Just bought a new/old tank.

[Scoopy]

just bought a tank. I have a picture of it. Ill try and get it posted. I have several concerns.

First the tank-
Its a 55 gallon. The guy said it was a Berlin system. Im not sure this is right. Its a bare bottom about half full of livrock. The bottom is no longer bare becuase of age. The tank is 15 years old. (very established) Only filterations is 2 powerheads for water circulation, and a hang on the back protein skimmer. Nothing else. The lighting is a hamilton aluminum unit, housing 2 175w halides and 2 110w 48" VHO actenics. Thats pretty much it in a nutshell.

Inhabitants are loads of xenia, loads of mushrooms, a really nice colony of green star polyps, some brain coral, and some other polyp thinks I really dont know yet. There is one fish, a true purple tang.

For the last 5 years, the only thing that has been done to the tank is a monthly scraping of the glass, and a 15 gallon water change. He does not even feed the fish. Water topoffs are done with homeade kalkwasser (dont know if I spelled that right) He takes a gallon jug, and puts about 3/4 inch of pickling lime in it, and fills with distilled water, shakes it up, and waits a week for all to settle to the bottom, then pours most of the water into the tank for topoff. Refills and shakes, repeat. The only other concern with his method is that his water changes are done with distilled water. I dont hear much about people using distilled water, but seems to do the trick for him. I guess he gets it in gallong jugs, mixes salt and dumps it in the tank.

Thats the basics of it. Here are some issues Im going to have.

1 - Moving the tank. Luckily the guy only lives about 3 miles from me so it will be a short trip. Secondly, I have an XL Yukon so I have plenty of room for everything in one trip, and dont have to worry about temperature too much or road dust getting into the tank. I plan on having 50 gallons of salt water mixed up in a tote, with a circulating pump and heater so Im ready to pump into the tank soon after it gets home. I really need to know a good procedure for breakdown/setup to get this all to my house and happy again without coral loss.

2 - After everything is back to normal in the tank, I seriously have to get rid of some mushrooms. They are EVERYWHERE. I would venture to say there are 500 mushrooms. You cannot even see liverock anymore. Also some of the xenia needs to go. There are even xenia growing attached to the back of the tank. Its had 5 years of good growing and needs a good pruning.

3 - I want to update the filterations system a bit. I think I need a sump and a fuge. Probably dont need it, but the wife and kids have already started talking about the fish they want to add to it and I know this is going to put more strain on the system as it is. Recommendation??

Thats the major issues I have to deal with now, and was hoping to get some support from you guys. Thanks in advance because I know you wont let me down

Sincerly
Sam

 

[Scoopy]

oh yea, this picture is 2 years old, LOADS more xenia and LOADS more mushrooms.

Sam

 

[mr_X]

where are you from? i'll take a massive mushroom rock, or two.

 

[Scoopy]

West Virginia

 

[mr_X]

well..if you want to get rid of a large amount, i can split shipping with a few friends.

 

[Scoopy]

Is there a way to get rid of shrooms and keep the rock? Or are they pretty much a premanent fixture?

 

[mr_X]

well, you can remove them, but i think it's best to sell the shroom covered rock. if you remove them, they will most likely grow right back.
i'll take the mushroom heads like they are, but doing that won't do you much good i fear.

 

[Scoopy]

Im sure there will be some frags/rocks shipping from here in the near future, for now I have to get the tank home and keep everything in it alive. Anyone have any ideas on that?

Sam

 

[pcardone]

Try to keep as much of the original water as you can.if you can try to leave the base rock intact. 55 gallon you should be able to leave a few inches of rock on the bottom throw a salt water soaked towel over it and hurry home if you can get the original tank up and running quickly then after things start settling down you can start changing things. sell some of the mushroom rocks to the lfs or others and get some new rock to replace it.

 

[Anonymous]

OK,

Get a bunch of clean containers for moving the rock and livestock, such as rinsed out salt mix buckets, also any extra water moving containers, such as (fish water only) gas cans or those jugs they use for 5 gallon drinking water dispensers.

Spread some towels on the floor around the tank, and set the salt buckets on the towels all around the tank.

Turn off the lights 20 minutes or so before you start to let the MH bulbs cool. Take the lights and lid or canopy off of the tank, and put somewhere safe in the vehicle. You may want to unscrew the MH bulbs and wrap in an old T shirt and put somewhere really safe from breakage. Those things are $$ and fragile!

Turn off all all the equipment, so you won't let anything "run dry" while draining. Take note that from this point on, things start cooling unless you are having tropical weather now, so always consider that. You may want to have your car all warmed up if it cold outside, so you can kick up the heat on your livestock. A thermometer is good for keeping an eye on things.

