GK's 125 Has Begun (pics)

[gkarshens]

Thanks!

[Stile2]

Congrats on the test drilling! Let us know how it goes on the tank. Take some pics along the way.

[gkarshens]

Well I was too beat last night to finish the floors. Ended up just watching the game. Hopefully finish them tomorrow night. I will try to move the stand in on Fri. I may attempt to drill before then so if I do I will post some pics.

[gkarshens]

So today I was down by an LFS I never get to so I just stopped in...
I came home with something:



He was only $18.99 and I fell in love. I made the lady feed him there and he took some mysis. When I got home I fed the whole tank some Formula 1 flake and he ate some of that too.

[Stile2]

What is it?

Beautiful colors!
Keith

[gkarshens]

A Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse. That pic doesn't do it justice either!

[gkarshens]

Finally!!! I finished the wood floors in the living room. Here is a shot of where the tank is going to go:

[sandman450f]

Whole setup looks nice, including the floor. As of today, I am in nearly the same situation as you, Currently have a 60g mixed tank (stocked to the brim w/ softies) and just picked up used 125g (i think) glass, nice dims 72x18x18, a couple of Seio820s, rio 2100, hf20, couple of maxijet1200, scwd, a POJ skimmer and couple of overflow boxes. All the equipment looks new, guy said he had it for 6-7 months, paid $350 for all. Came w/ a stand but it was only 30 high, my current one is 40 and want to keep the same height so i'll be building one as well. He had an orbit 6x96pc but wanted $500 for it so I passed. Figure Ill go w/ MHs and may/may not supplement w/some of my current 8x65pcs

My question is the tank/ livestock transition. How to you plan the move? LFS recommended it, but dont really dont want to start a complete new cycle. I figured id connect the two tanks inline w/ common sump w/ vry low initial flow between ( use something like a rio600 @50%) No new rock, might go w/ some pre cured, and clean crushed coral for sand bed. what are your plans?

I'm sure a good procedure is posted around here somewhere, but after abit of looking havnt found it.

[gkarshens]

First of all, Thanks!

Just so you know I think those dimensions make it a 100g. Mine is 72x18x23.

As for the move. You will only get a cycle if there is something dying on your rock or you have too much livestock for your bacteria colony. I plan on putting mostly new sand in the 125 and then using a plastic cup to just skim some of the surface sand out of my 55. I will then put about 70 gal of new water in the new tank. Then I will move over my rock and corals into the new tank. I have one rock that is covered in sponge so I will use a bag to keep it submerged at all times. Then I will catch the livestock and transfer them. Then I plan on using about 30 gal of the water from the 55. Then I can fill it the rest of the way up depending on how much displacement the rocks and sand give me. That way I should avoid a cycle. After a month or two I will start slowly adding new live rock to fill it in.

[sandman450f]

Thanks for the reply. They told me it was a 125, but no matter, I wanted to keep a shallow tank and those dims work out pretty well, since i may not get the MH right away that extra 5" will prob may a significant dif in light penetration.

Since I wont be adding any new degradable material, I wont worry abt a cycle in that regard. However I do worry abt significant stress with the equivalent of that much of an immediate water change. I ran the same idea across at the LFS and he said no, that much new water (even intoduced slowly by using the common sump) will crap out the bio-balance,(indicating no bacteria in the new water) though i think he was feeding me a line of bull so i would buy 100 lbs of new rock and 100lbs+ of new sand and start a whole new cycle. As i understand it the signifcant portion of the bacteria will reside in the l/r and sand and therfore the adition of new water shouldnt be a problem in that regard. However the differences in water chemistry w/ abt 3-1 in new to old water I would fear would cause significant stress to the livestock,(possibly even the bacteria) especially if you consider an absolute emergency water change is abt 50%. I do change my water frequently at abt 15 gallons every week, sometimes every two weeks, so hopefully there shouldnt be too much dif. The common facters, PH, alk, temp and salinity are easy to duplicate, but what about the other differences? Maybe I'm just oversensitive, I have had great success over the past (almost) 2 years w/ very little loss, even had my Rose BTA divide a few of months ago, a much fatter than when i bought Mandarin feasting on tons of pods.... Couldnt bear a system crash

In any event, already going on too long, but what do you think abt that much of an environment change?

