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View Full Version : Taking My just cycled tank down! advice.


tosteetos
07/07/2010, 07:13 PM
Hi everyone, first thanks to all the good people in RC who has helped me so much in getting me up to speed on this endeavor.

My tank has finally cycled it's been sitting with no livestock for almost a month now, I am going on a 7 days vacation at the end of August, I've been itching to start putting something in it, however, after thinking it through I believe I'm going to have to wait until I come back to start adding livestock. ( do you guys have any suggestions? should I leave a CUC there working while I'm gone?)

The reason I want to take it down is because I just realized I want a fuge/sump but can't get anything inside the stand, I currently have a wet dry filter with :uzi: bioballs and figured if I was going to do something later I might as well do it now. however, I have a question:

What are the consequences I would be facing If I remove everything from the tank to stick a 20g tank/sump/refugium in the stand? has any of you done this before? any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance once again!

jformani
07/07/2010, 08:03 PM
Can you get a plastic rubbermaid tub under the stand? You might be able to fit one, not sure. Just a common 20 gallon you buy at walmart or hd might work.

jakesalk
07/07/2010, 08:51 PM
Get a 100 gallon water trough from tsc and just put a power head in there or 2 then siphon half ur water out of the tank in to the trough. Put your live rocks in there. Drain the rest of your water in to the trough change dumps and reverse the process. Should be all right as long as u do it quick

tosteetos
07/07/2010, 11:26 PM
Thanks for your input. I don't think I can get a rubbermaid container in it, I could try like a 10g -15g tank on the side of the sump, I'm trying to keep everything in one piece though.

any one knows if I should stick a clean up crew in there after putting everything back in?

Will I have to re-cycle the tank again?

Also, I believe the sand bed I have is considered "deep" however I'm not sure if it is the adecuate grain size so I want to take out half of it since I'm going to have a refugium, it's only been a month since the tank's been setup, my question here is:

will there be any problems that result from the sand stirring?, by the way this sand was not live when I first setup the tank, neither was the rock, I still need to seed the tank.

cthedaytrader
07/08/2010, 05:35 AM
I have switched my sump out with a full tank of livestock before, my original sump design wasnt working well, so I built a new 15G sump and replaced the original with no problem.

Just build or buy your sump, like adding some baffles to a 10 or 15G tank.

Drain your wet dry, let the water line in the display drop below the overflow and make sure the returns are raised over the water line to avoid floodining. Switch out the wet dry for a sump, change any plumbing if needed and start it back up.

Shouldnt take more that a few hours to make the switch if that.

You can even save some of the water you have in the wet dry and add it back in, but given you have no livestock I dont think that will be an issue.

I dont think your tank will cycle again, but you add live stock slowly anyway a clean up crew and wait some fish or hardy corals etc

I personally think new tanks should be stocked slowly to avoid major diatom and algea blooms.

I dont think you need to remove all the live rock from the display and break it down