Questions For Experienced Reefers

[4jlong]

i have a fresh water tank that only has one fish in it. i just bought 2 reef tanks, they were up and running with live stock! i have a 100 gal that i just moved in my house, i plan to fill it up tomorrow, (unless any lives close to sunrise and antelope that has a RO/DI filter and wants to give me some water tonight! :) )! my fresh water is a 16 gal and one of the new tanks is a 20 gal. since my 100 gal is not going to be cycled for quite some time, can i add salt to my 16 gal, let it disolve, (how long does that take?), then move the live stock and LR from the new 20 gal into the 16? i mean would the good bacteria thats already in my 16 gal live if i added salt? i don't know what to do. i need to get the 2 new tanks out of the guys house but i don't want to kill everything! also another idea is to empty the LR and corals and fish and as much of the old water as i can into some large containers. then take out the DSB and rinse it real good. then put it back into the tank after i've moved it to my house, then put the live stock back in. or would rinsing it also rinse out the good bacteria? any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance, jason

[4jlong]

this really sucks! i was so set on going slowand not rushing setting up this tank, then i seen this and was like a little kid! i want it , i want it, i want it!

[edsimmons]

I just made 10 gallons of RO/DI today you can come and get it if you want it.

Call if you want it hook-up to night.

Ed Simmons
916-275-7700

[4jlong]

thanks Ed, when i wrote that i didn't realize what time it was. i better wait until tomorrow. i do appreciate the offer though.

[4jlong]

ANYONE?

[dots]

So let me get this straight.......

you have 1 fresh water
bought 2 up and running tanks, is this including the 100g?

Regardless, if the others were up and running they were already cylcled.

Get the 100g up and running ASAP tomorrow and throw the live sand and liverock in the 100g. Kinda a shake and bake per say did it with my nano and stocked it the same way I just pulled rock and sand out of my 75 and presto, cycled tank.......The rock and sand have what you need.

If you plan on adding more sand, add the new first....if you want to be cheap about it just add dead sand, but I recommend adding quality livesand to aid in establishing the fauna. Very important to put the old sand on top of any new sand. Through the old rock in and presto insta tank.

Dont buy any new stuff for a month or so and let it stabilize. If you need more rock, buy it and add it slowly so as not to cause a spike.......say a large rock a week.

Basicly the other tank has the biological filtration already set up, that will sustain the livestock......but don't add anything new for a while, if you get your water correct and temp/filtration going the livestock will just think they are in the same tank and just had a massive water change.

GO SLOW.

[MrMikeB]

Ok, let me take a crack at what you are looking to do:

1) You have a tank w/ livestock and you need to keep them alive while you establish your 100 gallon soon to be reef. You need to get this tank soon but your SW system is not ready

2) You have freshwater tanks and want to somehow 'convert' them over to saltwater because you think it will be cycled and you can add your livestock in while you work on getting your 100 gallon up and running.

If I understand this correctly, I really think it is not going to work the way you want it to. Anytime you move all those pieces of rock, livestock, etc. you will get some die off and if you do not have an already established SW tank to add them to (like a QT) you are inviting disaster. I have not attempted converting a FW system to SW as a way to skip the cycling portion, but what little I do know about this does not seem really feasible.

Rinsing the DSB is really risky as you could be opening a can of worms you don't want a part of. You could generate a huge plume of nitrates and not to mention ammonia spike from all the stirring and die off.

Here is what I would do: Take the livestock and send them to a couple friends with established systems to 'hold' while you get things up and running. Be sure these are trusted systems. Take your time, do it right and cycle your 100 when you get it up and running and be sure its completely ready to go before trying to take on livestock. Do not rush these things. You also want to be sure you know what you are putting in your system and not carry over issues that may be present with the tanks that currently house the livestock by jumping the gun.

I was in a similar situation when I got my first system. I ended up selling the livestock to the LFS for store credit because I knew it would be a really good chance they would not make it if I rushed the process. You can do it right, or have a good chance of doing it again.

[dots]

DSB in the old one eh.........how old?.......If you add it a little at a time with some new Live sand it shouldn't cause a crash from disturbing it.......though 20g to 100g, the water volume displacement should be fine.

[Marko9]

Mike and Doug did a great job covering this already. I would invest in a couple of bins if you are going to add more live rock in the future. You will be able to cure the rock in there with just a powerhead for movement. Good luck and keep us posted.

Mark

[4jlong]

thanks alot guys. i have 4 about 22 gal containers, now i just need to find somewhere to store the live stock while the tanks settle down, (from the sand getting stirred up from moving the tanks). thanks again guys, i let everyone know how it goes.