I need some help.

[rulesmith]

As you know I am setting up my 360gal. tank. Things are not ready yet. Being the impulsive person I am though, I could not pass up a good deal on some coral colonies. I am told that the largest is about the size of a volleyball. These are pretty plain corals, but the owner had to get rid of them cause his tank was just too full and they were fighting. I am picking them up after our meeting on Saturday.

Does anyone have any room to hold any of these for me for about a month. I can then move my softies to my new tank and then put the new corals in my existing tank until the big tank is ready for sps.

Any help would be great, thank you.

[mothra]

Holy cow... that's big, how many are there? I don't have the space for anything that size unfortunately.

To be clear, are these SPS or softies? If they're SPS I'd really urge anyone who can hold them to do so in a QT tank... there are a ton of pests going around right now. (even the best tanks get hit as we've seen in our own club)

Another thought - are you sure you want to move your existing corals into a tank that is still cycling? It will probably be really hard on them and I suspect you might lose quite a few.

[MrMonkeyFingers]

Man that is a tough pickle to be in :( Maybe like Jake said I wonder if there are a bunch of people who have some QT tanks setup? Maybe if there are enough people you could just QT them for a month... would be good to do that anyways!

[rulesmith]

I was thinking of just trying to put them in my new tank. No fish, just them. The cycle should be very soft, if at all. I have the bubble king 300 going. I can not see how the water would be bad. I thought I could throw in some zio start or some such too, and I have 50lbs of cured live rock to add in with some bacteria in it. What do you think. These are sps. I had thought that my softies could handle the less the perfect conditions better.

[MonKei]

sps seem to be very responsive to water quality, i dont think that putting them in a tank thats not even cycled at all is a great idea, regardless how soft the cycle will be. because as soon as you added more than just them, the cycle would hit due to the increased bioload... I'm with jacob on this one.. corals + cycling (if its even started at all) would be really hard on the critters in the tank..

[mothra]

If I understand you want to put the softies in the new tank and the SPS in the 55. It's a gamble, and totally your call. I'm just playing devil's advocate. It's one of those situations where "you might be moving too fast if..."

... you just bought some huge SPS colonies for a tank that doesn't have saltwater in it yet .... :D

Even fully cured LR will have some die-off, and what is the rest of your rock? Base rock will shed a lot of crud too, and of course un-cured will shed like crazy. On one hand it would be a good way to QT the SPS for a few months, on the other the softies will have to tough it out.

Here is some good reading from Eric Borneman; his take on tank maturity: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=249112


Good Luck.

[cyclebrkr]

I myself am setting up a new tank. I have had the opportunity to buy some colonies also, but i decided to wait. With all the bugs going around, it's risky at best.
If you have a QT tank set up, it would be ideal. There are always people " getting out of the hobby", so i don't think getting more later would be a problem. Also, you said they're pretty common corals, so you should have no problem getting the same type later.
As far as the Zeo start, your tank will cycle just fine by itself. You don't need to spend $40 - 60 for a bottle of something that your tank can do itself. I think those items are kind of gimmicky. One thing this hobby has taught me, and you'll hear every experienced reefer say it, is" just have patience". Just my 2 cents

[cyclebrkr]

I do have my 100 gal still set up. If you can't wait, I'll put them in there for the time being ( depending on how many and how big they are ).

[MrMonkeyFingers]

but all of this talk about setting up a QT that would need to cycle as well right? This is something he would have needed to set up some time ago correct?

[mothra]

Greg,

Yes, kind of sorta ;) It depends; what about these scenarios.

1) Some people leave a 2nd tank running all the time and use it for propagation, quarantine, etc... Pretty good idea as long as you don't plan on using medications like copper in it.

2) Set up a new QT tank where 100% of the water and LR going in the QT came from your established setup. Probably a really small spike and 'micro-cycle' just from changing envrionments.

3) Set up a new QT tank using new LR and water. It will cycle.

[MrMonkeyFingers]

ahhh ok, that explains some for me then! So you could just take water and LR put it in a tank and run it for a time being then even put the LR back in the tank if you needed to breakdown the QT then! thanks for the clarification!

[mothra]

then even put the LR back in the tank if you needed to breakdown the QT then

More or less. Depending on the situation letting I don't know if I would put the rock back in before letting it dry out completely (and never if it had been exposed to copper).