Moving and Starting All Over With Current Fish! Help!

[gcgrad]

Hello everyone! I've had my 125 gallon reef tank up and running for 2 1/2 years now. It has been not only my first reef tank but my first fish tank. Well, I'm almost done with school and will be relocating in the next few months depending on where I find a job. So I really need advice on the move.

I have various corals but my system has been overrun with aiptasia. I've tried everything from aiptasia x, peppermint shrimp, berghia nudi branches, and an aiptasia eating filefish. Nothing has ever worked and the aiptasia has only multiplied 10 fold. :headwally: There may be just a few corals I can salvage, but essentially my gameplan is to start from scratch.

Fortunately for me my tank is housed at my parents house. So whenever I move I may just start with a different tank/stand setup. I also think I'm going to either build or purchase a new sump/refugium considering the one I built has always had problems and never been very effective.

My plan is to start up a new system, with new rock, a revamped sump/refugium that is extremely effective, and cycle this system. At this time I will also setup a QT tank for the few corals that I'm going to try and salvage from my system. I'll leave them in QT for a while to make sure there is no aiptasia. I REFUSE TO LET AIPTASIA INTO MY SYSTEM AGAIN. Once it gets in, in my experience there is no getting rid of it.

Once my tank is cycled I plan on transferring the fish. Stocklist includes 1 yellow tang, 1 LMB, 1 royal gramma, 1 watchman goby, 1 pajama cardinafish, 1 melanarus wrasse, 1 (I refuse to eat aiptasia) aiptasia eating filefish, 2 percula clowns, and 3 blue-green chromis. I will introduce all these at the same time. Now with my cycle I plan on increasing the bioload by ghost feeding so that the system can process the bioload of these 11 fish when I introduce them.

Once all the fish are introduced then I will place the QT corals in and will definitely QT any and all corals thereafter!!! I can then try to sale the old tank, stand, rock, and sand. Unless ofcourse people would be willing to buy aiptasia infested rock. It has lots of good corals on it so it would be perfect for someone who breeds nudibranches. They could wipe out the aiptasia and preserve the good coral.

This method seems the easiest way for me to keep my livestock and a few corals and essentially move them to a new home. There is no way I could start a new system with the aiptasia infested rock I currently have. It has absolutely been the biggest pain in my butt :headwalls:.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. If you have other suggestions or have actually done this in the past, feel free to comment. I am open to any and all suggestions!

Thank you for taking the time to read!:)

[campos]

I am in the process of doing the same thing except I was overrun by mojanos and mushrooms. I am currently in the process of cycling a new tank, dry rock and dry sand. Although it is very tempting to use some sand or coralline from my existing tank to help seed the tank I am not. I have red bugs that I cannot seem to kill and do not want to risk introducing any pests into the new tank.
I currently have a powder blue tang and purple tang that will be moving from my existing 110 gallon to my soon to be cycled 240 gallon. I plan to add a few more tangs that will be introduced a week or so before my current mates are placed in their new home. Try to prevent any aggression issues

[gcgrad]

I am in the process of doing the same thing except I was overrun by mojanos and mushrooms. I am currently in the process of cycling a new tank, dry rock and dry sand. Although it is very tempting to use some sand or coralline from my existing tank to help seed the tank I am not. I have red bugs that I cannot seem to kill and do not want to risk introducing any pests into the new tank.
I currently have a powder blue tang and purple tang that will be moving from my existing 110 gallon to my soon to be cycled 240 gallon. I plan to add a few more tangs that will be introduced a week or so before my current mates are placed in their new home. Try to prevent any aggression issues

What do you plan to do with the old rock and sand? My issue is that I have all that coral on those rocks but they're infested with aiptasia. I wonder if anyone would even be interested in it.

[wrott]

It seems like you could frag off the majority of the corals that you want to keep, and put them in qt to be sure of not introducing aiptasia.
If you leave the infested rock outside for a couple of months, it will be ready to be re-cured.
And I'm sorry to say, but when you least expect it, you will introduce nuisance hitchhikers at some time in the future of any new tank. It just seems to happen, so don't worry too much about keeping a pest-free environment. As long as you nip it in the bud, you will be ok. If you had started to kill the aiptasia asap, I'm betting you would not see it as a plague.
If you want to add more aggressive fish later, like a couple of dwarf angels, add them at the same time. What size will the new tank be? A 40g breeder or 75g would be a good choice for sump, and just glue in a few glass panels.

[gcgrad]

It seems like you could frag off the majority of the corals that you want to keep, and put them in qt to be sure of not introducing aiptasia.
If you leave the infested rock outside for a couple of months, it will be ready to be re-cured.
And I'm sorry to say, but when you least expect it, you will introduce nuisance hitchhikers at some time in the future of any new tank. It just seems to happen, so don't worry too much about keeping a pest-free environment. As long as you nip it in the bud, you will be ok. If you had started to kill the aiptasia asap, I'm betting you would not see it as a plague.
If you want to add more aggressive fish later, like a couple of dwarf angels, add them at the same time. What size will the new tank be? A 40g breeder or 75g would be a good choice for sump, and just glue in a few glass panels.

Fragging them is not a bad idea. I'm not paranoid of all pests. Just aiptasia really. And it all started when I purchased one rock that had one head on it! Not sure what the size of the new tank would be. I'm not moving yet. Just making plans for the future.

[campos]

What do you plan to do with the old rock and sand? My issue is that I have all that coral on those rocks but they're infested with aiptasia. I wonder if anyone would even be interested in it.

I plan on dumping the sand and everything else will go on Craigslist.

[gcgrad]

I plan on dumping the sand and everything else will go on Craigslist.

Sorry for the late response. The holidays can be crazy! Instead of dumping the sand is there a process to just take it out and dry it out? Then add it to the new system once I move? Thanks!