Moving livestock

[JackSplat]

Hi all

I am almost at the point of moving my corals and fish from my old tank to the new one. I am going to transfer a lot of equipment from the old to the new tank, so I cannot afford to keep both tanks running at the same time. To achieve this I was thinking to do the following:

1) Fill the new tank and get the basic water parameters as close to possible to the old one
2) Swap, say 50 litre, between the old and the new tank, say every 30 minutes
3) Repeat a couple of times (6 times would average about 70% water replacement)
4) Transfer livestock

I intend to start with the original live rock and substrate. I will be adding more but I will cycle that separately.
Any comments / questions?
Thank you

 

[RiaanP]

Will the new tank stand close to where the old tank is currently standing?

Same room? or around the corner?

 

[JackSplat]

Will the new tank stand close to where the old tank is currently standing?

Same room? or around the corner?

Not in the same room, but right next to it, about 10m away

 

[RiaanP]

What I've done when I upgraded to the bigger tank, I connected temporary the 2 tanks together. Filled only the display of the new tank.
Disconnected the old tank sump, let it flow directly back to first chamber.

Added plumbing to connect the 2 displays. And use a big return pump in the one tank to pump to the other.

What happened in my case is I dropped about 40% water level in old tank. That went to the new tank to level out.

Alternative, is to use the old system as is. And new system, leave the sump empty. Add pipes to let new system overflow to old system sump. Add extra pump in old sump to push up to new tank.

Run the tanks connected temporary overnight. And next day all parameters are exact. Easy as moving the rocks over, about one half, leaving some in old tank for fish to hide. Then move the fish and last rock pieces. Less stress, OK, not really, they would not be happy.

 

[RiaanP]

check post 133 on
RiaanP Mermaid tank - Page 7 - Marine Aquariums South Africa

the tanks connected overnight. Pipes can be done with silicone as its temporary.

 

[RiaanP]

I had the fish temporary with thew corals and liverock in all those tubs. Wanted to move the substrate over as well. So that did force me to do things slightly different.

 

[JackSplat]

Hi Riaan

Thank you very much for your input, this is a great idea, will do the sump setup, it is close enough for that.

 

[RiaanP]

you can leave the new system sump empty. Only fill it afterwords with the leftover water from the old system.

 

[JackSplat]

you can leave the new system sump empty. Only fill it afterwords with the leftover water from the old system.

Also a good idea, will save me about 6kg of salt,, thanks