What to do?

I need to convert all my livestock from my 55 and 38 together in the 55. Problems i forsee are as follows. I have cc in the 55 i dont want. I will eventually have to put the two battling clowns back together. I have a blue spotted tang and a tomato clown, my pistol shrimp pair and shrimp goby, coral banded shrimp pair,cleaner shrimp and some coral button and star polyps. The reason for this is because i don't have time for any tanks at the moment but i cant just quit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I think i would have to cram it all into my 38 take out all the crushed coral wait for the water to stabilize then add the stuff from the 38.........How many mini cycles?

 

Tricky one this

but if it where me this is what I would do

1 - add live stock to the 38 - acclimatise as if you had just purchased them and do it carefully so as not to disturb and make water cloudy in 55
2 - remove as much water as possible from 55 in available buckets and tubs etc leave about 2 inches of water in the 55 and when syphoning stay at least 2 inches above CC bed
3 - add rocks etc to said buckets and tubes giving them a bit of a rinse with the 2 inches of water left in the 55
4 - remove the CC and balance of water, and clean out tank using RODI water and elbow grease
5 - start adding water back from tubs - (or add new sand and then start adding water)
6 - once water is up to level you can start constructing reef, add rocks back
7 - complete tank using water left in tubs and buckets
8 - top up tank using water from the 38
9 - acclimatise the corals back to the 55 and do the same with any previous inhabitants of the 38
10 - do what ever you need with whats left of the 38
11 - have 4 cans of lager and a Chicken Madras ( well thats how I would finish the job off)

Steve

 

So steve do you think this is all possible to do so in one day? Without being to stressful on inhabitants?

 

I would do it in one day
I more or less have last week - 1 Saturday, stripped and re set up a 70
up at 6 am, finished by 7pm

NB - You could even put you existing 55 stock in the water tubs (I used large tubs on castors from Wall Mart - yep, Wall Mart)


Also - dont know if it makes a difference, but I like to move my corals when they are not yet open for the day , hence my 6 am start and then move them back when lights are out for same reason

Steve

 

Wal-mart is everywhere...well i appreciate the advice i hope i can get some time in the future to do this. Its going to be interesting. Thanks again Steve!!

 

Steve covered that very nicely. I would just add one thing. When you put the sand in after cleaning the tank, put down a layer of saran wrap over the top of it. SLOWLY add water onto the saran wrap. The wrap with rise with the water level and leave you with a clean tank, if done correctly. You may want to do a few water changes in the next few weeks also to prep for this. Save the water and use it as back up.

 

You may not like this answer. I would not add everything to the a 38 gal. Talk about stressing the inhabitants! The better idea would be to remove the CC 1/4 at a time from the tank and add in sand to replace although CC is fine and don't know why why you want to replace it. There should be about a week between swapping out each 1/4 of the CC and live bacteria should be added to re-establish the bacteria base reduction. After the 1 month period and all the CC is replaced you can then start to add a couple of pieces (coral, rock etc.) from the 38 gal. to the 55 gal. every other week until the 55 gal. is restocked. Then comes the process of adding some of the fish and inverts etc. from the 38 gal. to the 55gal. I would advise returning some live stock to LFS for credit, especially a troublesome clown. Caution must be exercised as to not over stock the 55 gal. as this will lead to algae problems and/or a potential "crash".
In this great hobby nothing should be done hurriedly and without thinking through what we plan to accomplish.

 

Jerry aka Jdog....
I have moved, combined or re-setup tanks 13 times now.
My last combination entailed, tearing down a 75, taking all rock sand fish and corals and adding them to a 180, which I had to also remove all rock in, catch the fish, drill two holes in my fuge and drink two beers, oh yeah did I mention also watch TWO kids!?!?!?

It is possible and is surprising how resilient livestock/tanks can be. I think people worry too much or I am just extremely lucky.... I would love to post what you can do Jerry but you know I am at work and haven't the time to post it all, you know how I can talk....
Call me at the Bag or stop in. You can call me at home also if you would like.
Otherwise I will post some help when I get home!!

Good luck buddy and don't sweat it.