Complete livestock transfer?

[Cliff]

I have just about completed the set up a 90 gallon tank and 29 gallon sump system. DI system is filling the tank now. What do you guys think about buying an established system. It has about 75 lbs of live rock, and 20 different SPS corals. Clown fish and anemone.

I'm unsure about the stress of moving this much coral. I was planning on taking things slow, but there is a local seller looking to part out. The fun is about to begin.:^:

Are there any steps I can take to help make this transition successful?

 

[wontonflip]

From what I understand, corals don't really add to bioload anyway. I'd just be more worried if all the corals are attached to rocks, and the rocks end up having a bit of die off causing a mini-cycle. But I would think it's ok. Someone else will chime in.

 

[Ted]

The biggest issue is you need your tank to completely cycle before you add anything. As far as transferring that wont be a big problem as long as the tank is cycled and you keep everything wet. Use 5 gallon buckets or ice chest for the move.

 

[Cliff]

I must be missing something. My tank is a completely new, empty setup - with the option to be filled with a fully functioning mature tank's livestock. What is there to cycle in an empty tank. I'd figure as long as there isnt a big die off of the live rock, all should be well.

 

[little_fish]

From my personal experience with moving corals, it really doesnt end well. I think it much easier on the corals to move them into an already established tank. Plus, new tanks arent great for nems.

 

[wontonflip]

My bad, I thought the tank was cycled :D

 

[Ted]

You can get away with a small cycle if you are adding all establish live rock and all or most of the water. The biggest thing though is you said there are sps corals. If it was mushrooms and zoahs no big deal they kinda like a little dirt in the water. Sps and nems are much more sensitive. Even a small cycle can kill off a nem.

 

[Angelajean]

When we got mega amounts of stuff from OceanCrazy. I had to go from a 40 to a 90. I could only keep things in buckets for so many days. This was my experience. My 40 was set up for several months. I emptied it all into buckets. Fish in a larger tub with rocks in it and a heater as well as a pump. Inverts with rock in another buckets with a heater and put the corals in a large rubbermaid tub with a heating pad underneath and a small heater inside. I had all my saltwater in a large trashcan with a pump. We moved the old tank installed the new. Put in all the livestock and coral. Nothing died. 50% of our water was from our 40 and the stuff OceanCrazy had give us and 50% was new water. We also did a 20 gallon water change in about a 3 days. All has been well. I don't know that it would go well with an unestablished tank.

 

[recliner]

When I started my 150 in august, I bought a complete 125 system and put it all in my tank. I had 5 fish, some coral and 3 anemone. I screwed up and used the old sand and didn't even know to try to clean it out. My nitrates were in the 40-50 range for 2+ months even with 25 gallon water changes twice a month.
The anemone all lived but a yellow tang died quick and I later lost an angel fish to some sort of parasite. I never had any ammonia or nitrite though and think that if I would have used new sand I wouldn't of had any issues at all.

 

[2XAl]

I would definitely get new substrate but otherwise everything should be fine. Everything will definitely be closed up for a bit but test frequently for the first week or two and keep plenty of water ready to go in case you do start a cycle

 

[recliner]

When I started my 150 in august, I bought a complete 125 system and put it all in my tank. I had 5 fish, some coral and 3 anemone. I screwed up and used the old sand and didn't even know to try to clean it out. My nitrates were in the 40-50 range for 2+ months even with 25 gallon water changes twice a month.
The anemone all lived but a yellow tang died quick and I later lost an angel fish to some sort of parasite. I never had any ammonia or nitrite though and think that if I would have used new sand I wouldn't of had any issues at all.

Whoops, meant to say 25 gallon water change twice a week, not twice a month.

 

[Laz]

First thing you want to do is transfer all the LR. You shouldn't really transfer coral or fish before adding the LR.

You should never do it all at once or it'll get real messy.

What I would do is, if the coral's are detachable, carefully place them onto the substrate of the tank you're getting them from and take the live rock out and add it immediately into a barrel or a bucket of the water from the tank. Take all the LR home, get it in the position you want it to be in and think long and hard about it, because you don't want to move the coral around with the LR and do changes because you didn't like the aquascape, so it's crucial you get the rock into it's correct positioning. Also, check your flow, your light and see if it's adequate. Think about where you'll put the SPS's, the anemone and see if it'll be alright for a particular area where there is more/less lighting.

