New tank

[Fally]

Hey all! I picked up a 75 gallon last night and was looking for some advise on how to move everything from my 29 into it.

I have setup the 75 with sand and crushed coral. I have 30 pounds of white sand and 20 pounds of crushed coral that was fairly small pieces with some shells and such in it. I put all the sand from my sump(10 pounds) in as well. I filled it with water that wend through a PUR faucet water filter. I mixed the salt in the buckets.

Can I seed the 75 with stuff from my 29 and avoid a cycle? I will list what is in my 29 and maybe people could advise me how I can move everthing? I want to move it as quickly as possible so I can get the 29 out of the room, but I want to avoid any losses if possible.

I have about 50 pounds of live rock and 40 pounds of crushed coral in the 29.

various small mushrooms and ricordias
yellow polops
small zoo rock
green star polops
green carpet aenome
zena
cleaner shrimp
six line wrasse
algae blenny
clown
2 flame scolops
hermits & snails & a few shrimp

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

[Dirt4dinner]

You plan looks good. You might see a small cylcle from die off. You never know. The only problem I see in your equation is your water source. You need to test that water, PUR water filters are great for drinking water, but your corals are more picky than we are. Do you have a TDS (total desolved solids) meter? If you don't you can get them on ebay for under $20. You should pick one up and make sure that water is suitable.

[jerryc]

Id agree with Dirt get a TDS meter http://cgi.ebay.com/New-TDS-Meter-Re...QQcmdZViewItem

If your water is over 10 you will need a new water sours

May help if you use as much water from the old tank as you can

[Fally]

I made the move last night. I had a large bucket that hadn't been used yet lting around. It was 23 gallons I think. I filled it up 8-10 inches with water. I put a heater and a airline in there with a light across the top. I then put all my creatures in the bucket.

I scooped out all the crushed coral with a plastic cup and transfered it to the new tank one cup at a time. The water in the new tank got pretty cloudy again. Every 15 minutes I would pour a gallon from the new setup into the bucket. Once I moved all the base rock, I put everything from the bucket into the 75.

This morning everything seemed to be doing well. Thanks for the advise, I'll look into the TDS meter. I just figured that filtered water was better then right from the tap.

[Dirt4dinner]

Filtered water is definatly better than from the tap...but that PUR filter isn't doing the work that it needs to do. Look into an RO/DI unit or considering purchasing your water from a water store. But get the TDS meter and see what it's like. I know at my house the tap water is over 700 TDS (which is considered toxic), even after we filter the water through our state-of-the-art refrigerator it only knocks the TDS down to about 200. I had to install an RO/DI unit which gets the TDS down to about 15 TDS, and I think I am going to add a second DI chamber onto it to get it down to 0 TDS. If you don't know what RO/DI units are this probably confused you, we would be glad to help you find one on ebay, they are about $100.

[jerryc]

.

This morning everything seemed to be doing well. Thanks for the advise, I'll look into the TDS meter. I just figured that filtered water was better then right from the tap.[/QUOTE]


Good to no everything is going good with the transfer ...........

Your probable right that its better thin strait from the tap.

But not often do you find tap water that will do for tank use my
TDS is not bad for household use but far from whit you need
for your tank

[Fally]

I have looked at them before but don't really have the room for a large bucket to sit and fill up over several hours. I was buying some sort of natural filtered sea water for changes in the 29, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet for the 75 as the changes will be larger. I don't think I have a source for ro/di in the area to my knowledge. I'll have to look a little harder I guess. I suppose I should start with the TDS meter and go from there.

Thanks!

[Fally]

I actually filled my 29 with tap water. It had some algae growth but not much. I live in Maine and the water up here is pretty good. I'll look into getting a TDS meter, it will be interesting to see what the reading is for my water.

[dsfdbutterfly]

Fally,
Some water around the country is good enough for water in tanks. I used tap water for my fish only for years without any problems. Didn't even know that it would harm anything actually. That being said I wouldn't trust tap for sensitive corals. They are a little more finiky about their water source. I had a RO unit installed. The guy that installed it was real cool and offered some suggestions because we were doing this for a fish tank and not really for our drinking water. He was willing to go down to the local wal-mart and test their water that you buy at the fill stations for us. The thing being there that most companies don't change their filters regularly so you get inpur water. If you have a company that sells ice and water they too may sell water that is filtered. There again you have to count on them to change their filters when needed. Since us humans can't tell the difference a lot of companies push the limits on filter changes. There are also some things on the market that you can add to the water to make tap safe. Again I don't know that I would trust them for corals. The meter tester that everyone mentions is a great idea to let you know where you sit. However, if that has a negative result then I don't think the pur filters will help.

Dirt4dinner mentioned the RO/DI unit. These are the gold standard and if possible I would go that direction. You will have to lay out some cash in the beginning but in the long run you will save money over other options. If your LFS's are anything like the ones here in AZ then they should have water for sale. You will have to bring containers and store it but they are really good about changing the filters and making sure that everything is good because they are using this water for their own display tanks. As the next option I would buy already bottled water. Companies that way try to pride themselves on selling the best and their filters are not exposed to kids and people walking by that may be punks that mess with things. Bottom line is you have made an investment to keep saltwater fish. If your tap is not up to par, which most in the country isn't for corals, your better off putting a few more dollars into better quality water. Most of us find this hard (I know I did) but the reward is worth it. Good luck and congrats on the upgrade.

Angie

[Reptoreef]

If you have a Walmart close, you should have access to RO water with a of 2 or less(pretty good stuff).