In a previous article, I discussed the ways I cleaned, tested, and prepared a trailer full of used reef equipment I was given.  This was the impetus for me to consolidate the 2 nano tanks I had been running (Mr Aqua 12g Rimless, and Fluval Evo 13.5)  This time I wanted to test one of the methods I have seen online saying that you can have an “Insta-Tank” if you populate the tank with tons of corals and use existing tank water and biological filter.

Decisions Made

There have been many discussions online on being able to setup a tank and having it up and looking great overnight as they do in the trade shows.  Yes, it can be done as shown in the picture above in one night.  Filled the tank with fresh saltwater and circulated it with my existing 510g system sump.  I transferred all the corals from my two nano tanks right into the system the same night and everything looked awesome.

I designed the setup so that I was able to run it independently on its own sump just in case. But ultimately volume stability and a mature biological system won over the traditional setup for this project.  I did not want to have another separate system to worry about unique issues.

Month 2 Lessons

Now that 2 months have passed I am running into some of the usual algae/dinoflagellate issues and here is why I think it happened. I used unconditioned Reborn media that I just rinsed with fresh water as the substrate.  Ideally I think it would have been better to pre-cycle the media in my sump first.  But since I didn’t take the time to do that I have the usual algae bloom phase still since there was no biofilm on its surface. Also there may have been some residual nutrients embedded in the media that needed to dissipate and eventually caused a small cycle even though it is plumbed into a mature system.

So as I progress I will keep adding some more utilitarian fish bioload and invertebrates.  I added my tang gang (Scopus, Tomini, and Hippo), Starry Blenny, Flame Angel, trochus snails from my 120 gallon, and a handful of Tuxedo urchins.  They have helped maintain some of the growth. I have also lowered the intensity of the Reefbreeders Photon V2 ( BRS LPS recommended Profile) and increased the water flow with the addition of another wavemaker.

Unfortunately I did lose 2 acanthophyllias and 2 mini scolymia during the transfer. Some bacterial infections came out of nowhere. I did not have the medication to treat them in time. That sucked for sure. So no matter how simple a transfer this may seem there were still some risks.

I will check back in on the progress in the next few months and see if I decide to make any more changes.  Happy Reefing!