Changing over to a new tank

[Dubge]

Well thanks to everyone for your input on my hex tank and it being to small for the fish I had. I found a deal on a 75g and transfered everything over from one tank to the other and was as careful as I could be as not to stir up to much sand from the other tank. Everything matched on the money before I added the fish (temp and water conditions) the only thing was from adding more sand and the transfer of the sand from the old tank the water was a little cloudy. I waited as long as I could to add the fish, or as long as I could keep my 1 and 5 year old away from the bucket with the fish. The only thing is the amonia is showing just a little .05 and I was wondering the best way to get rid of that? I currently have the old fluval 303 hooked up and also a wet/dry filter (rated for tanks to 150 G)

I still have the 2 tangs because my 5 year old daughter couldn't understand why I was getting rid of them even if it was only for a short time.....she started to cry, thus the reason I went out and found a bigger tank sooner rather then later

Anything else I should do or watch for now? I plan on adding a GOOD skimmer in the future (after X-mas) and a good amount of live rock (none at the time)

thanks
Ray

 

[Anonymous]

Make sure you get your skimmer to work optimally. It is difficult to prevent any dieoff during tank transfer, so the best thing you can do is to get the protein (decomposing organism) out of the water as fast as possible before it get to ammonia stage. Once it is ammonia, the wet/dry, LR, LS will take care of it. If the water parameter get a bit alarming, you may need to do water change.

Good luck.

 

[Len]

A word of advice when adding the live rock later on: Make sure you cure the rock in a seperate vat (with proper circulation and temp) for a several weeks before adding it to tanks with existing livestock.

Ammonia will go away once nitrifying bacteria populations "catch up." There isn't much to do except wait.

 

[Jolieve]

Yeah... I'd expect the tank to do a mini cycle during this. Keep an eye on ammonia levels as often as possible and like Loule said... do water changes to reduce the amount of ammonia. Don't use any of the ammonia removers like ammo-lock. This just creates more problems and can give you a false positive result on ammonia. Water changes are more effective at removing what you don't want in the tank than these chemicals.

Good luck!
J.