Advice on transferring stock from old system to new system

Westiereefer · Jul 1, 2020

Gday I was hoping I could get some Advice please

so I’m in the process of a new build I have a current tank setup and I would like to transfer my fish and corals across to new tank however my current tank has vermid snails and I want to reduce the Risk of introducing them to new setup.

it was suggested to me to set up new tank cycle and get stable then run 90 days fallow with coral only then TTM in my fish in batches. To help eradicate all itch and velvet ( my current tank doesn’t seem to have either of these)

I bought all new dry rock and all new equipment for new tank I was thinking of running a bare bottom system as well. The tank will be sps dominan. Tank is a 6ft 220G

I am happy to keep my current tank running as long as needed to ensure I have minimal losses in the transfer and so I can do this right

some coral I want to transfer over from old tank are
Walt Disney
A few different types of digi
birds nest
a few different Mont’s
a few millis
and a few different types of acro
some zoas
a couple of hammers
and possibly a forest fire nem ( undecided on this yet )

Most of these are frags

the plan is to remove from plugs and dip coral. glue to new plugs and add to new tank

I have a few questions

1. Running the new tank with just coral for 90 days after cycle with just feeding the coral something like reef roads Will this be enough to create nitrate and phos for the coral to eat or should I ghost feed the tank as well ?

2. From what I understand running a coral only system is very difficult is there a method I could follow in order to keep my coral alive while the system is fallow for the 90 days

3. Am I doing this all wrong ? What would you suggest

i have received a lot of conflicting information from people so I was hoping you all could help set me straight

thanks in advance

andrewey · Jul 1, 2020

1. Running the new tank with just coral for 90 days after cycle with just feeding the coral something like reef roads Will this be enough to create nitrate and phos for the coral to eat or should I ghost feed the tank as well ?

Likely enough. Depending on the size of the coral and the dry rock, you may find that after your cycle that your nitrate and phosphate are already high enough for your coral. I would routinely test these parameters, but if they start to dip, reef roids or another food source will be fine to raise them (or just manually dose the chemicals).

2. From what I understand running a coral only system is very difficult is there a method I could follow in order to keep my coral alive while the system is fallow for the 90 days

Why would you say it's difficult? The corals might not enjoy the transfer of tanks, but if you removed all your fish right now from the original tank, your corals would be just fine

. Many people have to do just this after making their reef fallow. Most people like to keep fish in their coral systems for pest control, algae control, or some observations that coral grow better with "fish poop". I've run plenty of SPS grow out tanks without fish. I don't find it any more/less difficult than with fish.

3. Am I doing this all wrong ? What would you suggest
How bad is your vermetid snail problem? I'm not sure I would go through all this work if the problem wasn't that bad. You may have losses from the tank transfer (always possible with SPS and changing alk/pH) and you lose the all important mature live rock you've cultivated. Additionally, if starting with completely new rock, you've started a new tank. SPS don't do so well in new tanks, so it's possible you will have more losses in your new tank than you would have had in your mature tank. If the problem was really awful, I can understand this design, but if it was in anyway manageable, I would probably remove one rock at a time and destroy the vermetid snails. You'll miss some and some will come back, but when the population density is low, I haven't found them to be that bad in my experience. Just food for thought.

i have received a lot of conflicting information from people so I was hoping you all could help set me straight

You might recieve more conflicting information. Find someone you trust and follow their advice or hear everyone's opinions and synthesize your own plan of action. There is likely no one "right" answer.

Westiereefer · Jul 1, 2020

andrewey said:
1. Running the new tank with just coral for 90 days after cycle with just feeding the coral something like reef roads Will this be enough to create nitrate and phos for the coral to eat or should I ghost feed the tank as well ?

Likely enough. Depending on the size of the coral and the dry rock, you may find that after your cycle that your nitrate and phosphate are already high enough for your coral. I would routinely test these parameters, but if they start to dip, reef roids or another food source will be fine to raise them (or just manually dose the chemicals).

