Tank Swap

[jaxteller007]

Ok so we currently have a 75 FOWLR, non reef ready. Livestock consists of 1 sailfin tang, 1 firefish, 3 blue or green chromis, 2 clowns, 1 bicolor blenny, and a paired watchman goby and pistol shrimp (at least they were paired, haven't seen the pistol in a couple days). I know, I know probably not the best combination (especially the tang) for newbies but we trusted our LFS and learned a hard lesson. We also have various snails, hermits and a couple emerald crabs.

However we received a free 75 reef ready tank. Original plan was to find a stand for it, and sort of swap, turn the existing tank into kind of a predator tank or something. We want to get coral eventually and know a reef ready tank is probably the better option. However we've decided to take a long time before setting up a 2nd tank so we want to just swap everyone over to the reef ready tank.

I thought about a plan going something like this. Empty out our 10G backup/emergency tank and put some sand, live rock and water from the current set up in there. Take all the live stock and put them in there. Drain existing tank water into storage (buckets, new trash can, whatever), throw the power heads on there and a heater if needed. Move enough sand and live rock out of that tank and into the reef ready one to be able to life the existing tank off the stand without dropping the bottom out, at same time, not making new tank too heavy to lift. Put reef ready tank on stand, put the rest of live rock and sand in it from existing tank. Add some water to keep it wet and plumb our sump into to the new tank. Then put the water back in and move the livestock into the new tank (after testing to make sure the sump is plumbed correctly, etc).

Is this a horrible idea? Should I go grab like a cheap 20 gallon tank from somewhere instead of trying to get everyone into this 10 gallon? We are trying to get the swap does quickly but can't dump a ton of money into paying someone to do it or anything like that.

That also brings up, I did ok plumbing my sump (icecap 24 with one intake) to my HOB overflow box and the return but not a great job. I also didn't have any kind of check valve installed or manifolds and I understand that I probably want those installed (already have a check valve). Does anyone have any kind of layout drawings or something that would give me an idea of how to put it together?

Sorry for the huge post lol.

#reefsquad

 

[Sailingeric]

Sounds like a decent plan. Have everything ready to make sure it goes smoothly. I when I moved my SW buddies to my 75 gallon tank I had them in a couple buckets with a heater and power head. A 10 gallon tank should work.

 

[jaxteller007]

Sounds like a decent plan. Have everything ready to make sure it goes smoothly. I when I moved my SW buddies to my 75 gallon tank I had them in a couple buckets with a heater and power head. A 10 gallon tank should work.

I was hoping it would be big enough as long as I have sand and rock for hiding places. My biggest concern is that it takes me longer than planned to plumb the new setup and an appocalypse happens in the 10G while I'm trying to do it.

 

[CindyKz]

Get some smallish rectangular rubbermaid or brute containers and see if you can borrow spare airstones or powerheads (,or a combination of both) As long as everything is oxygenated and the temp is reasonable your fish and rock will be fine for several hours or longer.

 

[jaxteller007]

Get some smallish rectangular rubbermaid or brute containers and see if you can borrow spare airstones or powerheads (,or a combination of both) As long as everything is oxygenated and the temp is reasonable your fish and rock will be fine for several hours or longer.

Have extra powerheads and stuff and could even hang a tidal 110 HOB filter on a rubber maid tub if that would make it even better. How long would they be good in that though? I'm worried it may wind up taking me more than a day to plumb the new setup, at least if i try and do the check valve and stuff. If i did just straight intake and return i could do that pretty quick most likely.

 

[jaxteller007]

So how long could we keep the fish in the tote if we had a heater, powerheads, airstones and maybe even adding the HOB filter?

#reefsquad

 

[Amoo]

So how long could we keep the fish in the tote if we had a heater, powerheads, airstones and maybe even adding the HOB filter?

#reefsquad

Until the Ammonia levels became to high. Should be able to get at least 12 -24 hours before you would need to possibly add prime

 

[jaxteller007]

Until the Ammonia levels became to high. Should be able to get at least 12 -24 hours before you would need to possibly add prime

Got it. I'm also thinking that the tote would make a good place to store some of the sand and live rock since we're going to be lifting and moving the aquariums. Would that give us a little longer as we'd be keeping part of the biological filter in tact in the tub.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So how long could we keep the fish in the tote if we had a heater, powerheads, airstones and maybe even adding the HOB filter?

