HELP!

[Stigits]

I am changing over to a different tank and I don't know the best way to do that. My main concern is moving the sand. Currently my sand bed consist of about 1" of really fine sand and 2" of crush Coral. It is a year old and as many little criters in it. Ive attached a pic for more of a visual.

 

What is the best way to transfer the sand? When I do move it will how do i maintain the same seperation that I have now? The Current substrate set up seems to be working for me for the last year but is there any improvements I can make to it? When I bought my new tank it came with about 40lbs of sand. The new sand seems to be half way between my very fine sand and my crush coral. is there something I should do with that?

 

Thanks for any imput.

[andy]

Everything I've read warns against trying to move an established sandbed -- the risk of crash is too high. Starting over and seeding from the old bed seems to be the safest approach. Never tried it, just passing on what I've read.

[reefgeek84]

Like Andy said...distrubting the sand bed with a transfer, could be risky.

 

I am not sure if you have plenty of cured LR and old established water, using new sand and seeding it with the old, should not cause any problems at all...

[Stigits]

I have what you can see in the pic. about 35-40 lbs worth and another 30 lbs curing right now. My wife wants me to run both the tanks but I dont think I have the space, resources, money, or energy to do that. I guess i could look into selling the tank with the established bed in it. I dont know

[Nyles]

I would setup a QT tank for all your live critters (fish, live rock, and corals) move the old sand and water to the new tank, add required sand get skimmer and all necessary stuff (lights not required) and let it run for a week and then do your tests, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. If that looks good I would dump live rock in and wait one more week, test, and go from there.

[Nyles]

The crucial part is checking to see if a mini or full cycle will kick in. I have done it this way and had no cycle, but the key is to move your lovestock to a QT for a while, even if you throw them all in a rubbermaid tub (lots of water), dump old tank stuff on new, then without a sandbed put the fish back in old tank till new one proves its not going to cycle.

[Stigits]

I wil lhave to give it some more thought. I really like the way me substrate look and am saving up for some new lights and would prefer not to spend more money on sand.

 

Hey Nyles I was looking at the pictures to your tank and I relized I had met you before. About a year ago you found me at the cottage grove fish store and you took me out to your house and showed me your ausome tank. You are part of the reason I got really intrested in this hobby. thanks!!

[Nyles]

Very cool, I remember you. Glad to see you on here! If you have any questions give me a ring, I sent you my number on the message center on here just in case.

[Piero]

maybe use this moving opportunity to change to a shallow sand bed? Much cleaner physically and aesthetically... and deep sand is no longer considered a best-practices approach in terms of maintainability etc. since over time it changes from an ecosystem asset to a liability. just .02

[andy]

lol, go say that at RC Piero! I double-dog-dare you :-D

[Nyles]

I like my 2" sandbed, about every 4 months I siphon clean a small portion ..... say 1/4 of it. so about every 1.5 years its siphoned. It helps keep the compacting and buildup of detritus down. But there is lots of ways to "skin a cat" so they say........

[reef165]

Ok, whats hanging above the tank? Some secret VooDoo to keep the tank happy LOL.

 

i think i would get all the LR, corals and fish out then if youve eather got a micron filter or at least a sock ster up the sand and try getting a majority of the detrious out befor transfer , you could set up the other tank with the LR and stuff because the sand should be the last thing you add anyway because you want the LR on a solid bottom and add the sand arround the rock .

[CCR]

I triple-dog dare-ya!!!!!!!!!! I did have a DSB bucket. Yes it did help

[dsoz]

If you want to keep the sand and CC separate, you could sift them as they come out of the tank. Use a collander (?spelling?) from the kitchen- like the ones you would use for spaghetti. Get one that is plastic (not metal) with large holes. The sand should fall through the holes and the CC will stay in. Then you can make a pile of sand, and a pile of CC. Add them to your tank as you wish. I would QT your sensitive animals because stirring up a sand/CC bed could release a bunch of decaying matter that would cause an ammonia spike. Not good for the fish/corals. Once the old sand has "cycled" then the animals could go back in.

 

If you like the look of CC on top of sand, I can give you some more CC for your tank. It is really "alive." It was given to me by J&Jr, and I used it to seed my sand bed. I am almost ready to take it out of my tank. I don't want to just toss it, if I can find a good home for it. If you (or anyone) wants it I can bring it to the next meeting (Portland or Eugene). There are stomatella, micro-brittle stars, small snails, amphipods, copeopods, and some of those small stars that only have 3 or 4 arms. I don't remember the names of all of them. I should probably write down the names of all these things as I learn them...

