Upgrading tanks, what is the best way?

[sumfingwong]

Some of you may remember me talking about my basement development project. Currently, its about 2 to 3 weeks from completion (Really, its up to me to get off my buttocks to paint, then get the carpet installed).

What is the best way to transfer everything from my 65 to the new 165ish (I cant remember the size, the LFS had one for super cheap so I snagged it) with a 80g sump.

I was hoping to order 100lbs of eco reefer rocks from here in Canada (http://www.eco-reefer.com/) and bringing the water to the same level as the Rocks by using prepped water, as well as water from my weekly water changes. Throw in a heater, and 2 or 3 powerheads and piece of LR from my 65g tank to seed the eco rocks.

I was hoping to let it sit for 2 weeks (still adding water from my weekly WC's) Then eventually, move all the LR from the tank upstairs to the basement, and then the livestock

Currently I have:

1 yellow dog face puffer (he was 1.5 inches when I first got him.. hes almost 4 inches now)
1 porcupine puffer (around 5 inches)
3 yellowtail damsels
1 flame hawk fish

I have read multiple threads on canreef where people just swap everything from their display tank to their new tank. But I thought it would be a good idea to "cook" the eco rocks and seed it with a piece of LR from my DT, and just slowly add water from my WC's and some prepped water as well.

There is still lots of room for the 2 puffers to roam in the 65, so I think a month.. month and a half to get them into their new tank will be ok.

What are your thoughts?

[Pufferpunk]

My 1st thought is you need 2 separate tanks for those puffers.

[sumfingwong]

I have read alot of your posts in the past about how bad they are together.

You would be surprised how much these 2 love each other, they swim together, sleep together.. its pretty cute actually watching the both of them. Where 1 goes, the other follows.

But on to my main question, how have you guys done it in the past?

[jus85411]

i agree with PP, they need to be separated. but whether you do or not is on you, we can only make suggestions to help. i too had two puffers together, two of the same species. they swam together, ate together, slept together. they were the best of "buds". notice the " " around buds? and you will also see that i only have 1 puff in my list to the left. why? well because with age/sexual maturity the one GSP got more aggressive and chased(never nipped him or anything only chasing) the other and would stress him out. yeah you might not see this yet, and who knows you might not ever. but most people wont take that risk just because of the possible outcome

i think your best bet would be to set up the new tank with all decor/rocks how you want it. cycle it by adding all new water and a little filter media from your current tank and cycling it all like your starting over again. except the filter media will jump start your cycle. and when its cycled make sure to move them carefully and not expose their mouths to air

[Flutter]

Definitely go with those eco rocks. We have some in our brackish tank. Plus the guys there are awesome, really nice good guys. One of them is currently on his honeymoon but I can't remember if it's the one that does the rocks. We dealt with them in person and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. He went above and beyond anything we expected.

Excellent guys and excellent rocks. They have gorgeous sand too

[SkullV]

Just asked this question on RC

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... ?t=1928248

hopefully I get some good answers over there and in this thread too! If you are looking for rock they also have great base rock on Amazon.com for around $70 for 50lbs.

http://www.amazon.com/Carib-Sea-Aquasca ... 49&sr=1-25

it is the rock I have in my tank that I am seeding now before I transfer everything to the 210gal.

[Pufferpunk]

LOL, don't expect too much info from the local reefers in Chgo about puffers!

[SkullV]

LOL, don't expect too much info from the local reefers in Chgo about puffers!

I noticed that! Thank goodness you are on that forum too, I'll keep my puffer talk to this forum though for now on. I actually asked this question in the "Large Reef" section since I will be moving to a 210.

[Nick]

I really prefer the "move everything to the new tank" method. For one thing, plopping a piece of well cured rock into a tank with a huge stack of bare rock will not do much of anything to improve the bare rock. Most of the interesting things on live rock are either sustained by light (macroalgaes, coraline algae) or are detrivores, or filter feeders (feather dusters), or are nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. The tank has no bioload, so mostly the live rock you put in their will starve, rather than it propagating its colonies to the new rock.

Another thing is, you save money by not having both tanks running at once for weeks.

On another note, using old dirty water from your current tank has no benefits for the new tank, change water is full of dissolved wastes, which you'd like to avoid keeping with your fish, while at the same time, it lacks any nourishment for 90% of the desirable colonizers.

If I were you, I'd get the new tank, substrate, and new bare rock set up and ready to go, then premix salt water in the sump with just a powerhead until it's fully dissolved; after that you can just turn on the pump and push it all up into the main tank. Repeat until the tank is 3/4 full. If you used argonite sand or other dusty media, give it a couple days to settle. Then move all the rock over from the old tank, and place it so it's evenly spread out over the new rock you want to colonize. Then you top off the tank the same way you filled it. Lastly, fill the sump itself and fire up the pumps for water return.

The tank will be ready to go immediately. so do not let it sit like this; that starves the biologicals in and on the rock, including your biofilter. So I would move the fish as soon as you can after that. Depending on your setup, you will want to move not only the live rock and fish, but skimmer, peripheral filters, etc.

The new rock will host on its surface in a few months at most(depending on lighting and food available to hitchhikers), and after a year or so the fish will have grown and increased in bioload so much that the hundred pounds of new rock will be essential to the tank and hard to tell from the rock you started with. At that point it's developed large enough bacteria colonies, both internal and external, to function fully as live rock.

I have read multiple threads on canreef where people just swap everything from their display tank to their new tank. But I thought it would be a good idea to "cook" the eco rocks and seed it with a piece of LR from my DT, and just slowly add water from my WC's and some prepped water as well.

Nah, as I said earlier, old change water is just polluted water, which does almost nothing beneficial to the new tank. Also as I said earlier, the new rock isn't going to seed unless it is exposed to the rather significant quantities of biological activity in addition to well cured starter rock. The best way to ensure this is to move a large quantity of well cured live rock, along with the fish, to the same place at the same time.

[Pufferpunk]

Expect a HUGE algae bloom after all this. I'm going through that now.