Few more questions about upgrading my tank.

[AdamW0611]

I've recently bought a 125 gallon tank, and am upgrading from a 75 with canister filter. I have another post about it so I won't rehash why I decided to upgrade 3 months after setting it up. Only livestock I have at the moment is about 9 or 10 snails, and 2 juvenile clownfish, they're pretty happy in the 20 gallon tank for a little while if need be.

I am about do finally fill the tank tomorrow with salt water as long as it passes my 2nd plumbing leak test today. My main questions are, I'm using all new saltwater, about 70 lbs of rock from the 75 gallon I've been keeping in a tote with old tank water, heater and flow for 6 days, 120 pounds of new sand, 80 of it is dead araganite, and 40 pounds live Caribsea. Should I get a bottle bacteria, and will the tank cycle again or will the rock and Marinepure spheres I had in the filter from the old tank still be sufficient? I may add more rock/marinepure to refugium section to make up the difference of 1lb/gallon since I want a minimalist look and more room for fish to swim in the DT.

My other question is I bought a Ruby 36 Sump, inkbird controller with 2 heater outlets, and 2 500 watt finnex heaters, I plan on 1 heater in return chamber, probe in first chamber, and not sure if anywhere specific is good for the 2nd heater, or different place for the probe. I really don't want a heater in the display tank, unless they are useful hidden behind the overflows (part of the reason I upgraded was I was tired of looking at filter inlet and outlet, 2 heaters, and a HOB skimmer in the tank).

I've included a few pics to see sump layout, rock tote, etc incase it helps. Thanks guys.

P.S - As I was uploading the pics I forgot, the rocks that were closest to the surface in the old tank have a dark green algae on them, I bought a scrub brush to try and clean them a bit. It barely worked if at all, is there anything else I can do to clean them, or will it be fine to put them in the new tank as they are?

 

[Mr Fishface]

Congrats on upgrading your tank! I upgraded from a 75 to a 125 as well so I hope I can help you out a bit.

Rock is going to contain most of your bacteria anyway so putting the rock in the new tank SHOULD be enough. When I upgraded I bought a bottle of bacteria anyway as the $20 was worth a little peace of mind. I also had several fish, 5 or 6, not just clownfish though. Be gentle on feeding the first few feedings. Too much food early on could cause a gentle cycle but again, with all that rock you have kept heated and aerated I think you'll be ok.

I am not familiar with that sump, maybe someone else can chime in. Can you put both heaters in the same area? That's what I would do at least. I do that now in my 55 gallon sump. Both heaters are turned on in the return part of my sump. I think it's a great idea to put rock in the refugium. It will give algae something to hold onto as well as greatly increase your surface area. My sump is split into 3 sections and I have rock in two of them. I put some near the protein skimmer because no light gets there so I have rock that will never be covered with algae. Just a nice area for bacteria to live.

Did the green algae only start after putting the rocks in totes? If a brush couldn't get it off its possible it's a calcium based algae which is fine. I get this green calcium based algae on my glass and I have to use a blade to scrape it off. Regardless, I would say add it to your tank as is. If you are really worried about it, turn the rock so the algae faces down and gets less/no light and it'll go away.

When I upgraded my tank, I used all my old rock and bought new dry rock I added to it too. I did buy a little thing of bacteria but never had a cycle that I could detect. Make sure the new tank water matches the old one. First time I upgraded (29g -> 75g) I checked salinity and temp and thats it. Check the ph of both waters! You want that to be close. I didn't my first time and my snails died due to a big swing of ph. If new tank is too low I think you can up the ph by letting it aerate using a good powerhead or air pump. If you have corals check things like calcium and alk too, make sure they are not crazy different. Be prepared to "acclimate" your fish to the new water (bag them up and float, slowly pour in water, etc).

I'll be around this weekend a lot if you need any other advice. Hope this helps!

 

[AdamW0611]

Congrats on upgrading your tank! I upgraded from a 75 to a 125 as well so I hope I can help you out a bit.

