moving one aquarium to another

[rush]

Hi guys,

So I have had my 46 gallon bow front up and running for over a year now. I have a reef octopus BH1000 HOB skimmer running with TEK lights T5 HO 4 x 39. Two blue and two white bulbs. All my perimeters are fine and have not had any issues. Right now i have 2 orange clown fish with rose bubble tip anemone (housed by both), I have 3 Anthias, one royal gamma, one solar wrasse, one stripper (does not affect bio of aquarium) and one red head (again does not affect bio), i have one tale spot blenne, one cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimps, sand sifter and a reef lobster. I also have a numerous amount of corals and frags.

I have recently purchased a 112 gallons tank and have it set up with 120 lbs of live rock with half the cleaner crew already in. It has almost fully cycled, just going through the "cloudy" period now, should be done in a day or so. I have already added my two black clown fish from my old 35 gallon (replaced by the 112).

I have the 112 set up with a vertex skimmer in sump with macro algae and live rock in the sump (30 lbs in sump) and 120 lbs in main tank. I have a 48inch TEK light system with 6 bulbs. Right now I have the two black clown fish (darwins) about 10-15 hermits, 10 snails or so, 2 Mexican turbos, a crab, a sand sifter star fish and a few corals to test out water quality. Everything is doing fine, fish are eating, water cycled perimeters are good (only thing that could be better is nitrate which is at 2) and the corals seem to love the lighting system. Now here are my questions and concerns:

I would like to move everything from my 46 gallon bow front to the 112 gallon. I am not sure if this is a good idea though. I have heard a lot of horror stories about putting 2 sets of clown fish not from the same spawn in a tank together. I have had my two orange ones for over a year in the bow front who have housed their rose bubble tip anemone and i had the two black ones for about 6 months in the old 35 gallon. Now the black ones have been in the 112 for a week or so. Is it safe to add this two colors and species of clown fish in the same 112 gallon?

I am in no rush and can move everything over piece by piece. Would 3 anthias, 4 clown fish, royal gamma, solar wrasse plus all the other stuff from my 46 be too much to move over in a weeks span?

And lets say I do the move, will this be too much population to add Tangs and other fish I could not keep before do to size?

any opinions would help, thank you

not sure if its worth doing or not?

 

[rush]

anyone think i should do it? or just keep the two tanks seperate?

 

[Jimbo7]

I would merge the tanks but keep the "orange" clowns and the anemone where they are. The 46 sounds pretty cramped. Move each fish or each species of fish over together about 1 set per month to make sure the bio-load can keep up.

 

[rush]

so i should leave the orange clowns and anemone to the 46 alone?

or should i leave a couple others there as well...

I plan on adding a foxface and a couple tangs to the 112 gallon, so i dont want to over load that one as well..

all the fish seem happy with one another in the 46, i think they have all become friends lol

 

[rush]

So I put everything from the 46 into the 112 including the anemone and the clown fish. Both sets of clown fish are inseparable. They have 112 gallons of water to swim in, and all 4 just stay together, like best of friends. I was hoping one set would take the frog spawn and one to the anemone, but just the orange ones have housed them both and the two bigger black ones just follow orange ones everywhere. Ocean life is so odd.

 

[Hinds04]

Keep an eye on them

 

[rush]

How can I tell if there is a problem? so far they have not been picking at one another, just hanging out. But I dont know if the black one are just sizing up the orange ones or if they just wanna hang out with them. They have a whole tank to swim in, and yet they just all huddle together.

 

[nxb161]

Sorry I had to laugh, you fit your name very well. After a suggestion of moving them slowly one pair at a time per month, a reply with, well its all on there, should I be worried? Not making fun, just had to comment. I'm not one to talk either, I know whenever I can get my 125G, I'm going to want to fill it up right away. Lets hope the clowns behave.

 

[rush]

Well I didnt really rush. I didnt have a cycle period I had all cured liverock. So I let it run for 2 weeks tested all parameters and they were fine. I added a set of clownfish with a few corals. Watched and tested for another two weeks eveyrhting was fine. So 3 days ago i moved my 46 gallon to it lol Everything, I hope it will support the bio load, only time will tell.

I had someone interested in buying my bow front with HOB skimmer and tek lighting, so didnt have much of a choice.

I havent lost anything yet, keep my fingers crossed.