Questions - ??

[andymi]

All,
I have a question that I think I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. Currently my salinity is at 1.020 and I am trying to raise it to around 1.022 or 1.023 so that I can start adding corals and such in a month or two.
I have been pre-mixing a large cup full of water and adding salt to make sure it disintegrates, then checking the salinity of it. I have been making it around 1.024 per cup and adding it to the wet/dry when the level drops. I figured this would be the best way because it gradually increases the salinity of the tank. Is this a good way to do it?
Ok my second question is with moving the tank. I am actually getting new carpeting this week and will need to move the tank about 15 feet or so for a couple days why the carpeting is being installed. What are the steps I should take? Currently I do not have a hospital tank or anything I can put the fish in , so I will need to move the whole thing. Should I remove part of the water and keep it that way for a day or so? What do you advise?
Ok last but not least, I recently got 3 scarlet hermits, 7 blue leg hermits and 10 turbo snails as a cleanup crew on the 70 gallon. They have done a good job cleaning the gravel. The snails are now starting to clean the rock, should I let them do this? My rock had no color and it actually looked just like stone, but now I am seeing purple colors from the rock now that the snails are cleaning it. Also my hermits seem to be burying themselves in the sand, is this normal?
Stupid questions, but I guess I want to make sure things are going good. So far all the levels are still excellent and no one has passed
--Andy

 

[playtime]

I can tell you what I did with mine when I had to move it. I drained the tank down a little more than 1/2 way transfering the water into a clean bucket. I then moved the tank to the desired location and added the water that I drained from the bucket back to the tank. Make sure that you leave the light off as to not add anymore stress to the fish, I also added some stress coat. Everyone survived.
playtime

 

[krazzydart]

Yes yes yes.... it is ok for the snails to "do there thing" also the hermits are just "doing their job" as for the "BIG MOVE" I would go out and invest in another tank... possibaly a 40 or so.... <<<>>> You did not say if you had any fish or not!!! if not just move the water into the 40 gal, along with the rock and critters.... just a power head or two should be O.K. get your carpeting in and do it all over again.... (now would be the time to get a bigger tank if you wanted) LOL good luck on the move.... My ol'lady wants to "redo" or front room and I said sure then I can get that 125 and get rid of the 75 and she said NO WAY ---- so the front room remains the same......
I would get a few more clean up guys if I were you,,,, just a thought,,,,

 

[andymi]

heh, I just bought the 70 gallon. Yes I have 3 fish, just 2 green chromis and 1 bangai..I was thinking just move it into the kitchen about 15 feet away, actually I was wondering if there was a wonder product I could use to slide the whole setup. Might wind up trying to get another piece of rug on it to drag it the few feet we need, plug it into a socket in the kitchen then drag it back. Problem is we need to do this tomorrow, and it will have to sit for about 16 hours before moving it back.
--Andy

 

[andymi]

Oh, and I was planning on getting more of a cleanup crew from this site in the next couple weeks. With new carpet and furniture, somethings need to wait a bit
BTW: What about my question regarding increasing salinity? Is that ok to do?
--Andy

 

[broomer5]

Man I would be very careful trying to drag a 70 gallon full of sand, rock, water and fish. Even if you empty out some of the water - still a risk moving it in my opinion.
You might want to consider running to Kmart or store and get 3 or 4 30 gallon plastic trash cans.
Set these somewhere nearby, run a powerhead or pump with hose and transfer water to each one, place your rock in some, fish and corals in others, drop a powerhead in them and do the carpet gig. Afterwards, move rock back in, pump ( or bucket ) water back over to display tank, and acclimate your fish and any corals. You could probably leave an inch or so or water to keep your substrate wet, or just add some of the water back in until you can move it back to it's original location.
Man this sounds confusing now that I read it, but I think you get my jest.
Good luck Andy !
Brian

 

[kodi]

Andymi - Be careful when moving your tank. FYI a 70 gal tank holds over 550 lbs of water alone not counting the tank, rock, sand, stand, etc. I agree with broomer5 - get a couple of 30 gal trash cans (new) and transfer the water over along with fish and rock (rock can quickly damage - break glass - when moving a tank). You should be able to move the tank and stand by slowly pushing/dragging to its temp location. If you have to go more distance I had good experience getting several sections of pipe (about 4-5) place them under the stand and roll the tank along (like a conveor system) putting a section of pipe in front that comes from the back, repeat the process until its relocated.
Good luck.

 

[andymi]

Do I need to keep the water circulating in the tank that contains just the sand? I have one power head I can put in the garbage can with the fish and rocks. Do I need to put any of the sand in the garbage can to? What about the snails and hermits? I want to try and do this without restarting a cycle and hopefully without killing anything, thank god I dont have any coral yet or any fish that were extremely expensive.
--Andy

 

[broomer5]

This is just my idea, as I've never actually done a move like this ... but I would think that if you keep the fish and rock in airated circulated water at the correct temp, you'll be fine for a day or so. The sand and any critters that live down in it should be fine if covered with an inch or two of water - without much circulation.
Ideally if you had another powerhead, you could move most of water and rocks to trashcans with powerhead/heater, then move the tank .... then put some water back into the now moved tank and run a powerhead.
Then after carpet installed - empty out water again, move tank and place all back in.
I wish you the best ... and tell the carpet guys to bust ass !
Brian

 

[playtime]

Just to clear things up, when I moved mine, it was from one side of the room to another and it took less than 45min. otherwise, I would have done things diffrent.
playtime