Rock is going to contain most of your bacteria anyway so putting the rock in the new tank SHOULD be enough. When I upgraded I bought a bottle of bacteria anyway as the $20 was worth a little peace of mind. I also had several fish, 5 or 6, not just clownfish though. Be gentle on feeding the first few feedings. Too much food early on could cause a gentle cycle but again, with all that rock you have kept heated and aerated I think you'll be ok.

I am not familiar with that sump, maybe someone else can chime in. Can you put both heaters in the same area? That's what I would do at least. I do that now in my 55 gallon sump. Both heaters are turned on in the return part of my sump. I think it's a great idea to put rock in the refugium. It will give algae something to hold onto as well as greatly increase your surface area. My sump is split into 3 sections and I have rock in two of them. I put some near the protein skimmer because no light gets there so I have rock that will never be covered with algae. Just a nice area for bacteria to live.

Did the green algae only start after putting the rocks in totes? If a brush couldn't get it off its possible it's a calcium based algae which is fine. I get this green calcium based algae on my glass and I have to use a blade to scrape it off. Regardless, I would say add it to your tank as is. If you are really worried about it, turn the rock so the algae faces down and gets less/no light and it'll go away.

When I upgraded my tank, I used all my old rock and bought new dry rock I added to it too. I did buy a little thing of bacteria but never had a cycle that I could detect. Make sure the new tank water matches the old one. First time I upgraded (29g -> 75g) I checked salinity and temp and thats it. Check the ph of both waters! You want that to be close. I didn't my first time and my snails died due to a big swing of ph. If new tank is too low I think you can up the ph by letting it aerate using a good powerhead or air pump. If you have corals check things like calcium and alk too, make sure they are not crazy different. Be prepared to "acclimate" your fish to the new water (bag them up and float, slowly pour in water, etc).

I'll be around this weekend a lot if you need any other advice. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice, I can put both heaters in the return chamber, just wasn't sure of it was better spread out. Going to put the temp probe in the skimmer chamber, figure it already has holders built in. As for the algae it was in the old tank, I admit I was neglecting cleaning the tank for a few weeks working a ton of overtime to upgrade, and knowing I was changing tanks I didn't wanna waste time/money for water changes etc, with only the 2 fish parameters were fine. Good timing with the reply, I just finished running it with well water for 24 hours to check for leaks, drained it and was putting the heaters in the sump. Funny enough I was thinking of putting the rocks facing down where I could to have the algae on the bottom.

 

[Mr Fishface]

Thanks for the advice, I can put both heaters in the return chamber, just wasn't sure of it was better spread out. Going to put the temp probe in the skimmer chamber, figure it already has holders built in. As for the algae it was in the old tank, I admit I was neglecting cleaning the tank for a few weeks working a ton of overtime to upgrade, and knowing I was changing tanks I didn't wanna waste time/money for water changes etc, with only the 2 fish parameters were fine. Good timing with the reply, I just finished running it with well water for 24 hours to check for leaks, drained it and was putting the heaters in the sump. Funny enough I was thinking of putting the rocks facing down where I could to have the algae on the bottom.

I'd say its great timing with the reply then! I have my two heaters together, I used to have one in the display refugium too but ended up putting it in the sump. Never noticed any changes doing so. My system is a bit spread out though. I have a 125 gallon display with 55g sump underneath. To the left of the display is where I built my 40 breeder display refugium (soon to be frag tank) and the refugium was connected to the 55g sump as well. So 3 tanks with two side by side all connected. I would imagine your system would be fine as well.

I understand neglecting the smaller tank. Same thing happened with my 29g. I knew I was upgrading and was actively looking for a 75g. Let the cyano and hair algae get out of control but the fish were ok. Think at that time I just had clownfish too. I would shake the rocks in the tub of water before adding to the tank, get all that easy to remove gunk off while you can. Its surprising how much they hold in their little nooks and crevices. I put my algae covered spots either face down or in the sand. If you have hair algae this is a great time to get an old toothbrush or wire brush and just brush it off the rocks before putting in the tank. It might come back still, but it'll prevent it just dieing and adding nutrients to the water again. The calcium algae I would not worry about though at all. Too much work to scrape it off rocks IMO. Hair algae comes off really easy.