[gkarshens]

I think the key is to have the parameters as close as possible. I buy all my water from the LFS. He has a great system for purifying the water. Way over my head but he explained and showed me the whole process.

There is going to be stress no matter what you do. It is kind of like when you bought them. If you are that worried you could do a drip acclimation over a couple of hours with a rubbermaid or something. Actually, now that I thought of that I will probably do that for mine. Put them in a rubbermaid half full of old tank water and slowly add new tank water until almost full then move the whole thing into the new tank.

[sandman450f]

That slow acclimation sounds good, thats why I figured using common sump and slow cross flow. Within a couple of days the water in the new tank and old would be identical before moving the stock. The only downside would be having to toss somwhere abt 40g of water.

Thanks for you advice, i'll prob be about two weeks or so behind you so looking forward to seeing the new setup.

also, i'll be drilling my tank as well, are you using the dremel type cutter or the hole saw?

[gkarshens]

I have a rotozip bit for tile. Stile2 recommended it.

[gkarshens]

Today I got the tank drilled (sorry no pics) and got it and the stand moved in the house!
I decided to go with a weir type overflow with an external overflow box (yet to be built).
Here it is in the house:

[Stile2]

Where is the weir located on the tank?

How did the cutting go?

Looking good.

Keith

[Stile2]

Where is the weir located on the tank?

How did the cutting go?

Looking good.

Keith

[gkarshens]

It is about 2 feet from the right side if you are looking at the front of the tank. The cutting went ok, no cracks! It wasn't very easy to get a good line with that bit. It also was hard work! I ended up with a hole about 2"x1/2" Do you think that is big enough?

[Stile2]

Use the Drain/Overflow Calculator on the RC home page. You need about 12 inches of linear flow to drain 780 gph.

What flow do you want in the sump?

It is hard work isn't it!! My weir is 20.5" x 3/4", so I do understand.

[Micki]

gkarshens, looking good. I also upgraded from a 55 to 125. I did the move in one day. I had no problems at all. I used all new sand. I used stockings to seed my sand. Took 2 cups of sand from my 55 placed 1 cup in each stocking them placed them in the tank. After 2 weeks removed the stockings and had seeded sand! One thing I did when I transferred was place garbage bags over the new sand with plates holding the bags down. Turned the pump on and away she went! Click on my red house if want to see any pictures of the process. I truly was amazed at how easy things went. I had no cycle at all.
Good Luck!

[gkarshens]

Thanks for the Calc. I'll try that.

Hey Micki, welcome. I have actually been lurking on your thread for a while. I plan a similar switch over to what you did. I have some sand that I had in my old 29 that I washed and let sit in the sun for a few days. I may do the same thing with the sand from the 55. I am still researching that.

[Micki]

gkarshens, Thanks for the welcome! I got the sand idea from Melev. I was verypleased with the results.

[gkarshens]

I hate to waste 40 pounds of good Aragonite. But I also don't want a bunch of crap in my new tank!

[Micki]

When I set my 125 up. I started with new. I didn't want trouble from the beginning so I didn't chance it. JMO

[GregM779]

I also upgraded from a 55g to my 125g, don't use any of your old sand, it litterally is waste. I filled my tank with the new sand, water, and about 3 pieces of LR for about 4 days, I moved everything else over in one day. Also don't use any of your old water, there's no reason to.

[Micki]

I agree with Greg with the exception of water. I used as much of my old water as I could. It was then just like a large water change and no cycle at all. I talked to a few experts in the field and was told to use the water, much less chance of a cycle. Melev being one of them. You can also do it all in one day using this method, no need to do some then wait the 4 days. I truly was amazed with not even a hint of a cycle. I did put a few gallons of water in a bucket and rinsed each rock in the water before putting it in the 125. I was amazed at how much gunk came off the rock. They didn't look that dirty.