Ok....
I currently have a 55 gallon community tank that has been established for about six years. It has about 1-2" of substrate on the bottom, a few anenomes, a feather-duster, some coral frags, about 3 green chromis, a clownfish, a yellow-tailed damsel, a few gobies, two peppermint shrimp, and some coral frags - plus the usual cleaning crew of snails, emerald crabs, and blue legged hermit crabs.
Within a couple of weeks, I'll be moving everything in that tank to my new 90 gallon (thanks to Mike Mota). The new tank will be in the same location as the old one.
Clearly this will be a long day, but I wanted to get some tips and tricks for making it as smooth as possible.
My basic plan is to relocate everything to a large tub, put some powerheads and heaters in there, and physically move the tanks around. Then maybe repopulate the next morning.
My biggest concern is the substrate. I'll obviously need to add additional substrate, since I'm not only going to have a bigger tank, but I have to put some in the sump as well.
I'm concerned that if I move the existing substrate to the new tank, some things might be "unleashed" affecting the water chemistry. Any ideas on this, or how to prevent it?
Also, I'm going to be diluting the water quite a bit. There is about 60 lbs of live rock in the existing tank, so I estimate that there's actually only about 30 gallons of real water there. 90-55=35+20 (sump) = 55 gallons of "new" water. Anyone think there will be a problem there if I use RODI water salted to the same SG?
All comments and questions are welcomed - I want to do this right, with minimum impact on my community.
Thanks,
Eric
I currently have a 55 gallon community tank that has been established for about six years. It has about 1-2" of substrate on the bottom, a few anenomes, a feather-duster, some coral frags, about 3 green chromis, a clownfish, a yellow-tailed damsel, a few gobies, two peppermint shrimp, and some coral frags - plus the usual cleaning crew of snails, emerald crabs, and blue legged hermit crabs.
Within a couple of weeks, I'll be moving everything in that tank to my new 90 gallon (thanks to Mike Mota). The new tank will be in the same location as the old one.
Clearly this will be a long day, but I wanted to get some tips and tricks for making it as smooth as possible.
My basic plan is to relocate everything to a large tub, put some powerheads and heaters in there, and physically move the tanks around. Then maybe repopulate the next morning.
My biggest concern is the substrate. I'll obviously need to add additional substrate, since I'm not only going to have a bigger tank, but I have to put some in the sump as well.
I'm concerned that if I move the existing substrate to the new tank, some things might be "unleashed" affecting the water chemistry. Any ideas on this, or how to prevent it?
Also, I'm going to be diluting the water quite a bit. There is about 60 lbs of live rock in the existing tank, so I estimate that there's actually only about 30 gallons of real water there. 90-55=35+20 (sump) = 55 gallons of "new" water. Anyone think there will be a problem there if I use RODI water salted to the same SG?
All comments and questions are welcomed - I want to do this right, with minimum impact on my community.
Thanks,
Eric