Salt Newbie w/Questions

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Willz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2011
177
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Roanoke VA
Hello,

I have been keeping FW for years and just saw a deal on CL that I couldn't pass up. 90G with sump/refugium, return pump, 400W MH and 48" compact flourescent, skimmer, heater, kalkwasser drip, and 100lbs of live rock. Plus it comes with several fish: 1 clown fish, and 2 damsels. (Best part was the price: $300! He's moving)

Anyway, I'm a little worried about how to break this thing down and move it to my house. I have a 75G that I am planning on cleaning and using instead of his 90G. The seller said that the tank has been set up for 15 years and he couldn't guaranty it wouldn't bust if I moved it and refilled it. (I'm basically buying it for the live rock and sump). So, I'm planning on draining my 75 grow out tank and getting it set up tonight with salt water, then I'll add the live rock, sump, and fish tomorrow night when I pick it up.

Couple of questions:

Can I leave the aragonite in the 75G (it was used for african cichlid fry grow out)? I was thinking of leaving it in there and putting his live sand over it.
Do I just buy distilled water from the grocery store to use for mixing the salt water (there isn't a pet store that has RO/DI locally)? Any ideas on where to get this cheaply, I need a lot!
Should I try to save as much of his water as I can, so I don't shock the fish, or pitch his water?

Any help would be awesome, I'm really nervous about this whole process and want it to go smoothly. On the other hand, he needs it gone by tomorrow night and before today I wasn't planning on getting a SW tank for at least a couple of months. Then I saw his deal on CL and bought it. Now I'm worried....

Thanks!
w
 
use his sand,its allready "live" and if suitable will need a good clean anyway if using your 75gal instead of the 90gal try to save all the water then you have some incase of leaks/spillages or waterchange if needed.pure distilled water should be ok for mixing up s/water or topups due to evaporation,invest in your own RO/DI unit then you can mix saltwater as needed and can garrentee quality
 
Thanks Chris, I will definitely be investing in a RO/DI unit in the near future, but I don't have one right now.

Walmart has a "purified" water station that charges by the gallon. Is this what I should use?

He suggested that I not reuse his water as he hasn't maintained his tank in a while and the parameters are all out of whack and there is a ton of hair looking green algae in his tank (he said he is having an algae bloom from not cleaning it in a long time).

Should I use hydrogen peroxide to clean the live rock before putting into my tank?

I have read a ton about SW, but reading about it and actually doing it are two different things. Also, I have an aquarium magazine that had a recent article about moving your reef tank, so I'll be drawing heavily on that for info.
 
If anyone has some good links for beginners that would be awesome. I'm searching for how to set up a SW tank online, but it's always wading through a ton of crap to get to what you really need to know without someone who knows telling you where to look.
 
It should be pretty easy to fix the algae problem considering the stocking levels and everything else; you'll probably just need to do frequent water changes and keep the lighting to a minimum. I wouldn't use any sort of chemical on the rocks in order to prevent the loss of beneficial bacteria; just remove as much of the hair algae as possible and keep the water parameters & lighting good. What all is in the sump? You might be able to put some chaeto algae in there to help with the algae in the main aquarium.

Is his sand the same grain size as your sand? If so, then you can easily mix the two together without any problems although you don't want to have too deep of a sand bed.
 
Thanks Wiggles,

He has true sand. Mine is coarse crushed coral. I have about 40lbs in my tank, and it's about 3/4" - 1.5" deep. His tank looked about the same depth as mine (and the footprint on a 90 is the same as a 75). My 75 hasn't been set up long and I keep it well vacuumed, but I don't want the FW bacteria in it to die off in the SW and pump nitrates into the water. It sounds like this might just be me being paranoid.

So, would a 1.5 -3" sand bed be too deep?

The sump/refugium has a clip on light and chaeto and LR rubble/sand bed in the center section. Looked pretty packed with growth and he said he has tons of pods. The first chamber is for the skimmer (the water runs through a micron sock), then the refugium section, then the last chamber with the return pump and heater.

So, as far as the algae on the rocks I'll just scrub them off manually when I move them.
 
purified water should be ok for a start, about.com have some good guides.dont use chemicals to clean live rock,you'll end up with dead rock,use his old water to clean rock in useally wafting your hand over it will losen algea then you can siphon it off before placing in main aquarium,saves wasteing good new water,use some of his sand to seed yours aswell
 
Willz said:
Thanks Wiggles,

He has true sand. Mine is coarse crushed coral. I have about 40lbs in my tank, and it's about 3/4" - 1.5" deep. His tank looked about the same depth as mine (and the footprint on a 90 is the same as a 75). My 75 hasn't been set up long and I keep it well vacuumed, but I don't want the FW bacteria in it to die off in the SW and pump nitrates into the water. It sounds like this might just be me being paranoid.

So, would a 1.5 -3" sand bed be too deep?

The sump/refugium has a clip on light and chaeto and LR rubble/sand bed in the center section. Looked pretty packed with growth and he said he has tons of pods. The first chamber is for the skimmer (the water runs through a micron sock), then the refugium section, then the last chamber with the return pump and heater.

So, as far as the algae on the rocks I'll just scrub them off manually when I move them.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mix the two types of substrates since they're of different sizes; you'll get dead spots by mixing them. Just pull your current substrate and add his after cleaning it. You really only "need" around an inch of sand, if that, in the main aquarium; anything more will allow for detritus to build up.

As for the sump, I recommend pulling out some of the chaeto in order to stimulate new rapid growth which will then help with the uptake of excess nutrients. Lack of maintenance to the sand bed might be part of the water quality issue, so you're either going to want to take it out completely or clean it on a somewhat frequent basis.

I found manual removal to be the best way to eliminate nuisance algae initially, but I also learned that growing a nice layer of coralline algae (the purple/pink/lime green stuff) while keeping up the water quality will help eliminate the nuisance algae once a large amount is eliminated manually.

What does he have as far as invertebrates? Hermit crabs, snails, and so on?
 
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