Transfer from 75 to 210

[Angeljunkee]

Hello everyone, need a little advice. I have a 75 gallon reef tank with many different corals and about 10 fish (Juvenile Emperor, Juvenile Blue Angel, Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel, Bi Color Dwarf Angel, Yellow Tang, Firefish Goby, Engineer Goby, Dottyback, and a couple Clowns). Took me many years to master this hobby and the many countless hours educating myself on how to run a successful reef tank. Tank has been running for over 2 years and all levels are near perfect however I do realize that while I like to prove experts wrong about what type of fish/corals you can have in a tank and how big of a aquarium you must consider, I have always proved my skeptics wrong. I believe my time/luck is running out considering my Juvenile Emperor & Blue angel have doubled their size and eat alot! I have since purchased a 210 Aquarium and my question is exactly what would be the process to transfer all livestock, live rock to this 210? How much of the main tank water should I put in the 210? Should I get all new live sand for 210 and maybe a few cups of the old stuff in 75? Thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to give some advice on this transfer from a 75 to 210 Aquarium.

Rick

 

[Supa Belle]

I'd personally buy all new sand and you will most likely want more rock. I'd seed it with some live rock and a few cups of old sand and let it cycle before transferring your livestock and rock over but that's just me I'm sure others will have diff suggestions

 

[Grizz]

I put the live rock in 1st then new rinsed sand by this point the tank is about 2/3rds full of new water, i then top off with the old water, then transfer the fish slowly maybe over a week or more testing every 3 days watching for any spikes
(You can seed the new sand bed with a cupple cups of the old sand) The skimmer is the last thing to be moved over.
Now having said that i have broken down on old tank and moved every thing in one day It's a lot of work but it can be done.

 

[Angeljunkee]

Thanks for the speedy response

Per your suggestions I will defintely get all new live sand and maybe a few big cups from my main tank. I have about 130 IBS of live rock in my main tank. I agree I will want more. I was hoping to use just about all my equipment from 75 too. I operate 2 skimmers (Aqua C Remora Pro & Coralife Superskimmer 65). Also have 5 Wavemaker/powerheads for water/oxygen current. Have a HOB refugium which works well now. (I'll upgrade my refugium for sure). My question is can I still use these skimmers on my 210? I have 2 300 Watt heaters also that are active in my 75. Last question is how long should I let my 210 cycle until I can safely put my "Very Expensive" fish in their new home?

Rick

 

[Supa Belle]

Let it cycle till all your parameters are stable

 

[Grizz]

The skimmers will work as long as you keep the same bio load You should not have any cycle. In effect all your doing is a massive water change.
You'll need to keep on eye on the old tank (parameters) because you'll be removing most of the bio filter when you pull the live rock, that's why i move the skimmer last.
You can use new water to fill the 210 just be sure to drip acc the fish so they can adjust to the new parameters.
You can save a few bucks buy keeping a few cups of the old sand to reseed, then rinse the old sand until the water runs clean and add it to the 210 If you do this get the fish and inverts moved over first.
The heaters and wave makers will be fine. And that 75 would make a nice sump/fuge

 

[Kristy3693]

I just moved a 125 gal I bought off Craig's list. Took twice as long as I predicted. Buckets and buckets of rocks and sand!! If you want to use all the same equipment, I would do it all in one day, if you got a QT to put the fish in, or you could bag them for a couple hours. A friend or two to help you would be ideal. Even if they don't know anything about aquariums a "grab that bucket or hold this syphon tube" goes a long way. Good luck, give us some pics when that monster is up and running.

 

[pritchard]

Many different corals with all those angels ??? I had to sell my emperor because he loved my corals lol ! Any way I recently switched to a larger system and also underestimated the task at hand ! The new tank had to sit in the same place as the old one took me all day ! To keep it simple I took a spare 4ft tank from the shed and put it on the floor leaving room to slide the old system out of the way and placed the new system in front of the old one ready to slide into place . Then syphoned water from old tank into spare tank next I put my wave maker and heaters into the spare tank and moved all corals there to ! Next the live rock then more water into the tank and many buckets and with just a few inches of water left in the old tank I netted the livestock and put them into the spare tank as well ! Next I drained the contents of my sump into yet more buckets and slid the old tank to the side and the new tank into place ! I used new substrate and seeded it with a couple of cups out of the old tank ! Then filled the new tank about half way with all the buckets and back in with the rock then corals then fish and made up the difference with freshly mixed water ! All equipment back in and switched back on and the job was a good en ! I only had a mini cycle and only lost a torch coral ! Not an easy job but if you put a plan in place it should be ok ! And get ready for the mess towels and mops at hand ! Good luck !!!

 

[Angeljunkee]

Thank you for all the response's!

You have given me plenty to make my plan of attack. The 210 aquarium I bought was off Craigs list and tank was in fantastic shape! Just needed a little cleaning. My god did the light fixture for this tank cost me an arm, leg, and maybe finger or too, lol.. I think from all suggestions I will do one thing for sure, take my time with cycling tank. Even though I believe if I do this right I don't think there will be much of a cycle however I might wait a few weeks before acclimating fish/corals, etc. I think I will put in maybe 50 IBS of live rock from main tank into 210 and about 200 IBS of live sand along witha few cups of my old sand to seed. I will put 1 of 2 heaters in tank and maybe a couple of powerheads and let tank run 2 weeks. My main tank should be fine because it will still have 80 IBS of live rock, a heater, and 3 powerheads for circulation. Good point on checking levels on main tank when I take out some live rock, powerheads, etc.. As for Angels & Corals, well.. lets just say not all of my corals survived when I first got Juvi's however the one's that did must not be that tasty to them because they are pretty happy per their color/extentions.. Thanks again, I will post pics when I'm done.. Thats right, how do I download any pics on this site? I see the Add Video however it won't let me do anything?