2. From what I understand running a coral only system is very difficult is there a method I could follow in order to keep my coral alive while the system is fallow for the 90 days

Why would you say it's difficult? The corals might not enjoy the transfer of tanks, but if you removed all your fish right now from the original tank, your corals would be just fine . Many people have to do just this after making their reef fallow. Most people like to keep fish in their coral systems for pest control, algae control, or some observations that coral grow better with "fish poop". I've run plenty of SPS grow out tanks without fish. I don't find it any more/less difficult than with fish.

3. Am I doing this all wrong ? What would you suggest
How bad is your vermetid snail problem? I'm not sure I would go through all this work if the problem wasn't that bad. You may have losses from the tank transfer (always possible with SPS and changing alk/pH) and you lose the all important mature live rock you've cultivated. Additionally, if starting with completely new rock, you've started a new tank. SPS don't do so well in new tanks, so it's possible you will have more losses in your new tank than you would have had in your mature tank. If the problem was really awful, I can understand this design, but if it was in anyway manageable, I would probably remove one rock at a time and destroy the vermetid snails. You'll miss some and some will come back, but when the population density is low, I haven't found them to be that bad in my experience. Just food for thought.

i have received a lot of conflicting information from people so I was hoping you all could help set me straight

You might recieve more conflicting information. Find someone you trust and follow their advice or hear everyone's opinions and synthesize your own plan of action. There is likely no one "right" answer.

Thanks for the information mate

the vermid snails are really bad I bought this tank from someone else as an established system it was unloved and parameters were way out I have fixed the parameters and have been stable for a few months. I didn’t realise what the vermid snails were at the time plus the rock scape was their design. I’m going from a 3.6ft x 2ft x 2.2ft deep to a 6ft now with all the bells and whistle.

I will match my parameters to my current tank hopefully this will help reduce losses

Keen4 · Jul 27, 2020

andrewey said:
1. Running the new tank with just coral for 90 days after cycle with just feeding the coral something like reef roads Will this be enough to create nitrate and phos for the coral to eat or should I ghost feed the tank as well ?

Likely enough. Depending on the size of the coral and the dry rock, you may find that after your cycle that your nitrate and phosphate are already high enough for your coral. I would routinely test these parameters, but if they start to dip, reef roids or another food source will be fine to raise them (or just manually dose the chemicals).

2. From what I understand running a coral only system is very difficult is there a method I could follow in order to keep my coral alive while the system is fallow for the 90 days

Why would you say it's difficult? The corals might not enjoy the transfer of tanks, but if you removed all your fish right now from the original tank, your corals would be just fine . Many people have to do just this after making their reef fallow. Most people like to keep fish in their coral systems for pest control, algae control, or some observations that coral grow better with "fish poop". I've run plenty of SPS grow out tanks without fish. I don't find it any more/less difficult than with fish.

3. Am I doing this all wrong ? What would you suggest
How bad is your vermetid snail problem? I'm not sure I would go through all this work if the problem wasn't that bad. You may have losses from the tank transfer (always possible with SPS and changing alk/pH) and you lose the all important mature live rock you've cultivated. Additionally, if starting with completely new rock, you've started a new tank. SPS don't do so well in new tanks, so it's possible you will have more losses in your new tank than you would have had in your mature tank. If the problem was really awful, I can understand this design, but if it was in anyway manageable, I would probably remove one rock at a time and destroy the vermetid snails. You'll miss some and some will come back, but when the population density is low, I haven't found them to be that bad in my experience. Just food for thought.

i have received a lot of conflicting information from people so I was hoping you all could help set me straight

You might recieve more conflicting information. Find someone you trust and follow their advice or hear everyone's opinions and synthesize your own plan of action. There is likely no one "right" answer.

Nice advice. Im doing something similar. Only I have a lot of anemones. Im aware that a new tank isn't suitable for anems which is my concern Should I wait till about fall season to move them? My new tank set up finished it nitrate cycle now from 25ppm to 10 ppm and .5 po4. Its on week 7 of the cycle. All other perms are normal. Running chaeto and waiting for a UV sterilizer to arrive this week. No lights been blacked out and got a few fish in there now.