2nd hand saltwater....?

[Jasongtr]

Cryptic title I know.

We have a fluval evo I bought as a hospital tank a while back that's currently sat in its box not being used.

I had a thought to set it up as we have the pump, powerhead, light, heater controller, heater and fan, loads of spare marco rock to build a scape

Pull the clowns out of our bigger tank to go in there and just have it as a nano soft coral tank as my wife loves xenia but we wouldn't put it in our bigger tank.

Had a thought about the difficulties in nutrient control in a small AIO tank but if I did a 50% water change with the water I took out of our main tank which runs about 10ppm nitrate and 0.1 phosphate I didn't see that being a big problem, so water changes on the little tank would be effectively free.

I'd also build the scape and put it in my sump of the bigger tank for 3-4 months so I could essentially Immediately start it up.

Anything sound like it's not going to work ?

 

[Jekyl]

What size tank is it? Clowns should still be in at least a 20g. Also, you'll have to see how things progress as you may not even need to be adding the dirty water. While it will have some nitrate, other things will be depleted.

 

[Dburr1014]

Cryptic title I know.

We have a fluval evo I bought as a hospital tank a while back that's currently sat in its box not being used.

I had a thought to set it up as we have the pump, powerhead, light, heater controller, heater and fan, loads of spare marco rock to build a scape

Pull the clowns out of our bigger tank to go in there and just have it as a nano soft coral tank as my wife loves xenia but we wouldn't put it in our bigger tank.

Had a thought about the difficulties in nutrient control in a small AIO tank but if I did a 50% water change with the water I took out of our main tank which runs about 10ppm nitrate and 0.1 phosphate I didn't see that being a big problem, so water changes on the little tank would be effectively free.

I'd also build the scape and put it in my sump of the bigger tank for 3-4 months so I could essentially Immediately start it up.

Anything sound like it's not going to work ?

I use wc water for my qt.

It might be fine for softies, idk.
But as said, clowns need a 20.

 

[Jasongtr]

Ok thanks.

The tank is a fluval evo so 13.5g

I understand some sites say 20g and often people repeat what they read, my clowns have been in 75g for over 18 months and I know for a fact they spend most of their time (95) in one corner at the front, they will very occasionally go and take some nori if it's half way down the tank at the front, they have never gone to more than half way back and frankly wouldn't explore all the space in a 5g bucket, plus they sometimes get a bit of grief from our coral beauty so I figure this tank with just them in it would be better for them

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

To me, change-out water is dirty water. I would not do a water change with dirty water. Especially since you mention you want to keep corals, we do water changes to replenish the elements, but you will use dirty water which the elements are already used up.

 

[Jasongtr]

To me, change-out water is dirty water. I would not do a water change with dirty water. Especially since you mention you want to keep corals, we do water changes to replenish the elements, but you will use dirty water which the elements are already used up.

Ok thanks, that's kind of the reason for the post, there will only be softies in there and they don't consume calcium and alkalinity, so I figured a small amount of something like chaeto gro would put back trace elements or a few ml of AFR, the logic behind the old tank water in the little tank is firstly it would be less nutrients than the little tank with poorer filtration and secondly almost like having the two systems plumbed together (almost) but that's not physically possible with the tanks locations

 

[Jekyl]

Ok thanks.

The tank is a fluval evo so 13.5g

I understand some sites say 20g and often people repeat what they read, my clowns have been in 75g for over 18 months and I know for a fact they spend most of their time (95) in one corner at the front, they will very occasionally go and take some nori if it's half way down the tank at the front, they have never gone to more than half way back and frankly wouldn't explore all the space in a 5g bucket, plus they sometimes get a bit of grief from our coral beauty so I figure this tank with just them in it would be better for them

Seems you have all the input you need then.

 

[Jasongtr]

Seems you have all the input you need then.

Why because I didn't accept your clown policy