Rick

 

[Grizz]

I use photobucket you can then post a link from there very easy to do

 

[Angeljunkee]

Success

I'm just writing this reply to say thank you to all the suggestions and advice. After 30 days this 210 aquarium is picture perfect and I didn't lose one coral or fish! The first day I put 200 IBS of live sand in and then maybe 2 cups of my old stuff. Then I filled 3/4 with 40 gallon buckets (Pre-mixed Reef Salt) and then put in about 50 IBS of live rock from main tank. I also put on an old Emperor filter I had along with a few power heads and a heater. I waited about 24 hours and then filled in the rest with remaining live rock, equipment, main tank water, corals, and fish. It took a while for the cloudyness to go away but my god to my fish look happy, lol.. A few weeks later I added more live rock along with a 2nd AquaC Remora Pro (Both can handle up to 250 Gallons fully stocked). I love these skimmers (Never liked the cone/venti skimmers). I've been checking levels and I've never seen them better and it shows! Thanks again to all who helped with the advice. Picture coming next...

 

[Grizz]

Great glad to hear every thing worked out

 

[Kristy3693]

Sounds awesome! A tank that big is a dream come true!

 

[Angeljunkee]

Here we go again.. Lol

Well, I write this as my first problem with my 210 since making it active over a month ago.. Levels are STILL near perfect. Salinity- 1.025, Temp- 78, PH- 8.0 (have a Korallin Calcium Reactor C-1502 being shipped this week), Ammonia- Undetectable, Nitrite- Undetectable, Nitrate- Undetectable, Phosphates- Undetectable (Hoping testing kit is realiable, lol), Calcium- 430, KH- 8.1(DKH), Mag- 1580 (yeah, I always seem to have high magnesium). I have plenty of flow. 1 wavemaker (3200 GPH, Top/Back right), 1 Powerhead (2000 GPH, Middle/Front right), 1 Wavemaker (1300 GPH, Top/Back left), 1 Wavemaker (850 GPH Bottom/Front left). I also have 2 wavemakers (600 GPH Bottom/Back left & right) to keep any diatem build up on sand bed.. I probably only have 140 IBS of live Rock. I have a HOB Refugium with a 605 GPH pump and 2 AquaC Remora Pro skimmers that can handle up to 250 gallons max (Love these skimmers!!).. My lighting is total of 1134 watts of light (3 "250 watt" MH, 4 Actinic T5's, and 16 LED's) Led's come on at 6am, Blue actinic's come on at 7am, MH's come on at 10am. MH's go off at 4pm, Blue actinic's go off at 7pm, and LED's go off at 10pm. To much light? Temp very rarely gets hotter then 79 (Small fan on low for extra cooling). I have all glass tops off and I probably change out 10 gallons a week in evaporation. No big deal though, I know at least fish/corals are always getting fresh RODI water all the time. I will say that when I started set-up a month ago, I used tap water for the first 150 gallons and the other 50 gallons came from my main tank when I transferred.. Now here is my problem.. I'm having an outbreak of some un-wanted algae?? How is this possible? Dark Red algae showing up in different places all over LR..? Not stringy but pasty looking and oxygen is getting trapped in algae?? I have since cleaned down all equipment (Wavemakers, pumps, etc.. yesterday) They were very dirty from main tank (75gallon).. This tank can't really be going through a cycle still, can it?? I added all same bacteria/equipment from my old tank?? All new sand.. Can't figure this out??? Any help if anyone was kind enough to read this storybook, lol... I always read how you need to be specific/details.. Lol. Goodluck. (Oh, my feeding is twice a day and sometimes 3 times day about 3 days a week). dozen marine fish, 3 will be large (Juvenile), 4 will be medium, and the rest will be small to medium size.. All corals and fish look happy?? How in the world can I be getting this outbreak? Overfeeding? Food is usually gone in less then 60 seconds?? Thanks again for any feedback..

 

[Kristy3693]

I would say over feeding. Your nitrates would be consumed by the algae. I feed twice a week, Sundays and Wednesdays to help keep algae down and water clean. Fish and corals seem happy.

 

[Angeljunkee]

twice a week? How many fish do you have? I'm thinking with a dozen I better at least feed twice a day.. matter of fact my juvenile emperor was looking kind of skinny until I started feeding 3 times a day.. I do 2 cubes of whatever frozen food (I mix them up) in morning then some pellets/flakes in afternoon and then 2 cubes of frozen food again at night... I'm going to try and leave a link below with pic from a couple weeks ago.. all equipment is now completely cleaned down.. you may see some diatem build up on wavemakers/pumps on this pic..

212_zpsd81de0cc.jpg Photo by rgeaslen | Photobucket

Hopefully this works

 

[Kristy3693]

I have six fish in one tank, and four in my other. I do pellets, small amount of frozen shrimp (between the two tanks about a 5th of a cube) little garlic additive. One of my friends had some damsels, he went to china for 4 weeks one time and didn't have anyone feed his tank. They were all alive when he got back.

 

[Bectan01]

In my opinion that is way too much food! I have 7 fish in my 55g and do a cube every other day. Don't be fooled by their little desperate faces, they could go a few days in between feelings. If you have tangs I would do some nori in between other feedings...

 

[Grizz]

Sounds like Cyano And I agree your over feeding cut back by half to start. And try to remove as much of the cyano as you can by hand It can make it's own food and will spread fast

 

[mr_X]

you feed way too much and your skimmers are way underpowered for your system. Those skimmers are way overrated.