Changing tanks, is my thought process correct.

[DazAquariums]

In the next few months I will be moving houses which means time to move live stock. I have been thinking about the best way for me to do this and I think I have a pretty solid plan but would love some feedback from the community.

With this I will not be using the old tank that everything is in currently. I have a 60 gallon cube but I will be purchasing a Red Sea XL 300. I also plan on cycling my rocks for about 2 months prior. Not going to use the old rock as I do have a nasty Aiptasia issue currently and would like not to bring that along. So I want to put the new rock into a brute and cycle it and add a few pieces to the sump of my current tank. I will treat the brute like a tank and do weekly water changes after its done with the cycle. It will also be pre-aquascaped to make the setup faster.

Once moving day arrives I plan on setting up the new tank at the new house first. Ill plumb It all up and setup a return pump. Then Ill put my rock and brand new sand (rinsed with RO first) into the tank and quickly fill it up and get it running. Then head to the old house and remove all inhabitants. Coral will be removed from the rocks and rocks put into a brute (as some coral is encrusted) and water from the tank will keep it wet. Ill remove the fish and bag them separately. At the new house Ill add the rock to a rubbermaid tub with a light ( I want to add some nudibranchs to the tub to kill the Aiptasia so the rocks that have coral still on them can later be added to one of my tanks) and ill acclimate the fish and introduce them into the new system. All coral will be added to my quarantine coral 20 gallon system to ensure nothing bad is being transferred.

The new system I plan on running only on an 8 hour light schedule for the first month. I want to add 30 minutes a month until I get back to a 12 hour light schedule. Will also be using minimum filtration at first. Just a protein skimmer and live rock until the system is more established. After a few weeks I plan on moving the coral into the new tank. Anything I might be missing or not thinking about?

 

[brandon429]

agreed that will work. one minor tweak I'd do: rinsing in RO/the sand is costly and wont evacuate as well as tap water for two hours on it, then RO at the last.

its not that new sand silt clouding is harmful, its that its ugly and unhelpful, and to be free of it when scaping/changing new tank setups is ideal always over incomplete rinses.

consider the degree and $ of tanks doing tap rinsing vs ro rinsing here, its worth inspecting.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

if your new tank's sand is so cloudless it acts like a snowglobe, then gobies or rock slides/readjusts/nothing makes it turn cloudy like the ones we showed on page one who skipped rinsing prep altogether at the behest of peers.

if you didnt pre rinse in tap, and kept your original plan, it'll be fine that's just a stepped up safeguard option and its quite well tested with follow up too.

 

[fishface NJ]

Why don't you remove rocks from your current tank and rid it of the aiptasia? It would save you some money. If you need more rocks than you currently have then buy more.

Muriatic Acid to get the rocks clean.

Muriatic Acid is essentially Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)...
-as a strong acid, you can use it to clean the rocks, proceed to dilute with water and utilize a reef safe pH increaser to neutralize the acid (or baking soda).

Make sure to use gloves and rotate the rocks (both during cleaning and neutralization - no air bubbles....).

People use vinegar as well (acetic acid), however acetic acid is a weak acid.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I would bypass individual bagging of the fish. A tub or bucket with a cheap preset heater and batter air pump will keep them alive and calm with the lid on

 

[fishface NJ]

....With this I will not be using the old tank that everything is in currently. I have a 60 gallon cube but I will be purchasing a Red Sea XL 300. I also plan on cycling my rocks for about 2 months prior. Not going to use the old rock as I do have a nasty Aiptasia issue currently and would like not to bring that along. So I want to put the new rock into a brute and cycle it and add a few pieces to the sump of my current tank. I will treat the brute like a tank and do weekly water changes after its done with the cycle. It will also be pre-aquascaped to make the setup faster.....

If you add new rock to your current sump(to cycle the new rocks) that has aiptasia in it, you will be transporting aiptasia to your new system

 

[DazAquariums]

If you add new rock to your current sump(to cycle the new rocks) that has aiptasia in it, you will be transporting aiptasia to your new system

I thought this is as well I haven't seen any outside of my display. Non in the overflow or in the sump area. Is it still a high risk then?

 

[fishface NJ]

I thought this is as well I haven't seen any outside of my display. Non in the overflow or in the sump area. Is it still a high risk then?

IF you have aiptasia in your current system, then yes, there is a likelihood that it can be transported to the new rock/system if the new rock is placed in current system.

 

[DazAquariums]

IF you have aiptasia in your current system, then yes, there is a likelihood that it can be transported to the new rock/system if the new rock is placed in current system.

Then I will skip that part of the process. The last thing I want to do is go through all this just to instantly have the same issue pop up. Thank you!

 

[DazAquariums]

Why don't you remove rocks from your current tank and rid it of the aiptasia? It would save you some money. If you need more rocks than you currently have then buy more.

Muriatic Acid to get the rocks clean.

