Just picked up a turnkey setup, now what?

[jd-woodlands]

Had an unbelievable deal come my way on Planet Aquarium Crystalline 85 reef setup, complete with lights, live rock, fish, sump, everything and then some. So, now I have a tank sitting in my kitchen area, 1/4 full of water, live rock, and some fish and I’m not sure what to do with a few things. I’m not going to be ready to set this tank up for a couple of weeks and I want to clean it all up.

What do I do with the live rock? It’s been in the tank over a year so far, I’d love to keep whatever beneficial organisms alive if I can.

Then what do I do when I’m ready to get the tank wet? I have a SPS 30 gallon that I need to transfer to this new tank, do I just do a full rock and 100% water transfer over and hope for the best? I’m going bare bottom on this one so I’m not reusing old sand.

Any thoughts, tip, or tricks that anyone can share would be helpful around moving / swappin tanks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Place it in a rubbermaid tub with heater, circulation pump and light. Will be fine for at least three weeks or more. Do a small water change every 3.4 days as this tub will lack filtration

 

[jd-woodlands]

Place it in a rubbermaid tub with heater, circulation pump and light. Will be fine for at least three weeks or more. Do a small water change every 3.4 days as this tub will lack filtration

Sounds like the easy part, thanks. Tank transfer I assume will be tricky?

 

[timrocks311]

Place it in a rubbermaid tub with heater, circulation pump and light. Will be fine for at least three weeks or more. Do a small water change every 3.4 days as this tub will lack filtration

I agree. Put the rock and fish in a tub for the time being. When you go to move your current tank into this one, it should be easy enough. If you can, set the new one up and let it run, then slowly move your 30 gallon over. If not, this new tank will be larger so you'll have mostly new water. You can mix in some from your 30 gal too. Everything should be cycled so I think you'd be fine swapping everything to the new.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like the easy part, thanks. Tank transfer I assume will be tricky?

Not tricky. Just assure that temp and salinity are equal or close to and after full transfer, add a big bag/nylon of carbon to the sump. Have a helper that you can pass coral to or that can pass coral to you over towels and begin your coral placement