Moving Fish to new tank!

[WRB]

Hi Gang,
My well established tank (30 years) is loosing a seam. I have a new one the same size (120) coming.
7 fish, no Inverts or live rock. I have a crushed coral sea bed and would like to at least rinse it off. Any suggestions on best practices so I don't loose to much of my good bacteria. I'll be putting about 75 gallons of the original water back in and new saltwater to top it off ( guessing 25-30 gallons)
I don't want to keep my fish in the Brute any longer than needed. Should I add something like Fritz 9 or Fritz Turbo?
Let it run for how long before putting my livestock back in?
Thanks.

 

[sergifed91]

i upgraded from a 75 to a 125 marineland dual over flow. I moved my fish in to several smaller tanks. drained the 75 and moved it to a different spot temp. then moved the 125 where the 75 gallon tank was. then when all setup I drained half the 75 into the 125 and then moved the fish. then drained the rest of it into the 125. then I added more water. as fa as the sand. I eventually took it out. filled a bucket or 2 with it. and then rinsed the hack out of it. then let it dry for weeks. then I decided I didn't like the bare bottom look. and added the sand to the 125 and added a few more back to make it one inch thick. and also added more bacteria. I don't remember the brand. it might of been fritz but don't quote me on that.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Can you gravel vac your entire tank. Dump that dirty water. Then scoop out your gravel. Put in new tank. Put remainder of water into new tank. Net fish out of old tank. Top off with new water. I’ll bet you won’t have a new cycle. I’ve done this seamlessly three times over the past 10 years. 120g, 137g, and my present day 180 gal.

 

[sergifed91]

Ihe last thing I took out was the sand. I felt that. At least for me, that rinsing the sand out like so other. For a good amount of time to get it clean of everything undesirable was my best bet. With this tank ever other week I stir up the sand and run the water through a media reactor with a sediment filter in the reactor. It gets messy. I can't have seastars in my DT. Because my shrimp will eat it. For obvious reasons. So until I figure out what will stir up the sand bed the best. Snails don't cut it. I have 100 snails and they don't do much. A horseshoe crab. Who know where it's at and a diamond goby. He doesn't do much for stirring up the sand.

 

[WRB]

As it is now I'm gonna sphon off the majority of the water without stirring things up, net the fish and move them. Vac the bed and dump off the dirty water. Then scoop up and drainoff as much as possible from the substraite and reverse the process with the fish going in last.
I guess I just wonder if I can put the subtrate in a big trash can and run a ton of freshwater thru it, drain that off and put it in the new tank. Will the water have enought good stuff in it that I can get my fish back in asap once all the pumps and filters are running in the new set-up?
Does that make sense?

 

[SudzFD]

As it is now I'm gonna sphon off the majority of the water without stirring things up, net the fish and move them. Vac the bed and dump off the dirty water. Then scoop up and drainoff as much as possible from the substraite and reverse the process with the fish going in last.
I guess I just wonder if I can put the subtrate in a big trash can and run a ton of freshwater thru it, drain that off and put it in the new tank. Will the water have enought good stuff in it that I can get my fish back in asap once all the pumps and filters are running in the new set-up?
Does that make sense?

I recently did a tank move similar to you describing it here. My tank did cycle again a bit, but it also doubled in size.

I wouldn’t do the freshwater rinse. You will lose a lot of good things without much benefit.

I drained water into clean 5 gallon buckets and then put all my rock and inverts in those. Then I netted my fish out and put them in with the rocks. I then siphoned the sand bed heavily until almost no water was left. I then used a scoop to scoop the sand into the new tank. Then I filled the new tank about halfway with new salt water, let it settle a bit, and then added my rocks and inverts add bd fish last after it was full and filters were running.

one step you could add would be to scoop your sand with a strainer and run saltwater or RO water over it to “rinse it”. It would be very time consuming.

 

[DaddyFish]

I don't see any info on how much rock is in your tank? Have a picture by chance?

IMO the detritus and other undesirables that come along with re-using sand just isn't worth it. Bottle bacteria really does work and works the same day as long as you use something like Fritz TurboStart. Bottle bacteria spores (like Seachem Stability) take a few days to kick in, so know the difference and use accordingly.

If you're moving a lot of rock from old tank to new, you can use new sand and Fritz TurboStart and never skip a beat. Monitor your ammonia levels carefully and have a bottle of Amguard on hand for safety.

 

[WRB]

Did you use a product like Fritz? The thing is 5 months ago I had to empty the tank and move it for 24 hours so my other half could get her new carpet. So It got freshened up some in that process and the fish were fine in a 44 gal brute can with their favorite rocks and a powerhead.

 

[DaddyFish]

Oops, I just re-read your original post and realized you said "no live rock". So is your setup completely dependent on the crush coral bottom for surface area? What is your sump setup?

You could drop some bags of media, like Seachem Matrix, or bio bricks or such in the sump and have them established well enough to support ammonia processing without having to re-use the substrate. I just wouldn't re-use what's on the bottom unless there's no other choice. If you do have to re-use it, be sure to rinse it with fresh saltwater, not freshwater. Because freshwater will kill off the bacteria you are trying to salvage.

 

[WRB]

I use all internal filtration and the subsrtate is the majority of it and some bio media in a large HOB filter.
I have over a 100 lbs in it but I'm only gonna use maybe half and the top it off with new stuff to the thickness I want, I use power heads and a plenum setup since it's fish only.
I may grab a bottle of Fritz Turbo and between the water transfer, my media and half the substrtae I think with in 24 hours I sould be good. Just gonna leave the ugly stuff out and any rinsing I do will be low pressure saltwater bath.
Thanks everyone!

 

[SolvangSteve]

I have an established 65 gallon that has developed a small leak so it is being replaced in same location with a Waterbox Marine X 90.3 62 gallon. Four fish, two anemones, about 1” crushed coral sand and a lot of established rock. Some of the rock has a bit of aptasia.

I have seen comments about quick-rinsing the live rock with hydrogen peroxide to kill the aptasia but save the rest of the rock and bacteria, etc. Someone posted about digging aptasia out with a screwdriver but once you pull a rock out of the tank you can’t find the aptasia and even in the tank it would be near impossible to find and dig out all of it. Any ideas about dealing with the aptasia? Better to seed some new live rock in the sump, clean the old rock and add it back later?

 

[SudzFD]

I’m not sure how much aiptasia your talking about, but if it’s just a few pieces, then pull the rock out, use a propane torch to blast the area where the aiptasia is. Only takes a second or two and then you can move on aiptasia free.

if you have a ton of them, then I’m not sure what is best.