Muriatic Acid is essentially Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)...
-as a strong acid, you can use it to clean the rocks, proceed to dilute with water and utilize a reef safe pH increaser to neutralize the acid (or baking soda).

Make sure to use gloves and rotate the rocks (both during cleaning and neutralization - no air bubbles....).

People use vinegar as well (acetic acid), however acetic acid is a weak acid.

A few different reason currently. Main one is the system the rocks are in is going to stay active until the day of the move. So all life stock and everything will be in the system. As well as there is some encrusting corals I want to preserve that also has aiptasia on them so getting rid of the aiptasia while the rock is still "active" is preferred. And that same rock I plan on refusing in another system in the near future that will be much larger. But it is solid advice incase my nudi idea falls sort.

 

[MnFish1]

IMHO - you should take your current rocks and use them in your new tank. Everything I've read POINTS to the idea that the older the rocks are the better. Since you have months to plan - I would get some Berghia (the amount recommended for a 60 gallon Cube) and try to get rid of as many as you can. There is no question in my mind - that if you bring coral, etc from your old tank - youre likely to bring aiptasia with it somehow. PS - Putting some new rock in your sump - can very well add aiptasia to that rock and you're back where you started either way.

I agree with not bagging individual fish - just put them all in a tub.

BTW - how far are you moving? Some sort of battery powered air for the fish/coral will help if its a long distance.

BTW - 2. If you just take your old rock - and add some new you do not need to do any of the 'two month cycling, with water changes etc' - you can just add that new rock to your tank. Assuming the bioload in your old tank and new tank will be the same for a time (which I would recommend) - until things get settled - you should not have any new cycle.

Hope this helps - and hope it works out well

 

[DazAquariums]

agreed that will work. one minor tweak I'd do: rinsing in RO/the sand is costly and wont evacuate as well as tap water for two hours on it, then RO at the last.

its not that new sand silt clouding is harmful, its that its ugly and unhelpful, and to be free of it when scaping/changing new tank setups is ideal always over incomplete rinses.

consider the degree and $ of tanks doing tap rinsing vs ro rinsing here, its worth inspecting.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

if your new tank's sand is so cloudless it acts like a snowglobe, then gobies or rock slides/readjusts/nothing makes it turn cloudy like the ones we showed on page one who skipped rinsing prep altogether at the behest of peers.

if you didnt pre rinse in tap, and kept your original plan, it'll be fine that's just a stepped up safeguard option and its quite well tested with follow up too.

I read through a good chunk of this. I like the idea and it makes sense. I will go with this method for the sand for sure.

 

[DazAquariums]

IMHO - you should take your current rocks and use them in your new tank. Everything I've read POINTS to the idea that the older the rocks are the better. Since you have months to plan - I would get some Berghia (the amount recommended for a 60 gallon Cube) and try to get rid of as many as you can. There is no question in my mind - that if you bring coral, etc from your old tank - youre likely to bring aiptasia with it somehow. PS - Putting some new rock in your sump - can very well add aiptasia to that rock and you're back where you started either way.

I agree with not bagging individual fish - just put them all in a tub.

BTW - how far are you moving? Some sort of battery powered air for the fish/coral will help if its a long distance.

BTW - 2. If you just take your old rock - and add some new you do not need to do any of the 'two month cycling, with water changes etc' - you can just add that new rock to your tank. Assuming the bioload in your old tank and new tank will be the same for a time (which I would recommend) - until things get settled - you should not have any new cycle.

Hope this helps - and hope it works out well

The corals are going into a quarantine system for monitoring before going into the new display for 30-60 days. Anything that can't be removed will remain the tub until infection is cured. I had Nudis at one point. Bought 6. Im assuming they were ate by the fish because infestation has increased and no sign of them outside the first two days.

But yeah I can put them in a tub and transport them. The move is less than 10 minute drive and the tanks and life stock will be the only thing ill be dealing with so they're trip will be extremely short. And yeah the bio load will stay completely the same for no less than 90 days. I want to keep things simple and stable during the first while.

 

[MnFish1]

The corals are going into a quarantine system for monitoring before going into the new display for 30-60 days. Anything that can't be removed will remain the tub until infection is cured. I had Nudis at one point. Bought 6. Im assuming they were ate by the fish because infestation has increased and no sign of them outside the first two days.

But yeah I can put them in a tub and transport them. The move is less than 10 minute drive and the tanks and life stock will be the only thing ill be dealing with so they're trip will be extremely short. And yeah the bio load will stay completely the same for no less than 90 days. I want to keep things simple and stable during the first while.

I guess I'm saying removing the coral from their rocks is likely going to cause more problems than trying to eliminate the aiptasia - which you probably cannot do with more Berghia. I'm not sure where you got yours - but this article might help (Below) - I don't know how many aiptasia you have in your tank - but for the size, you bought the bare minimum. https://reeftown.com/estimating-needs