I'd give it two days to let the LR rest in the water column. Check every 6 hours during the 48 hour period for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. Be sure to monitor PH levels, salinity and temperature as well. Make a small log book, it'll be helpful.

Then what I would do is, grab a couple of the SPS's and bring them to your tank. Put them in using the appropriate acclimation methods and then see how they are. Ideally, you need 48 hours to see how they do, because if you find they are dying, then it shows there is a evident problem in the tank, so you never want to add all the corals at once, because you really need to find out if a couple of them are happy in the tank. During the time, continue to monitor the necessary parameters every 6 hours.

If they are fine and healthy and your parameters are in check, then you can continue the transfer of the rest of the coral's. Repeating the process before, monitor for 24-48 hours, inspect the corals, check param's and once that is done, you can add the fish. Stability is the key here and you've got to be very careful. If you try do everything at once, you may have a lot of loss in corals which is only going to be a smack in the pocket and will just dishearten you.

Best of luck, and keep us updated.

 

[BL1]

First thing you want to do is transfer all the LR. You shouldn't really transfer coral or fish before adding the LR.

You should never do it all at once or it'll get real messy.

What I would do is, if the coral's are detachable, carefully place them onto the substrate of the tank you're getting them from and take the live rock out and add it immediately into a barrel or a bucket of the water from the tank. Take all the LR home, get it in the position you want it to be in and think long and hard about it, because you don't want to move the coral around with the LR and do changes because you didn't like the aquascape, so it's crucial you get the rock into it's correct positioning. Also, check your flow, your light and see if it's adequate. Think about where you'll put the SPS's, the anemone and see if it'll be alright for a particular area where there is more/less lighting.

I'd give it two days to let the LR rest in the water column. Check every 6 hours during the 48 hour period for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. Be sure to monitor PH levels, salinity and temperature as well. Make a small log book, it'll be helpful.

Then what I would do is, grab a couple of the SPS's and bring them to your tank. Put them in using the appropriate acclimation methods and then see how they are. Ideally, you need 48 hours to see how they do, because if you find they are dying, then it shows there is a evident problem in the tank, so you never want to add all the corals at once, because you really need to find out if a couple of them are happy in the tank. During the time, continue to monitor the necessary parameters every 6 hours.

If they are fine and healthy and your parameters are in check, then you can continue the transfer of the rest of the coral's. Repeating the process before, monitor for 24-48 hours, inspect the corals, check param's and once that is done, you can add the fish. Stability is the key here and you've got to be very careful. If you try do everything at once, you may have a lot of loss in corals which is only going to be a smack in the pocket and will just dishearten you.

Best of luck, and keep us updated.

The only problem I see with your plan is leaving the corals and anemone in the original tank. When you take out the LR it's going to stir all the sand in the tank, which will release a whole bunch of crap and start a cycle in the original tank. Then your going to leave the corals in that tank for two days. It's best just to pull everything out at once and put it in 5g buckets during the transfer.

 

[Laz]

The only problem I see with your plan is leaving the corals and anemone in the original tank. When you take out the LR it's going to stir all the sand in the tank, which will release a whole bunch of crap and start a cycle in the original tank. Then your going to leave the corals in that tank for two days. It's best just to pull everything out at once and put it in 5g buckets during the transfer.

Yeah, I thought about that, but the thing is, you wouldn't want to keep your corals without lighting and flow for more than 48 hours in a bucket.

It's not a guaranteed-safe plan either way, to be honest.

 

[BL1]

Yeah, I thought about that, but the thing is, you wouldn't want to keep your corals without lighting and flow for more than 48 hours in a bucket.

It's not a guaranteed-safe plan either way, to be honest.

It's not that big a deal, corals go through that every time you have them shipped through the mail

 

[2XAl]

Corals in a bucket for a couple days with consistent temp and salinity isn't a big deal at all.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks for all the good info folks. I decided against the transfer of live rock and corals. Seemed a mini cycle was inevitable, and I'm not up to full blown coral ownership yet.

Decided to purchase a bunch of live rock and use the slow and steady method.

Thanks again.:Cheers: