Hi all...we are upgrading from a 35 to a 75 gallon tank. We have three fish, a fire shrimp and several corals. We also have a large carpet anemone. Since we only have the one wet'dry system, how do you suggest we do this? The new tank is already set up...the water has been in for about 5 days...live sand added. We put in 40 pounds of new live rock today that was cured, but a few hours later we experienced a slight ammonia rise. How should we go about moving the filter system? Anything else we should do? Thanks for your help. Saff
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Upgrading tank
- Thread starter saffyre98
- Start date
I wouldn't even use a wet/dry on a reef tank. Many would say to go with 1.5-2 lbs of LR per gallon, and get a good skimmer. Wet/drys can lead to high nitrates, and the LR should provide enough bacterial denitrification. I would possibly do a water change to lower your ammonia level. How do you know the LR was cured, when did your LFS receive the rock? It might not have been fully cured.
I recommend getting all the live rock into the new tank that you'd ultimately like to have, get it all aquascaped the way you want, and then give things some time to settle down. As for how much rock, it's more a personal preference thing IMO, and I feel in general if you've got enough in there to look good visiually, you'll have enough biofiltration, especially if you've also got live sand in there (the sand performs a lot of the same functions).
If the rock is well cured from a local source, things should settle down very quickly, but I'd still give it about a week, regardless of test kit readings. If the rock needs curing, plan on giving things a few weeks.
As for filtration, the wet/dry isn't necessary. Get a good skimmer (do a search for Euro-reef as an example) and you shouldn't need any other form of filtration (running good quality activated carbon, even if it's just periodically is also a good idea).
HTH
If the rock is well cured from a local source, things should settle down very quickly, but I'd still give it about a week, regardless of test kit readings. If the rock needs curing, plan on giving things a few weeks.
As for filtration, the wet/dry isn't necessary. Get a good skimmer (do a search for Euro-reef as an example) and you shouldn't need any other form of filtration (running good quality activated carbon, even if it's just periodically is also a good idea).
HTH
Thanks for the welcome! I guess I should have mentioned that I have a good protein skimmer on the tank already and there is about 50 lbs. of live rock in the other tank that also needs to be moved over...the old tank has been setup for about 6 months and everything is very healthy. Should I move the live rock that I can access without too much disruption first? I put 3 bags of live sand in and 2 lbs. of Garf Grunge plus the new live rock. I had tanks years ago...and although I probably don't need the wet/dry, I felt it kept the tank clearer.... Are there any negatives to having one on the tank? Thanks again for all the advice. Saff
Wet/Dry filters produce Nitrates, which is exactly what they're designed to do. In a reef system with a DSB and Live Rock, the Wet/Dry is redundant as all your Amonia/Nitrite/Nitrate can be taken care of 'naturally'.
A lit sump/refugium with Macroalgae 'scrubbing' is also an excellent alternative to to having a w/d under there,,, it will remove dissolved organics from the water and will provide a safe place for pods and other bugs to reproduce,, some of which will make their way back up to the tank as a natural food source (it's also the best place to put that Garf Grunge). I can fix you up with some free Chaetomorpha algae if you decide to set up a refugium,,, I throw it away by the bucketload every month!
A lit sump/refugium with Macroalgae 'scrubbing' is also an excellent alternative to to having a w/d under there,,, it will remove dissolved organics from the water and will provide a safe place for pods and other bugs to reproduce,, some of which will make their way back up to the tank as a natural food source (it's also the best place to put that Garf Grunge). I can fix you up with some free Chaetomorpha algae if you decide to set up a refugium,,, I throw it away by the bucketload every month!
saffyre98":20kubhv5 said:I guess I should have mentioned that I have a good protein skimmer on the tank already and there is about 50 lbs. of live rock in the other tank that also needs to be moved over...the old tank has been setup for about 6 months and everything is very healthy.
In that case, I'd give the new tank and the new rock/sand time to settle down. Once that tank is nice and stable I'd just move the other stuff over.
Personally I wouldn't do the wet/dry. If you do a search on the board here I think you'll find that most will agree.
HTH and good luck with the transition.
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