I'm Baaaacck.. Need Help!

[Bassmunky]

Hey guys,

I haven't posted in about ten months, but I have a 30 gal saltwater tank that is doing pretty well. Everything seems good and healthy.

I have just received a 44 gallon tank from a friend for free and I am debating switching over my 30 gal to a freshwater and the 44 to salt so...

Questions:

I have 45 Lbs of cycled live rock do I need more?
If I get new sand, How long will it take to cycle?
I have clear tube-like inverts (maybe anemones?) that came out of the rocks and a couple feather dusters, should I rid of them?
I will need a new light if a switch tanks, how powerful should it be?
Is there anything I am missing?
MOST IMPORTANTLY is it worth it?

My skimmer can handle up to 65 gals so I am good there.

I will put up pictures of these hitchhikers soon...

Your help is greatly appreciated!:bowdown:

Good to be back
-Cheers :Cheers:

 

[dcantucson]

I would recommend 20-40lbs more of live rock. Cycling takes 3-6 weeks usually. Bigger will be worth it. What is your current lighting? Details.

 

[Bifferwine]

You want 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon, so what you have is at the lower end of things. It will work, but probably not as well as if you had a little more.

Adding new sand probably won't cause a cycle. Especially if you are using your old rock.

Feather dusters are fine, as for the other animals, it's impossible to ID them without a picture. Google "majano" and "aiptasia". If it's either of those, they are BAD NEWS and should be killed ASAP.

As for lighting, what kind of lights did you have over your old tank? If they are good lights, they should be fine for the 44 as well.

 

[yote]

Trust me,You'll need more rock:mrgreen:
When ever you go bigger,it seems like the rock pile shrinks.
Oh,and +1 all the above.

 

[Bassmunky]

Turns out that those clear things are aiptasia anemones. Crap... I need more fish anyway so I'm thinking that I might buy a copperband or raccoon butterfly along with some peppermint shrimp. Any other advice? I hear lemon juice or joes juice works to an extent, but I might as well get more livestock in my tank since I only have two fish.
I am planning on buying about 20+ Lbs of live rock soon. How much sand will i need for the new tank?(not including the old sand) I'll get the rock cycling in the new tank with some new sand (without livestock ofcourse).
My light is 2-65W compacts with a 12000K Daylight and 10000K Actinic. But it is not long enough for the new tank. But if thats good enough light, I might be able to rig it up somehow.

-Thanks

 

[yote]

Those 2 butterflys are without a doubt my favorite 2 fish,EVER.
But IMO,neither one has a place in an aquarium.They usually end up starving to death within a few months.
Stick with pepperment shrimp.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, most of the time peppermint shrimp do the trick really well. Rarely does anyone have any long term success with a butteflyfish. If you get 3 or 4 peps, the aiptasia should be gone in no time.

 

[mm2meyer]

hey is aiptasia the only food butterflys eat or do they eat other things as well???

 

[daugherty]

coral polyps also

 

[mm2meyer]

ah, that's it?? no other foood items???

 

[daugherty]

that is why they are very hard to keep alive in our tanks they almost never eat frozen food. but they like coral

 

[Bifferwine]

A good diet for them is frozen butterfly formula, which is carried by most LFS' and can sometimes be found at Petsmart and Petco. But it's not guaranteed that they'll eat this. The vast majority of them do not survive in our tanks and starve to death.

 

[mm2meyer]

thats a shame I really like the looks of raccoon butterflys too, If I get one I will make sure I see them eat frozen butterfly food if I purchase one