120 Gal Redo!

Hi everyone, twelve years ago i got hooked into the hobby of reef aquariums. i had a 60 gal tank which i ran for 4 years. i had to relocate so sadly i had to sell it. Now i have settled with family and im ready to go back into the hobby. The main thing for me is to save money while at the same time not compromise the quality of the filtration and stability of the system. i found a guy who is sold me this 120 tank with a 60 gal sump. a quite one return pump, AG skimmer, 1/4 hp chiller 2 rio pumps, stand and canopy, 200+ pounds of live rock, live sand (thats what he said) and 4 compact flourecent lights with balast and timers. 2 of the lights dont work. 1 anemone 3 maroone clown fish a mated pair and a small one, a coral beauty , a lion fish and some other fish that i forgot their names. but you could prob id on the pictures. some rocks have mushrooms and polyps and some feather dusters. i still need to go pick up the tank which is roghly 1 hr from where i live. so any suggestions into how to transport all the stuff i would really appreciate it. also i am planing on put the fish live rock etc on a plastic tank while i give a really good clean out to the tank and equipment the guy has serious algae problems. so im planning also on getting a janitor crew. i am also planning on trade some of the fish for equipment or corals since im planning on making this tank mainly a coral tank with sps softies etc. so eventually i really need to change the lightning system. any ideas recommendations will be gladly appreciated. thanks for your support !!!!!!!

 

Get 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot to transport water and inhabitants. Rubbermaid tubs make good choices also. Leave about 1" of water above the sand and move the tank with the sand in it. Get a battery operated pump and run it in the container you have the fish in.

 

Yea i have two 50 gallon buckets and i will get 2 rubbermaid tubs to put live rock and animals in it while i do a detail cleanup of the tank. im thinking on taking the sand out the tank and wash the tank and also rinse it with vinager to take all that algae off of it. the guys says he has the system running for 3 years but the "live rock doesn't seem to have any kind of coraline any tips to make it happen?

 

if it was me, and you want to clean out that tank 100%, I would put all the fish, corals, and live rock in seperate coolers or rubbermaid tubs. I like big coolers because of better insulation to keep water temps stable. I uses air pumps/stones in them to see everything is alive while you have time to transport/clean/setup tank. Looks like the guy has a 3"+ deep sand bed thats pretty nasty. I would save like 4-5 cups of sand, and throw out the rest of the existing. go buy new sand and put those 4-5 cups of old sand on top of the new sand. place your rockwork into tank. and might be good to use some of the old water 25% as well. run the pumps/skimmers/etc for a day and then get your corals and fish back into it.

 

Looks like the guy has a 3"+ deep sand bed thats pretty nasty. I would save like 4-5 cups of sand, and throw out the rest of the existing. go buy new sand and put those 4-5 cups of old sand on top of the new sand. place your rockwork into tank. and might be good to use some of the old water 25% as well. run the pumps/skimmers/etc for a day and then get your corals and fish back into it.

Great advice i was thinking of that too because it looks pretty nasty! do you think clean the tank with vinegar will help to get rid of green red algae stuck on the glass and overflow? the tank has some minor scratches is there a way or product to get rid of them? how long can i keep the fish on the rubbermaid tubs for?

 

scratches on the glass are pretty much there for good. Vingear, hot water, new sponge, new razor blade w/ holder or plastic aquarium algae scraper will get the nasties of the glass. I've kept fish for over 24 hours in coolers before when moving no problem. as long as they are getting air and water temps are good, should be fine. main thing is getting everything minus the corals and fish into the tank once setup. and get everything circulating and settling. after that I would slowly acclimated the corals and fish into the new tank. using existing live rock, a little old sand, and 25%+/- of old water should help avoid a complete cycling of new tank. hope this helps, if im wrong someone will chime in, but Ive used these methods before.

 

I think thats the route i will take thanks for the advice. what do you think on regards of the live rock why isnt covered at all with coralline? the guy says he has the sytem running for about 3 years already? what could it be and am i going to be able to fix that meaning can i do something to promote coralline growth on those rocks?

 

coralline needs good levels of calcium, alk/dkh, and lighting. maybe he didnt have proper levels maintained. softies would still live in those conditions..also coralline wont grow on area of rocks that are covered with nussiance algae (ie gha,bubble,cyano,etc) coralline will happen for you it just takes time. once you get everything running for a little bit. go buy some live rock with coralline and scrape it with a blade to seed your tank. some people use purpleup liquid too. you'll probly get coralline on the glass first and I just scrap that off as well to seed the rock in tank.

 

A nem, butterfly, lionfish, and a puffer in a reef. I like your style!

 

Actually i dont like that setup thats how the guy that sold me the tank has it at this moment. im planning on staying only with the clowns butterfly fish purple tang the rest im going to see if any of the lfs around me want them to trade for equip or corals.