#reefsquad

With flow and some live rock or well cycled media they can stay there indefinitely. I would use bacterias over prime. Prime can throw off some ammoina tests. Api it’s common.
You are basically skip cycling the storage container to keep the fish.
I used a couple 20gal tanks I had (hoarder) , and kept the rock fish and corals in that for a few months while I worked out the kinks on my new tank.

 

[Amoo]

plan on replacing the sand...too big of a risk of a massive cycle if you disturb it then try to keep it.

Grab a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge, they're invaluable. Check it every 4 hours or so and you'll be golden. Rocks in the tubs is fine.

 

[jaxteller007]

plan on replacing the sand...too big of a risk of a massive cycle if you disturb it then try to keep it.

Grab a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge, they're invaluable. Check it every 4 hours or so and you'll be golden. Rocks in the tubs is fine.

Shooot, we just bought an extra 30 lbs of sand to give us a full sandbed since we had been running with only a 1" max sand bed for awhile.
I should put sand in the tote though right? Since we have a watchman/pistol pair, and then some various sand sifting snails and hermits.

 

[jaxteller007]

By the way, thanks for all of the help and information everyone. Y'all have been an invaluable resource on our journey into reefing.

 

[jaxteller007]

Oh and one of the reasons we decided not to immediately setup the current 75 as a 2nd/predator tank (besides costs involved) is that we may wind up getting a large (I can't remember if it was 180+ or closer to 300 gallons) tank and stand for the low, low price of free.99

If this happens it will be months down the road before we would get it and of course even longer before we actually get it set up lol.

 

[jaxteller007]

So I'm think I'm ready to start prepping for this but one or two more questions I need to ask. On an internal overflow setup where the hole is at the bottom of the tank, I'm guessing I do not just stick a bulkhead in there and let it go lol. So I need to have a drain pipe in there right? How high up in the overflow do I build it and what would it look like? Like do you add a curve or try and put a "muffler" or anything on it? And is flex pipe or regular PVC better for the plumbing going into/out of the sump?

 

[Bayareareefer18]

So I'm think I'm ready to start prepping for this but one or two more questions I need to ask. On an internal overflow setup where the hole is at the bottom of the tank, I'm guessing I do not just stick a bulkhead in there and let it go lol. So I need to have a drain pipe in there right? How high up in the overflow do I build it and what would it look like? Like do you add a curve or try and put a "muffler" or anything on it? And is flex pipe or regular PVC better for the plumbing going into/out of the sump?

I'm guessing this overflow has two holes in the bottom?

 

[jaxteller007]

I'm guessing this overflow has two holes in the bottom?

Yea. Two holes in bottom with the big plastic piece in the left corner. Like this.

I guess that picture kind of answers my question lol. But I have no clue how that intake pipe is made. I've only plumbed a HOB overflow into my sump.

 

[mch1984]

I agree with above, the tote will work great and with filters and live rock in it they will be in great shape. Just think of it as a temporary saltwater pond. Just don't rush it too bad, you want to get the plumbing right and not just thrown together, you'll regret that later in life. If you watch your parameters the tub will be just fine for a while.

 

[jaxteller007]

I agree with above, the tote will work great and with filters and live rock in it they will be in great shape. Just think of it as a temporary saltwater pond. Just don't rush it too bad, you want to get the plumbing right and not just thrown together, you'll regret that later in life. If you watch your parameters the tub will be just fine for a while.

So do I need the check valve and manifold? I don't see us having reactors in this tank as the sump doesn't really have the room. Would rather save that kind of stuff for a bigger tank when we go that route.

 

[mch1984]

I personally don't use check valves, but I know that other disagree with that. As far as the manifold, if you don't plan on adding reactors then I would say no. Worst case if you decide to add some sort of reactor you can use a small pump to run them. I didn't have room in my plumbing for a manifold so I run my carbon reactor off a small cobalt pump that came with the kit from BRS.

 

[jaxteller007]

I personally don't use check valves, but I know that other disagree with that. As far as the manifold, if you don't plan on adding reactors then I would say no. Worst case if you decide to add some sort of reactor you can use a small pump to run them. I didn't have room in my plumbing for a manifold so I run my carbon reactor off a small cobalt pump that came with the kit from BRS.

Got it. What about the intake pipe in the overflow box? How is that made/designed? That picture i posted looks like it has more than just a pipe and a u-joint with a screen.