huskerduck Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Im getting a 155 Bowfront and have a 125. I have a 100 gallon rubbermaid horse trough and a 55 gallon tank for "storage" of critters and creatures whilst the move is happening ( the move is in the same room), its time for a good waterchange anyway since Ive been gone for 3 months so I will do 30 gallons of new in the 100 and probably 10 gallons in the 55 and then add water from tank and start grabbing my 150 - 200 pounds f live rock to catch all my fishys. I plan on hanging the lighting over both for the " day" and probably use powerheads and chiller incase weather gets warm, should I place the protien skimmer in the 100 gallon just for cleanliness sake? good time to skim I would think. Im concerned with my 2"-6" of live sand , it looks kindof "dirty" to me, I have all sorts of burrowing critters like stars and such but Im not sure they are stirring it up well. When I take the sand out and put it in the new tank is there something that can be done to keep the crud at a minumum(scary)? Any other suggestions welcomed! Im building a new Sump/fuge/topoff because the old one is just to large and too much wasted space, I want to keep my Kalk and calcium reactors under the stand. How long does it take for Acrylic glue to cure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefgeek84 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Im getting a 155 Bowfront and have a 125. I have a 100 gallon rubbermaid horse trough and a 55 gallon tank for "storage" of critters and creatures whilst the move is happening ( the move is in the same room), its time for a good waterchange anyway since Ive been gone for 3 months so I will do 30 gallons of new in the 100 and probably 10 gallons in the 55 and then add water from tank and start grabbing my 150 - 200 pounds f live rock to catch all my fishys. I plan on hanging the lighting over both for the " day" and probably use powerheads and chiller incase weather gets warm, should I place the protien skimmer in the 100 gallon just for cleanliness sake? good time to skim I would think. Im concerned with my 2"-6" of live sand , it looks kindof "dirty" to me, I have all sorts of burrowing critters like stars and such but Im not sure they are stirring it up well. When I take the sand out and put it in the new tank is there something that can be done to keep the crud at a minumum(scary)? Any other suggestions welcomed! Im building a new Sump/fuge/topoff because the old one is just to large and too much wasted space, I want to keep my Kalk and calcium reactors under the stand. How long does it take for Acrylic glue to cure? to give you an idea...I just moved and changed some things on my tank so this is how it went... Put everything in the same type of tub as you have, with power heads and a heater and that is it...done this a few times... they went with out light for almost 3 days and everything is fine... since it will only be a day, you will be fine with no protein skimmer or lights...think about it, these corals get shipped over night and are in pure darkness for that entire time...it would of course not hurt to have the light and chiller, skimmer and lights over it, but not a must...I would add new sounds and just use some of the old sand to see the new stuff...I have heard of to many people distributing their sand beds with bad results... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 Isnt new sand pretty much old sand? Does that make sense?(scratch) If new sand is just cleaned sand , cant I just rinse the heck out of most of my sand? Also, how much sand is too much sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronjunior Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Watch out for a spike in sulfur, get enough good water out before digging into a 6" sand bed and get the livestock out first if possible. You'll smell it as soon as you pull some rock out of the sand; like rotten eggs. If you're washing your sand, remember to not use fresh water or you'll kill the critters and whatnot.... I've used a canister filter before when changing out old dirty crushed coral, it helped clear the muck in less than a day. Another way to store your live rock while changing out, is get a clean rubbermaid garbage can, use an airstone or pump for circulation, and heater and it should be fine so you don't have to rush so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefgeek84 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Isnt new sand pretty much old sand? Does that make sense?(scratch) If new sand is just cleaned sand , cant I just rinse the heck out of most of my sand? Also, how much sand is too much sand? Yes, tech. it is, but it has been dried and cleaned and let sit to where everything had died...You would need to really, really clean the sand from your old system...I would really recommend you just get new sand.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Dont worry about light, I have left lights off for 3 days with no bad results, clams anemones and SPS included, if your going to reuse your sand get everything out first, then clean it up really nice and dump in, if you dont have enough live rock you MAY get a small cycle, but it sounds like you have enough rock. You may want to remove about a .5 cubic foot of the sand undisturbed to reseed the new with as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayR Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Do a good vacuum job when draining the water to get the junk of your sand. It will be very very nasty if you don't. & move the Rock, get fish then do the sand move. It might take a while for your water to clear up in new tank just wait & expect to leave fish in temporary containers for a day or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I would put them in the 100g rubbermaid. siphoning will help but it will have to be fully rinsed. your wife colander will work perfectly, just don't tell her I told you so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisW Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Definitely another vote for buy new sand. Been there...done that...it sucked. Dennis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 If the sand on the bottom looks black, and stinks like rotten eggs, you should replace it. Hydrogen sulfide is highly toxic in small quantities. If there is little or no black, and no egg smell, then it should be fine. If you do want to save the sand, even if it is black and egg smelling... keep it in the old tank and oxygenate it for a few days and the anaerobic places should disappear. It will take constant stirring the sand, and a good air stone (or venturi from a PH or skimmer). Keep bringing the black colored sand to the top and let it sit until it is not black anymore. Then stir it up again. