . I aged the water in garbage cans, the sump, and an old 50G tank for a couple of days, then moved the rock in, filling the tank as my wife and I aquascaped, being carefull not to let the rock dry out. The next day in went the fish.

Of course a few shrooms and zoos end up going in with the rock, so they became my test corals. A week later since my test corals were doing OK and the parameters were still OK, my soft corals and lps went in along with a test SPS frag.

After a 5 days and a red bug treatment my SPS went in. So far all is well and after 1 month the corals are starting to "color" nice and nitrates are below 1 (they peaked at 2.5)

Your fish will do much better than in a drum if you can get them into your tank as soon as possible, so long as you're not using any new live rock, and you're careful not to kill off your old live rock.

Justusfish · #5 03-12-2007, 01:45 AM

The rock was never out of water, not including the instant move from the tank instantly into the 65 gallon drum.

Diana · #6 03-12-2007, 02:14 AM

You are getting different answers because everyone has different methods, many will work, you just have to choose one that fits your situation best. Are there corals involved? If not, I would fill the 210g with fresh water, get the pumps going and then add the salt and dechlor/heavy metal eliminator. It may take a few hours until the salt mixes and you can get an accurate salinity reading. If you have 65 gallons to add of old water, only mix up the difference.

Once the water is the correct salinity and temperature, pump about half of the drum water into the 210g. Then, drip the new tank water into the drum over the next hour. Once the drum is again full, add most of it back into the 210g. Wait a few minutes for the water to mix in the tank, then add the rock and fish(i reccomend you also drip the rock although i have not in the past and did not see any abnormal effects). Add the rest of the drum water.

This method worked fine for us many many times. As long as you get the salinity and temp fairly equivalent between what the fish are used to and what they are going into, they should be fine.

HTH

Justusfish · #7 03-12-2007, 02:18 AM

Many thanks for the quick replies and PMs, folks. Diana had a good point about why I'm hearing different answers and it helps me clarify how I'll approach this tank transfer/move.

Black Phantom · #8 03-12-2007, 08:01 PM

Sorry about the confusion. Most of my answer was based on the fact that I thought the rock had been out of the water for some time.
If there is no die off then you wont get an ammonia spike and the biological filter (rocks) should still be intact.
I would still age your new salt water for a couple of days before adding the fish.
Good luck and enjoy your new tank.