 

dsoz

[Stigits]

Good Idea with the strainer. I was thinking along those same lines. I think I will move all my valuable stuff over to my dads tank during the transfer. It is not the safest but I think it will be better then any other alternative I have. He has plenty of room for it. The problem will be getting them back form him. What kind of time table am i looking at after i make the move. let me list the steps i was thinking of taking.

1. Move corals and fish to Dad's 75 gallan tank. Luckily he only has 2 fish in it right now and just a couple corals

2. Move 30 gallons of water from the old to the new tank

3. Move sand and rock to the new tank.

4. Add 20 gallons new salt water to the new tank.

5. Monitor new tank for two weeks

6. Add clownfish that I don't care for too much cause they bite me. Monitor a week

7. Start to add Corals and fish back into tank

[Nyles]

if your levels are good this would work..

but..

7. Start to add Corals and fish SLOWLY back into tank over the course of a month or so. Test 2 times weekly.

[Stigits]

Sounds Good I think this is my plan of action then.

 

On another topic I was looking into this light for my new tank.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-Metal-Halide-Aquarium-Reef-Marine-HQI-Light-380W_W0QQitemZ300107660851QQihZ020QQcategoryZ46314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Any comments or suggestions. It will be going on a 40 Gallons streach hex tank. 24" deep. 30" wide from Tip to tip.

[Nyles]

I like the DIY light systems, because I'm cheap.. lol, but I would be more concerned about what bulb and ballast is in it, also I prefer T-5 for my actinic light. Its all money. also the XM bulbs are the way to go if you go with MH lights.

[illcssd]

Is they're any brand name on that page? If so i couldn't find one, i would be wary of a no name halide fixture. It looks somewhat like a pfo pendant but without the name. Also for that price, i have a feeling the bulbs it comes with are going to be cheap Chinese bulbs and ballast. He has good feedback, so i wouldn't be worried about him ripping you off, but i don't know if i would trust that fixture. If there was a name on it i would search it for you or you could, but no name=no buy for me. But, thats just me

fwiw.

[illcssd]

eh, nyles beat me to it.

[Nyles]

A good combo is a PFO or icecap ballast with a xm bulb of your color choice (10k, 15k, or 20k) I personally like the 10k or 15k with 2-4 actinic t-5 for supplementation. (D and D actinics)

[mister crabs]

hey the sand you bought from me in that tank was pretty much brand new so there wouldnt be any issues from using it again.

[kriswaters]

1/2" or less. That's for me!

 

Kris

[huskerduck]

I moved a 2-5" sand bed without knowing it would harm anything. When I say move, I mean 40 miles and it took about 10 hours before it was set up and bio filtering again. We put all the live rock and fish/corals in 12 - 5 gallon buckets and the remaining water in a 75 gallon horse waterer ( rubbermaid)

 

We then scooped all 130 lbs of sand into the rubbermaid with the water and off we flew down the road, being in a horse trailer we are positive it remained stirred up and sloshed around the entire time, it dropped to about 72 degrees within the 6 hours to finally setting back up and getting heaters back on. the RO was the reason filtering and Protien skimming wasnt in action until the 12th hour. Boy was the tank a mucky mess until about 20 hours later. Granted we only had 2 chromies a clown anemone and 5 corals but did have 150 lbs of decent live rock. All the coaline on the tank turned white and disappeared but the rock remained good. In the next month we went through what appeared to be another cycle with Brown-green- red algae but the water remained great in testing other than the Magnesium levels dropped considerably. I tested daily for about 1-1/2 months and always showed perfection in everything but as month 2 starts it appears magnesim is a continuing problem as well as Marine ICH. We can not seem to own a tang or any large fish without it getting white spots within 4-7 days and we waited 6 weeks after the initial fish was lost to the parasite. I think stirring up the sand must have really had an effect on this ICH problem because we have hosts like 4 chromies, clown, mystery wrasse, manderin, goby, cleaner wrasse ( who only starts cleaning infected fish after its too late) and a Hawkfish which none seem bothered.

 

We do have alot of sand sifters though, how deep they go and how well they perform is a hard question, we have three Stars that continuously burrow and 5 snails that constantly burrow around. We just bought another sifting star and are thinking of getting even more because we like the ever changing deep sand bed

[Stigits]

Thanks. I think I am going to try it. But I am going to move all my valuables to my dads take for a month. Mister Crabs I have the sand that came with the tank along with the live rock in a small tank curing for a couple more weeks. Im not quit sure what i am doing with it yet. My dad has this really fine sand bed that he was grumbling about it always moving around on him so I might let him put that stuff on top of his sand to hold it down.