jck16

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Hi,
It's been awhile. I had a 37 gallon mixed species reef tank, but then Caulerpa took over my entire tank and no matter how much I pruned, it ended up overtaking the entire tank and choked every frag to death. Now I have to restart my tank and change my tank stand while I'm at it, but I have 5 happy fish that I want to keep. What is the proper procedure to do this with minimal stress to the fish?

I guess my plan would be to:

- Prepare all the replacement volume of water beforehand

- Drain all the water from the sump.

- Drain all the water from the main display and catch all the fish and put them into an aerated bucket

- Remove all the existing rocks (if anyone wants my caulerpa choked rocks still to see if they can salvage a few zoa polyps or mushrooms or whatever for free, PM me)

- Move the tank and sump to the new stand

- Add bare rocks (I've learned my lesson now, never start with live rock seeded from the ocean)

- Refill and add the fish back in


Any suggestions or additions to this plan?
 

Juano908

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Hi,

It's been awhile. I had a 37 gallon mixed species reef tank, but then Caulerpa took over my entire tank and no matter how much I pruned, it ended up overtaking the entire tank and choked every frag to death. Now I have to restart my tank and change my tank stand while I'm at it, but I have 5 happy fish that I want to keep. What is the proper procedure to do this with minimal stress to the fish?



I guess my plan would be to:



- Prepare all the replacement volume of water beforehand



- Drain all the water from the sump.



- Drain all the water from the main display and catch all the fish and put them into an aerated bucket



- Remove all the existing rocks (if anyone wants my caulerpa choked rocks still to see if they can salvage a few zoa polyps or mushrooms or whatever for free, PM me)



- Move the tank and sump to the new stand



- Add bare rocks (I've learned my lesson now, never start with live rock seeded from the ocean)



- Refill and add the fish back in





Any suggestions or additions to this plan?



Will you be using dry rocks?
It looks like your plan is to cycle the tank with your fish in it.




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jck16

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Yeah I'm using dry rocks. Im hoping there's enough of a biological filter in the sand and sump refugium to prevent a full on cycle, but if you think it's still going to cause problems for the fish, what would you suggest?
 

Juano908

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Yeah I'm using dry rocks. Im hoping there's enough of a biological filter in the sand and sump refugium to prevent a full on cycle, but if you think it's still going to cause problems for the fish, what would you suggest?



So, you?ll be using the same sand you already had previously in your system?

I?m pretty sure you won?t like my suggestion, long story short I?m currently in the process of resetting my tank from scratch.
This used to be my tank when it was already going downhill
6321a2110194b124ba5ff431ac918b63.jpg

I?m going bare bottom this time and using dry rocks, when I started cycling my tank it was ready for fish after 2 weeks of cycling using live bacteria but I waited a full month to start transferring the fish which I?m doing this week and I won?t start putting corals in my tank until or around November (4 months after cycle)
Each tank is different and each person has their own preferences, you may be ok by doing it that way.


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jck16

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Unfortunately I don't have a backup tank for my fish which would have been ideal.

I'm not looking to do this until end of September so maybe I should actually buy the rocks now and cure them in the meantime.
 

Juano908

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Unfortunately I don't have a backup tank for my fish which would have been ideal.



I'm not looking to do this until end of September so maybe I should actually buy the rocks now and cure them in the meantime.



I have a 29 gal with metal stand I can give you for free if you?d be willing to come pick it up, not on it?s best shape but it will definitely serve the purpose. I used it to keep my fish while the DT tank was cycling.


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Last edited:

ecvernon

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Like Chefjpaul said You can use a bacteria additive such as DR Tims one and only, or Friitz, or BioSPira, etc. They will allow your fish to live through the process.

IMO you may end up with high nitrates later but that can be solved.
 

jck16

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I have a 29 gal with metal stand I can give you for free if you?d be willing to come pick it up, not on it?s best shape but it will definitely serve the purpose. I used it to keep my fish while the DT tank was cycling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ty for the offer, but I def prefer not to use any metal stands.
 

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