Take a siphon hose and fill several buckets a third to half of the way up with clear water from the tank. The water should be clear as you have not moved any rocks or tried to catch any fish. Preserve as much clean tank water as you can by siphing some into extra jugs and whatnot.

Pick up rocks with corals in the bucket. I don't really see anything in your photo that is going to croak from being snuggled up for a short trip in the car, but try and keep all the same softies together as best you can. Give things as much room as you can using the most buckets you can find, but you are only going three miles, so it isn't a big deal. Give the nicest care and the most bucket space to anything fragile, but nothing in that photo looks delicate. I put a lid on as soon ans I have put as much into a bucket as I am going to, in order to keep heat in.

Any plain live rock can just be put damp in a bucket since you have such a short drive. I fill up a bucket with as much as I can carry, splash it with some water from the tank and put the lid on.

As the tang become EASY to catch because the rock is gone and water low, scoop him out and in a bucket. Plastic fast food beverage cups are good for this. I would probably give him his own bucket because I am sure he is kinda big and I wouldn't want him to get scratched on a rock rolling around while a bucket is carried.

I like to just set the pumps, heater, skimmer, ect. in, you guessed it, an empty bucket and that can all be carried to the car.

Siphon all the extra water out and discard it, as it will be filthy, and load tank and stand into the vehicle. Load all the other stuff in the vehicle, remember to keep the fish and tank water warm, so inside and with the heat kickin if it is wintery.

Set tank up, put in all the rock in, put the saved clean water in, get a heater and at least one pump running and check on temp. Put corals and fish in, tossing out any water from the coral buckets if they slimed it up (mushrooms, xenia). Hopefully you saved a good bit of clear water from the old set up.

Top off with your made up saltwater. Save any extra for water change tommorow.

Set up rest of equipment. I think letting things get chilled is thebigest danger right now. If you can keep things pretty stable temp wise, and just move fast, everything should be pretty OK.

If I were you I would take that mushroom rock to a LFS and see if they will trade you pound for pound for new live rock. It's a win-win situation. You will never be able to clean them off that rock for good.

 

[Scoopy]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write that lengthy reply on moving my tank. Just what I was looking for. Just about sums everything up but filteration upgrade. Would you guys recommend a sump and fuge or something else. I almost feel the "if it aint broke, dont fix it" coming on. I just dont think its going to keep up. Also is the distilled water okay?


Thanks again
Sam

 

[bleedingthought]

Man, I really want you to post a before and after picture of "mushroom land." :lol:

 

[Scoopy]

Ill try and get some pics before and after the move. Also after mushroom land has been thinned a bit. Do shrooms usually overtake a tank like that? You cant even see the bottom of the tank right now for all the shrooms....

Sam

 

[mr_X]

yep. mushrooms are fast growers for the most part. and can thrive on even crappy light.
will you keep up the previous owner's husbandry?
will you add more inhabitants and such? if so, i'd recommend some better filtration.
the more inhabitants in the tank, the heavier the bio load. the live rock will start to lose the battle eventually.
-the previous owner never added food to the tank. if you were to do so, i imagine a noticable change in the water quality.
the answers to those questions will tell you if you will need to step up to a sump with refugium.
as far as the distilled water question, most will swear by RODI water. not just distilled. i think the cleaner the water the better. i feel funny giving water advice while i'm still using treated tap water :?

 

[Anonymous]

I think distilled may have a higher chance of metals in the water, due to the way they have it condense on metal coils or such such nonsense? Not really sure though, that could be a "reefer urban legend . . ."

Either way, I have found that just about anywhere that you can buy jugs of distilled, you can also get jugs of RO "drinking water" for the same price.

 

[SnowManSnow]

good luck with this move. looks like you're getting a head start on a lot of things that it takes new tanks a while to do! Congratulations on your find!

Again, good luck!
If u were in AL I'd give ya a hand :


B

 

[Scoopy]

Well, I just bought an empty 75 gallon. I have not moved the tank yet, but instead, Im going to drop it all into this 75. I really dont like the looks of a 55, too narrow, and its hard to find a sump to fit nicely that is big enough. Im using a 38 for the sump, its 36x12x18high. Should fit perfectly other than being able to get it in/out. I dont think I will need to do that though. Ill take pictures and post them up. Not that anyone really cares, 8O but I know I like to see works in progress.

Sam

 

[Snowboarda42]

face it, we're all picture whores here and we definately support each others habits. So post up some pics! 8)

 

[Scoopy]

Making the sump

 

[Scoopy]

Sump in the stand, The overflow comes down through a sock, the heater is in the first part of the sump along with the skimmer, then if overflows through a carbon bag into the fuge. Finally over to the mag return pump.