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I would just try and keep as much of your old sand that is in good health i.e. doesn't smell horrible and is not black. Do a good saltwater rinse or two to make sure you get most of the nasty waste particles out. For the future I would make sure and have the following for the SB in your 155bf: nassarus snails x 50-75 sand sifting stars x 3-4 sand sifting cucumber x 2-3 checkered and qween conch x 2 each sand sifting gobie (diamond or twin spots work well) bottom swelling fish like dragonets, jawfish, etc. x 2-3 This of course all depends heavily on the deapth of the sand bed. I would go for a 3-4 inch bed with a mixed grain size. 20lbs 1-2mm width, 40-60lbs sugar grain size or slightly larger, and the remainder of your current sand. this allows for maximum suface area and diversity of critter habitat. Depends on what you like. I have a 4-5 inch SB in my 210g with a mix of Southdown and many different grain sizes of Carribean live sand. I don't have any big grain sizes(over 1-3mm), as I find it to be non benifitial and not attractive. My sand bed is always clean and looks very white. I have tried many different methods in the various systems I have done and find this method to be the nicest looking and easiest to take care of. Garrett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted October 26, 2007 Author Share Posted October 26, 2007 I would just try and keep as much of your old sand that is in good health i.e. doesn't smell horrible and is not black. Do a good saltwater rinse or two to make sure you get most of the nasty waste particles out. For the future I would make sure and have the following for the SB in your 155bf: nassarus snails x 50-75 sand sifting stars x 3-4 sand sifting cucumber x 2-3 checkered and qween conch x 2 each sand sifting gobie (diamond or twin spots work well) bottom swelling fish like dragonets, jawfish, etc. x 2-3 This of course all depends heavily on the deapth of the sand bed. I would go for a 3-4 inch bed with a mixed grain size. 20lbs 1-2mm width, 40-60lbs sugar grain size or slightly larger, and the remainder of your current sand. this allows for maximum suface area and diversity of critter habitat. Depends on what you like. I have a 4-5 inch SB in my 210g with a mix of Southdown and many different grain sizes of Carribean live sand. I don't have any big grain sizes(over 1-3mm), as I find it to be non benifitial and not attractive. My sand bed is always clean and looks very white. I have tried many different methods in the various systems I have done and find this method to be the nicest looking and easiest to take care of. Garrett awow Garret nice reply!!! The swap is complete and looks incredible! I used my old sand, it smelled like the ocean but wasnt terribly over powering, I had a couple black streaks here and there and left it in the old tank, the wife didnt even moan 1 time about digging out clean sand for an hour and going around the sand that appeared darker. This was all done so fast, I think everything went fine. The new sump I built is working SPECTACULARLY, I am thinking (hoping) my design was good, the old one was HUGE and took up the entire stand but 16". Now I have all my goodies but the Chiller in the stand including the Sump/fuge, Calcium Reactor, Kalk Reactor, Gas Bottle, External pump. In my sump I have the Fuge and topoff built in and its so nice to use all that wasted space and the way I designed it I have a good 1-1/2" of free space with power outtage. I built it out of 1/2" and 3/8" acrylic and Rocky from Alamo Plastics sold (and cut most) everything including glues for $130, a sheet of 3/8" was $275 from everywhere else. Im dealing with the annoying micro bubbles from fresh restart and Ive had them before butthey seem to go away as the system finally reduces them via socks and sponge filters. Nothing is setup inside the tank yet, doing that tonight. Figured I would just pile up the rock and spread all the corals out and them and the other critters rest awhile before the rest of the carnage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted October 27, 2007 Share Posted October 27, 2007 Do you mean let them rest, or let you rest? I did something similar when I moved all of my stuff from a leaking 45g into a 75g. I thought that there would be enough room to just randomly place corals, but one of my zoas ended up too close to a frogspawn. I did not notice it until the next morning when the water cleared enough to see. Too late, the zoas are all dead. :( The under the stand arrangement looks good. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted October 27, 2007 Author Share Posted October 27, 2007 Do you mean let them rest, or let you rest? The under the stand arrangement looks good. dsoz It was a killer, no doubt. the wife was running about picking up extra heaters and PVC fittings and such while I just pounded for like 18 hours straight. Ive never learned to stack rock properly when putting it back in so its easier to aquascape, I spent 2 hours yesterday configuring for future corals and that was really, really tough. My sump design is still amazing me on how effcient is is in space saving and still getting a Fuge ( fairly big one) in there. If I could figure out the octopus of wires it would clear up a bunch more room but it just looks de-motivating when looking at them. The 155 is smoking hot and allows for some nice arrangements, I wish they had put the overflows closer by about 2". I forgot to paint the back Black which really makes things "pop", thankfully I left 6" behind the tank this time. Now that its pretty much over, I think I could do it much faster and cleaner next time. This one was much smoother than the one before but I had a sump/fuge to build this time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted October 27, 2007 Author Share Posted October 27, 2007 I thought that there would be enough room to just randomly place corals, but one of my zoas ended up too close to a frogspawn. I did not notice it until the next morning when the water cleared enough to see. Too late, the zoas are all dead. :( dsoz a 155 bowfront allows for a great deal of blind placing while the water is murky, I was extremelly lucky, didnt even break any Montis. My ship was the hardest thing to deal with because it is sizable and covered in pulsing zenias and stonies so its a living thing thats awkwardly big to manuver around . The Micro bubbles are a pain but they always seem to take a couple days to get blown out and stopped but they are getting better with every tweak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskerduck Posted October 27, 2007 Author Share Posted October 27, 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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