two tanks into one

[reefhawk]

Any body have any experience combining two tanks into a larger one. Have a 78 and a 109 I want to put into a 180. Still pondering using the 78 for a refugium and the sump from my 109 for filtration. In the 109 I have a pair of percs and a lta (which just split two weeks ago), a couple other small anenomies, a fox face, a yellow tang, coral beauty,four green chromis, a reefhawk, lawnmower blennie, striped mandarin, blue damsel, assorted mushrooms, leather coral, cauliflower coral, assorted polyps, fijian pipe organ, feather dusters, tuxedo urchin, a brittle star, a cleaner shrimp, tons of crabs and snails bought as a maintenance package from j&l. HAs a fairly deep crushed coral base. About 80 - 100 lbs of live rock (i've lost track of the actual weight). running 400w hamilton mh lights about 10 - 11 hrs a day and 60w of florescent (filtered) at night. have a 30+ gal sump with a sea clone in it for skimming. Havce about 15 lbs of live rock in there and a mag 12 for moving the water. This tank has been up and running for about 15 months. My second tank has about 53 lbs of live rock. Half the tank has a deep argonite base and the other half a deep crushed coral bed. fish; four green chromis, a royal gramma, a blue devil, a spotted mandarin, a skunk perc and his lta, and a sand sifting golden faced gobie. Have a couple of cleaner shrimp, lots of crabs and snails. A flower coral, and a acro coral. Have a 400 series power head for extra circ in here. Running 160 watts of HO florescents for 10-11 hrs a day and night light bleeds through from the other tank at night. This tank has a 25 gal refugium with micro and macro algaes and lots of live rock with a deep argonite sand base. mag 12 for circulating, two skimmers a sea clone and a prizm. An aquaclear 500 hangs on the refugium for when i need to run a little carbon. this tank is about 9-10 months old. oh ya using ebo jager 250 w on both tanks. Have two power heads i am not using. Bought a calcium reactor which is in shipping as i type. Ditto for a berlin style skimmer. Using a pinpoint temp gauge and salinity meter. really chompin at the bit to get this all into my 180. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[EmilyB]

That's a long paragraph........

I would lose the damsels for sure.

Are the mandarins the same sex? If so, don't put them together.

What are you planning for substrate on this tank ?

[reefhawk]

I think the mandarins are both males. One is a green spotted and the other a physcadelic (sp) lined type. As for substrate i was going to transfer in the crushed coral and argonite from both tanks as well as a substantial amount of new argonite (about 80 lbs more). My blue devil seems rather well behaved, but my other blue damsel I have been trying to catch for over 6 months. At last i will have my revenge. Anyone want a big blue damsel for free?? Just know he is the devil incarnate.heh heh.

[Quagmire]

I put 2 tanks together,but I stacked them one on top the other(worked out to 80g).I think you're planning on end to end,is that correct? If so you may have a problem with the seams.With 180g you will get alot of pressure on those bottom seams.For the front I had a piece of glass cut so I wouldn't have a seam in the middle of the front glass.I was worried my tank would leak, and if it did I was going to silicone a thin 1" wide piece of glass along the seams where the 2 tanks meet,to see if that would seal it.My tank didn't leak so I don't know if this would work or not,or how it would look.I used mine for Discus,and it looked great planted with the fish in there,but now that I'm into SW it's pretty much useless.I'm going to take it appart and use the pieces to make a sump.
I don't know how safe I'd feel with a big tank put together like that.I'd be afraid that 6 months or a year down the road it might spring a leak while I'm not at home.Hate to clean that up,not to mention the livestock loss.

[reefhawk]

thanks quagmire. I appreciate your response. I was more concerned with the logistics of getting everything out of the two tanks into a new 180 gal tank. Re-reading my post i see i wasn't overly clear that i have a new 180 already. stand is built and has two coats of marine flat black. constructed of 4x4 posts and 2x6 rails cross braced on 12" centres. For more even weight distribution top and bottom has a sheet of 1" plywood. Will post pics one day when i figure out how to make them small enough to fit in the gallery. For some reason i am nervous about having an intermediate home for my livestock while i transfer my l/r an l/s into the new tank and let it all settle out.

[Quagmire]

OOOH I get it now,man I was way off