Planning an upgrade soon.

**labnjab** · 11-23-2009, 11:32 AM

We've decided that for roughly the same price as building a sump for our new tank we could merge both of them into a 75 gallon. All we'd really need is a drilled 75 gallon and stand and a little extra sand. We already have everything else. The merge is going to help clean up our fish room and give us 1 less tank to maintain.

Here's the game plan. Between both tanks we have roughly 85 lbs of live rock and 100 lbs of live sand. We'd use all of the rock and sand, as well as a few extra lbs of some new sand and make the switch as swiftly as possible (and keep everything submerged) as to completely avoid a cycle and save all the pods that we can. I'm also going to add 20-30 lbs of dry rock so I can put most of the clove polyp/ xenia infested rock that is in our newer tank into our sump

Between both tanks and the sump we have on one tank we also have roughly have 60-70 gallons of water so if I make sure both tanks have the same SG and PH before the switch and use as much water as we can from those tanks so it will minimize stress to everything. I shouldn't have to add more then a few gallons of new saltwater which will make my life eaisier, lol

Lighting- The tank is going to be split into 2 halves, 1 will have the 250 watt HQI that we have on our newest tank. This will be the sps and some lps side. The second half will be mainly softies and some lps and will have the 4x39 watt HO t-5 fixture we have over it.

Heat- 2, 200 watt visa therm stealths hooked up to a temperature controller.

Skimmer- We just purchased a Coralife 125 which should be more then enough for a 75.

Sump- For initial setup were going to use the 20 L that is already on one of the tanks. I'm hoping the coralife 125 will fit in it. If not I'll use the coralife 65 we have until I can build a larger sump which will probably be a 40 gallon breeder if it can fit under the stand. The magdrive 9.5 return pump we have will be plently big enough, even for a larger tank. Were going to put as much of the clove ployp/ xenia infested rock as we can into the sump. Were also going to be using our GFO reactor as well.

Flow- I'm going to start with the 3 koralia 2's and 1 koralia 1 that we have and add more as needed.

Stocking will be what we already have between the 2 tanks. 2 o-clowns, a falco hawkfish, a YWG, a firefish goby and a bangai cardinal. The only issure were going to have is the coral banded shrimp and tiger pistol shrimp. We'd rather keep the pistol so the CBS will be sold or given away, unless someone can convince me they will have enough space to get along. We may add 1 more, center piece fish but are undecided now

I'll probably think of other stuff during the day but this is what I got so far.

My biggest concern is our Pink bubble tip anemone. If the switch goes as planned then the tank should be pretty stable, but I'm wondering if we should let someone hold onto it for a month or so to make sure its stable before adding it. What is everyones thoughts on this? Has anyone else upgraded their tank and successfully added their anemone at the same time as the switch?

Let me know what you think about the plan and feel free to add any suggestions. Thank you

**MCHRKiller** · 11-23-2009, 08:21 PM

The only thing I would really worry about would be nitrate...otherwise I think the move should go fine. I think you could also avoid the nitrate by rinsing your sand a little in some tank water and siphoning out all the detris and broken down stuff you can. The bubble tip should be OK as its not going to be a huge change for it outside of just being moved. If anything beef up your chemical filtration for the initial period and check water levels daily for the first couple of weeks. If your that concerned about it by all means have somebody keep it for you for awhile, but personally I think that everything should go along just fine

**Amazon** · 11-23-2009, 08:23 PM

Sounds good i like the differant light sides idea itl make it look really good. I will follow this thread.

**labnjab** · 11-25-2009, 11:16 AM

Thank you. I've decided at this poing to use an all new sand bed and seed it with some of the old sand from the 2 tanks. I'll loose some pods but it will cause less headaches. Currently I'm on the search for a drilled 75 with stand and I've put some frags up for sale to help pay for it. There's an awesome deal on a complete drilled 75 with all the equipment (sump, plumbing, heaters, powerheads, pumps...everything but the skimmer and livestock) on Boston Reefers, but I just have to come up with the $250 to pay for it...but Christmas is coming soon

I'll keep everyone updated and start a build thread when we get going with it

edit:were also in the research stage of turning one of the 29 gallons into a seahorse tank, but that's gonna be 6 months or more down the road, after we make the switch to the 75

**Miltonic** · 11-25-2009, 01:45 PM

can't wait to see the bigger tank and yeah I think using brand new sand will cause less problems than recycling the old one.

**Rue** · 11-25-2009, 03:27 PM

Sounds exciting!

I think new sand is the way to go too...but I know I personally would feel bad about 'killing' all the organisms left over in the old stuff...

I'll be taking down my frag tank this weekend (unplugged it yesterday) - it never got going properly and all I've been doing is maintaining algae - but I know there were a lot of little brittle stars in it and stuff...

**AABatteries** · 11-25-2009, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by Rue

I think new sand is the way to go too...but I know I personally would feel bad about 'killing' all the organisms left over in the old stuff...

That's how I felt when I tore down my reef.

**labnjab** · 11-27-2009, 11:27 AM

I'm still trying to find a RR 75 gallon and stand. I'm selling $30 worth of coral this weekend and I have another $70 worth for sale so that's gonna help pay for it. I need to buy another box of salt too

**ILuvMyGoldBarb** · 11-27-2009, 11:41 AM

Here's an interesting thought for you. The way you described the lighting difference and the separation of the corals, it might be interesting to setup you tank to simulate a reef transition zone. When you get to the edge of a reef, the rock will drop off to the sandy zone. In that sandy zone is where you will find your LPS since most of them are not reef building corals anyway.

**labnjab** · 11-27-2009, 11:56 AM

That would actually look pretty cool. I do want more sand area in the upgrade. That's one thing I hated about the 29 gallons is there wasn't enough open sand. I could pile most of the rock on the metal halide side, but save sand room near the front for a dersa calm under the halide and leave a few small pieces of rock set up like islands on the t-5 side for softies. I could keep the acros on the highest part and put the less light demanding sps on the slope down

Then I could direct most of the flow towards the rock/ sps side and have a lot less on the lps side, now you got me thinking