Lord Magnus
03/04/2010, 11:29 AM
I've posted this on different place, but I'm looking for lots of suggestions, in case I'm missing something due to my inexperience on the matter. This will be long. I really appreciate you sticking around to give me a hand.
I really need some help. I'm getting my reef sand tomorrow to replace my undergravel filter and gravel.
So I have this procedure partially figured out in my mind, but it's complicated and I'm very limited in water storage.
The tank is 55 gallons.
I currently have: 2 small to medium tomato clowns, 1 small hippo tang, 1 bicolor dottyback (from hell), 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 plume coral, mushrooms, xenia, GSP or starbust pollyps, a frogspawn, a smal zoa frag. My clean up crew consist of approx, 25 blue legg hermits, 10 red leg hermits 2 chitons, 25 nerites snails, 75 dwarf ceriths, 20 florida ceriths, 4 small mithrax crab. I also have about 80 pounds of highly porous LR called Sun rock.
So the stuff I have available to carry or store water are: 5gallon buckets x2, a 30 gallon long tank (that is going to be my sump/fuge), a 20 tall (where I was thinking on transferring the fish while I'm in this process) and a 10 gallon tank that I was thinking of using to store some of my water as well.
As you can already tell, the first problem is the snails. They're all mixed up with the gravel, specially the dwarf ceriths, which are very small, so how do I get them from the gravel?
Second, I have all the live rock, so I was thinking of somehow packing it in the 30 long, and filling it with wather from my DT. The 10 gallon, or the 20 gallon would have the fish and some rock, and whatever rock I can store somewhere else I'll do it. I'm even planning to use a cooler.
My wather has been highly dosed with kick-ick (an ick medicine) and my nitrates are actually a little high now. So I wanted to do a good water change without freaking all my fish out. My LFS suggested 70% WC and most important, they will let me borrow some of their buckets to manage or transport water.
THE BREAK DOWN:
1st - removal of all Live rock and live stock (please help me with ideas on how to get all my dwarf ceriths on this one).
2nd - drain all water possible in the mentioned containers, even a trash cans if necessary.
3rd - scoop my gravel out, and if there's a way to save my brittle starfish and other borrower creatures from being disposed with the gravel, let me know as well, even though I doubt it.
4th - I'm epoxying my rocks and laying them in the clean bottom of my tank and try to design some decent aquascape (also completely new at that).
5th -Lay down 40 pounds of sand and spread it around. Then mix the remaining 30 pounds I have with the 20 pounds of live caribsea sand to seed bacteria on the top substrate.
6th - slowly pump 30% of my stored water back into the DT running it through a 200 micron filter to catch crap.
7th - complete the salt water to my desired level. This time I'm using Crystal Ocean salt mix.
8th - Drop by drop acclamation of the live stock for 30 minutes, and careful re-introduction to the display tank.
After all that is done, I'll start building my sump/refugium with the 30 long tank. I already have everything, including Overflow box, and return pumps. Still need to get the plumbing, but it should not be a problem.
I'm thinking this will take me a whole day, and I'll need to start super early.
Is there any advice, or anything you would do different?
How long could I possibly keep my fish and snails in the 20 tall tank while I'm in this process?
Please, don't hesitate in suggesting anything. I really feel I could be leaving too many loose ends and I would hate to stress my fish much more than needed.
Now... this is the start of a better life for my reef tank!
I'm excited and worried at the same time.
- Magnus.
I really need some help. I'm getting my reef sand tomorrow to replace my undergravel filter and gravel.
So I have this procedure partially figured out in my mind, but it's complicated and I'm very limited in water storage.
The tank is 55 gallons.
I currently have: 2 small to medium tomato clowns, 1 small hippo tang, 1 bicolor dottyback (from hell), 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 plume coral, mushrooms, xenia, GSP or starbust pollyps, a frogspawn, a smal zoa frag. My clean up crew consist of approx, 25 blue legg hermits, 10 red leg hermits 2 chitons, 25 nerites snails, 75 dwarf ceriths, 20 florida ceriths, 4 small mithrax crab. I also have about 80 pounds of highly porous LR called Sun rock.
So the stuff I have available to carry or store water are: 5gallon buckets x2, a 30 gallon long tank (that is going to be my sump/fuge), a 20 tall (where I was thinking on transferring the fish while I'm in this process) and a 10 gallon tank that I was thinking of using to store some of my water as well.
As you can already tell, the first problem is the snails. They're all mixed up with the gravel, specially the dwarf ceriths, which are very small, so how do I get them from the gravel?
Second, I have all the live rock, so I was thinking of somehow packing it in the 30 long, and filling it with wather from my DT. The 10 gallon, or the 20 gallon would have the fish and some rock, and whatever rock I can store somewhere else I'll do it. I'm even planning to use a cooler.
My wather has been highly dosed with kick-ick (an ick medicine) and my nitrates are actually a little high now. So I wanted to do a good water change without freaking all my fish out. My LFS suggested 70% WC and most important, they will let me borrow some of their buckets to manage or transport water.
THE BREAK DOWN:
1st - removal of all Live rock and live stock (please help me with ideas on how to get all my dwarf ceriths on this one).
2nd - drain all water possible in the mentioned containers, even a trash cans if necessary.
3rd - scoop my gravel out, and if there's a way to save my brittle starfish and other borrower creatures from being disposed with the gravel, let me know as well, even though I doubt it.
4th - I'm epoxying my rocks and laying them in the clean bottom of my tank and try to design some decent aquascape (also completely new at that).
5th -Lay down 40 pounds of sand and spread it around. Then mix the remaining 30 pounds I have with the 20 pounds of live caribsea sand to seed bacteria on the top substrate.
6th - slowly pump 30% of my stored water back into the DT running it through a 200 micron filter to catch crap.
7th - complete the salt water to my desired level. This time I'm using Crystal Ocean salt mix.
8th - Drop by drop acclamation of the live stock for 30 minutes, and careful re-introduction to the display tank.
After all that is done, I'll start building my sump/refugium with the 30 long tank. I already have everything, including Overflow box, and return pumps. Still need to get the plumbing, but it should not be a problem.
I'm thinking this will take me a whole day, and I'll need to start super early.
Is there any advice, or anything you would do different?
How long could I possibly keep my fish and snails in the 20 tall tank while I'm in this process?
Please, don't hesitate in suggesting anything. I really feel I could be leaving too many loose ends and I would hate to stress my fish much more than needed.
Now... this is the start of a better life for my reef tank!
I'm excited and worried at the same time.
- Magnus.