New tank, rushed for time!

[Pandicorn]

Hi everyone!
Long story short, I recently got a used 60 gallon, previously setup and overrun by kenya tree corals. I moved all of the corals and live rock, and have filled the tank with the SW which I stored the LR in, and am heating it now. My dilemma is that I also have 3 fish (1 clown 1 chromie 1 goby) currently in my cooler, in a very small amount of water. They seem ok, but the tank is a total disaster right now, and I'm sure there will be some die off of some stars, corals, bristleworms, etc. The LR and sand have been semi cold for the past couple of hours or so, and I am unsure of what to do. I am trying to fill the tank now with SW (mixing for 3 min), but I do have a TINY tank I have been using to store LR, with maybe 10 pounds of LR in it. Should I try and acclimate the fish to this tank for now, and try and work out the main tank? Thanks!

 

[dede]

I would use the original water you have stored and put it in the small tank with a heater and bubbler or power head and acclimate the fish to the smaller tank. Ammonia builds up quickly if it is a small amount of water and with the loss of temperature and stress I would focus on the fish first. Plus you don't want to use the freshly made saltwater with the fish, I would dilute that with the bigger tank.

 

[dede]

I would also not reuse the sand unless you wash it out thoroughly which may be hard in winter. I would not put any live rock in with the fish, just put everything else in the big tank unless you have some sensitive coral like montipora or coral frags, they can go in with the fish. You would be setting the fish up in a quarantine tank and there is lots of information on this site on how to do so.

 

[dede]

what water are you using to make the saltwater, are you using a RODI unit. Also 3 minutes is not long enough to mix saltwater.

 

[Pandicorn]

what water are you using to make the saltwater, are you using a RODI unit. Also 3 minutes is not long enough to mix saltwater.

Hi, thanks for the quick response! I’m unfortunately not using a rodi unit right now, but I did just mix enough water to fill the tank. Also, I’ve read that you only need to mix water for a few minutes? I was using like 100p gph per bucket, until the salt dissolved, and then waited for a bit. The salinity wasn’t %100 the same, but was all pretty close to 1.025, I think the tank’s avg is about that right now. I now have a tank full of live rock and newly mixed water (didnt read you first post in time!), as well as the 3 fish in the seperate container. Should I just try to drip acclimate them now?

 

[Pandicorn]

I have 3 power heads set up as well as a hob fuge (just kinda providing flow atm). The live rock/corals are pretty randomly strewn around, I’m going to arrange them tomorrow morning

 

[Crreef]

@Pandicorn How are your fish and tanks? Are they ok?

 

[Pandicorn]

@Pandicorn How are your fish and tanks? Are they ok?

They’re doing well! Corals were opening up during the day, chromi goby and clown all seemed fine. Aesthetically, it’s kind of a mess, but everything seems OK. I’m gonna be out of town for around a week, but I’ll have my dogsitter keep an eye on the tank.