Connecting Established Reef To New Tank

[Tuffloud1]

Just tested ammonia to be sure.

Certainly 0.

 

[ScottB]

Unless the new rock has phosphate, but who knows.

I can tell you that the best thing I ever did for my tank was when I stopped running gfo and carbon and let the tank do it’s thing. That’s when my SPS started thriving.

Good point. Mined, dry rock should have some PO4. I've gotten so used to the manufactured stuff which even when sumped I am less and less a fan of.

 

[brandon429]

If any safety of the old system is in question / getting worse water clarity ten hours later vs improving I would unlink the systems and pause the experiment.

A nice water change on the old system unlinked can export irritants, and strangely if you have to unlink for safety concern you are testing the whole theory even better. A straight month of linking is max bac exposure. the Old tank has already transmitted bac to the new tank on day 1 and if you let the new system cure unlinked, and stew as is thirty days—I bet it still passes meaning there are plenty of cycle bac, one day contact is time enough with the wait time for things to grow.

if clarity is not getting worse and sliming has stopped it’s ok to continue

we should only proceed if those fine corals are allowing us to.

 

[ScottB]

What is water clarity like this morning?

 

[brandon429]

The suspense is there and present, at four a.m. I wanted to virtually unlink the systems somehow and perform cpr on the sending tank.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Ha! Thank you guys for being there and caring! Us reefers need to stick together!

Water has turned crystal clear, amazing change.

NO3, PO4 remain unchanged.

Alk had a very slight drop from 8.9 to 8.5, confirmed both readings with 2 tests each time.

As of now, no more sliming. Duncan has been completely closed for almost 2 days.

No sign of STN or RTN. Polyp extension has been reduced but present.

 

[brandon429]

my suspense levels

all duncans are false indicating misbehaving miscreants we r back to safe zone

 

[Tuffloud1]

At last, behold...........

 

[brandon429]

Im googling to see what all that device reads, nice score!

-sps can be fine tuned with that I see, app controlled

 

[Tuffloud1]

Oops, I posted that in the wrong thread, lol!

Meant to post in my build thread.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Update: polyps on SPS look slightly more pronounced.

No sign of STN/RTN.

Parameters remain stable.

 

[brandon429]

Im very happy we reduced the lighting a bit as well really nice to hear the update it'll have a nice weekend of adjustment

 

[Tuffloud1]

Here’s some current pics of SPS. Things are looking much better than day 1 of connecting both systems.

 

[brandon429]

beyond delicate trees of acro, what a serious amount of time and effort on the line here.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Out of curiosity since I think this is awesome and following along. Question Would it do any good to just ghost feed the new tank I know they are connected but my keep your no3 and po4 up.

I have increased feedings in addition to monitoring PO4 and NO3 twice a day.

I have found dosing nitrates and phosphate to be easier to reach a specific target (if too low) than simply dumping in more food than the fish will eat.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Good call @ScottB, @motortrendz and @brandon429 on reducing light intensity!

I believe this reduced the stress on my acros during the connection.

 

[brandon429]

I took permanent note of their prediction of nutrient control and prediction about bottoming out, nice one MT and Scott

 

[ScottB]

Good call @ScottB, @motortrendz and @brandon429 on reducing light intensity!

I believe this reduced the stress on my acros during the connection.

Keep an eye on those temperamental animals as they just hate change. Thank you for the shout out on this step. If you are to make a feeding mistake then OVERfeed. This error can be fixed; nobody dies. Looking good so far!

 

[PurpleMonsterSlayer]

Very interesting experiment. I have done this before and lost everything in the starter tank. But I have had great success doing a water change and using the old water to start new tanks with out dosing and kind of bacteria what so ever just using the bacteria floating in the water column. With this method I have been able to start new seems without any ugly stages and within a week add coral and fish.

 

[Tuffloud1]

Very interesting experiment. I have done this before and lost everything in the starter tank. But I have had great success doing a water change and using the old water to start new tanks with out dosing and kind of bacteria what so ever just using the bacteria floating in the water column. With this method I have been able to start new seems without any ugly stages and within a week add coral and fish.

That’s strange that you were able to start a new tank with old tank water and put fish and coral in within a week but you weren’t able to connect an old and new system without everything dying.