moving sand and rock

[timrandlerv10]

i'm taking all the sand and LR out of my 55 today or tomorrow, and i'll be putting it my new display tank...anything i should or shouldnt do for removal/transport/introduction?

thanks!

tim

[8BALL_99]

Dont forget to add the salt to the new water..:P

[gflat65]

I'd be a little leary of moving a sand bed, especially if you plan to put corals in it soon. If the sand bed has been set up for a while, you'd be mixing and releasing a bunch of things you don't want in the water column. If reusing, I'd let it settle back in before putting livestock back in.

I've started replacing my sand beds on big moves or upgrades just to be safe. With $17 shipping from Foster and Smith on as much sand as you want, it isn't as costly as before (I ordered 300# when we moved to Montgomery and total shipping was $17.99).

[Tomoko Schum]

Sorry about high jacking this thread, but I have a question about older sand bed.

After redoing my rock work to oust two bad fishies out of my tank, my sand bed is plagued with cyano. I obviously dislodged a lot of detritus that settled on rocks over the past three years. I am wondering if I should replace the shallow sand bed in the front of the tank with a new batch so it will look cleaner. Or is this a wasted effort?

Tomoko

[8BALL_99]

I always keep my sand when I move tanks. I do rinse it with saltwater though before I add it to the new tank. You could chage it if you wanted. I would think though that if the problem is things settled in your sand the main front area is probably not where the problem is.. I just try to stir mine up before water changes to help reduce any build up.

Will

[Tomoko Schum]

Funny thing is that the nutrient level is very low unless my test kits are no good any more. The skimmer is turned up high, but skimming only watery weak stuff. I got filter socks on to remove any loose detritus. I was really surprised to find foul smelling (like really strong skimmate) gunk captured in them in a week

Tomoko

[timrandlerv10]

...do lots of people use filter socks? i cant help but think they would be useful, but i also dont want that stuff rotting in the sock for a week at a time, and i dont relish the idea of changing or rinsing them each day either...

[NicoleC]

Then use high quality carbon instead. On the downside, it's more expensive. On the upside, it doesn't capture amphipods and copepods like the filter socks do.

I don't think replacing the sand will help, Tomoko, either part of or all. I doubt your problem is in the sand bed. On the other hand, if you don't have a live bed with many critters, it won't hurt much either -- just a temporary loss of filtration capacity.

[Tomoko Schum]

Hmm, so you guys vote against a partial sand bed removal. I was hoping that it was as easy as that, haha, although I doubted that myself actually.

I disturbed the sand bed a bit, moving large boulders on the bottom of my tank to get to hiding fish. A lot of detritus settled on the sand bed afterward. I believe that my sand bed critters and I cleaned up most of the detritus settled on the surface since then.

Despite the cyano issue, I got my rose milli and an unknown acropora (A. tenuis look-alike) to brighten up after all by bringing the light down so they are as close to light as they were before. This seems to indicate (at least to me) that my water quality is not bad at all after all. However, my large baby blue acropora with white polyps is still determined to stay brownish

Tim -

A lot of people use filter socks and they love them. I never used filter socks before because of the fear of trapping copepods. I use GAC regularly. This time I had them both. A number of SPS keepers blow detritus off the rocks during a water change and capture the fine particles with the filter socks for the next day or two. That was my plan, but it got away from me due to the busy schedule.

There were some amphipods on the socks, but they came off when I shook the socks repeatedly in a bucket of tank water.

As for cleaning the filter socks, I washed it in my washing machine in hot water without any detergent and it came out very clean.

Tomoko

[outlawj]

ive moved several tanks and i agree with nicole. If you have a heavily stocked tank ide move it very slow. that carbon i would run till the tank has cycled atleast once. if its an old tank with little disruption there alot of crap in that sand bed and it would be better to just move some of it and add new sand? if theres no animals in your tank it dont matter. but if there is? think of it like this there is alot of crap in that sand bed and you would rather die as of swim around in you own crap rite? so treat your animals as you would your self.

[Tomoko Schum]

If I recall correctly, Tim's 55G is a holding tank for live rocks and live sand for his new 75G tank. He might have put a clean-up crew in there to preclude algae infestation. I don't think there is any fish or coral in that tank unless he changed his mind and added some.

If this is the case, I'd just move the rocks and sand to the new set up. If there is some detritus build up on rocks and sand due to the clean up crew working hard in it, I would shake or rinse the rocks before adding them to the new tank. If sand is pretty clean, I would just move them to the new tank, too.

Tim - is your new 75G going to be in your office instead of in your home?

Tomoko

[timrandlerv10]

yup. we built a stand to hold a 55g sump underneath. put the sand and rock and just enough water to cover it yesterday. we're making more water now.

how fast can i change the water in my 44? would it be bad to do 5 gallons a day? i was hoping to bring as much water from the tank the fish are used to into the new tank.

i am building the sump baffles today...i think i'm going to go with one wall and the water will go over it by pipe out of the skimmer, then a fuge section, then a bubble trap then the return. we still need one more pump for the return--right now all i have is the mag we used on the 44.

hopefully i can do the aquascaping this week, and then start taking tests...i was thinking the first three weeks i would only test ph/alk/ates every 4-5 days, and nites every other day, ammonia 1/week. then before the livestock goes in, i'd check the full gamut.

thoughts?

[outlawj]

everybody has there own opinion but my whole theory is consistancy. In order to biuld an echo system the animals need to adapt to your maint schedule. so that being said if your going to do something do it that way for now on. when i moved my tanks the first time, i kept enough water to move the animals safely. i already had my other setup ready to the same ph,and so on temp and salinity most important. acklemate them and you should be reefing befor you know it. good luck