Urgent!!!

clown boy

clown boy

Active Member
Hi, everyone!

Tommorow, at 3:00 Central Time, I am going to get my first tank.
It is a used 135 Gallon setup. I comes with these fish: Blue Hippo Tang, Purple Tang, Goldband Maroon, Scooter Blenny, and several others that I'm not sure about. I think that there some Rabbitfish.
Anyways, I am faced with two problems.
1. Do I need to re-cycle the tank after I get it? If so, where should the fish be in the meantime? Currently, the tank is running stable with the fish at the seller's house.
2. I have never had a saltwater tank before. Could you all give me advice about keeping them, especially the Tangs and Rabbitfish?
Please keep in mind that I need to know before 3:00 Central Time, and that this is my first tank.
Thank you very much in advance!
 
miaheatlvr

miaheatlvr

Active Member
Call you local fish store and see if they can hold all your fish and coral for you!! This is the best advice I have for you in the meantime. You need to relocate the tank and stableize it. Check all water peramiters or you will severely stress the fish and possible kill them and any corals, I think you need to start the tank like it was a new tank, and that includes the cycling again!
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
I think you'll have a fairly minimal recycle if you do it this way:
Buy a couple of good coolers or large rubbermade containers. Put all the live rock in those and cover over with water from the tank. That should minimize any die-off. Transfer the substrate into buckets and, again, put some water in there just over the top of the sand. Transport the fish in tankwater. I don't know whether I'd suggest bagging them or not. Probably, I'd just put them a cooler or two to maintain temperature control and fill with tankwater.
As long as you don't have a major die-off event on the live rock, you should not have a major cycle.
But I defer to people with more experience moving large tanks like that.
 
clown boy

clown boy

Active Member
About 30 Minutes.
Most of the journey is by freeway. We have a 3 horse slant trailer with removable dividers that we also use as a utility trailer.
 
granny

granny

Member
I would like to add to the above suggestions that you prepare at least one 30 gallon rubber trash can with a saltwater mix ahead of time (NOW) You will need this to replace lost water when you re-set up your tank. Lowes sells the trashcans and a dolly with wheels to move the water.
Take notes on how you dis assemble and disconnect everything so you can reconnect it correctly. Hopefully the person you are buying this from will come with you to help you set up your tank. It might also be worth paying your local fish store to help you set it back up. My LFS has a home visit service charge of $125.00 and they will set up a new tank for that fee-a really good deal, I think.
If your tank is close by, you should have little die -off of anything, but you will stir up tons of detritus and your water will be super cloudy.
It would be easier to bag your fish and place them in a cooler for transport and less sloshing around during the move. Purchase Large bags and double bag them from your LFS.
A cooler for the sand, a cooler or two for the rock,
1-siphone off as much clean water as you can before removing anything because once you start removing rock etc. you will have a cloudy mess.
2-remove any corals you have using the clean water and bag these.
3--remove the rock disturbing the substrate as little as possible and place it in a cooler. YOu dont have to put water on it, just place wet newspaper or lightweight towels over it to keep it from drying out.
4.-catch and bag the fish using some of the clean water you already sihponed out. You can leave the bags open till ready to transport or if you put them all together in a cooloer, place a battery driven pump with airstone in the cooler
5-remove the rest of the water putting it in a separate container
6-remove the substrate
7-rinse the tank-DO NOT USE SOAP OR ANY CLEANSERS-ONLY CLEAN WATER
load it all up in the reverse order you will need to remove it for set up.
Remember all the water! Good luck, this is a long hard job.
 
seasalt101

seasalt101

Active Member
if you have two men(i am assuming you are young) lower the tank water to about 1 inch above the sand line put all your old water in tubs with a good lid(they sell these at wal-mart for about 5 bucks and hold close to 50 gal.) put all lr in tubs and keep all filter media wet with same water after removing all lr it will be easy to catch the fish and in a seperate tub place the fish and because you are in texas freeze a 2 liter coke bottle and put in there with the fish now you are putting the tank which will probably weigh 200-300 lbs. in the horse trailer so put it in towards the front of the trailer(very important i am a truck driver so i know this about the load) the back bounces a lot more than the front place some kind of pillows/cushion on trailer side of tank and if you have some of that rolled styrofoam that is 2 in. or so(that is cheap also available at wal-mart place under tank) to absorb any bounce also in the front corner of the trailer put a pillow in front of the tank just in case you have to brake hardso leave a three in. gap in the front corner to stuff a pillow in between tank and trailer(it is also wise to load this on the driver side, drivers generally will miss more pot-holes on the side the driver is on)when you arrive at your house unload the stand first check condition of fish 2nd. put tank on stand 3rd. add water asap then i might get some flak on this just pour your fish in then add your lr and start your filtration up (if there is sand or cc pour your water onto a plate as to not make a dust storm when you pour all the water back in) let me know if you have any other questions
 
imurnamine

imurnamine

Active Member
I don't know anything about transporting it, but I would just like to take a minute to tell you that you suck.

Total no-fair.
Good luck on the tank! I think that you'll really like having a big one.
 
clown boy

clown boy

Active Member
Thank you all very much, but could you all answer my question about keeping Tangs and Rabbitfish?
Also, it comes with a Gold-Banded Maroon Clownfish. I am not too sure abut whether I want it in my main tank. Will it fit in a 10 gallon tank?
 
seasalt101

seasalt101

Active Member
i don't keep tangs but i do know that you will want to keep an eye on them for ich after the move yes you can keep the clown in a 10 but you will want to upgrade personally i would keep it in the 125
 
clown boy

clown boy

Active Member
Originally Posted by seasalt101
yes you can keep the clown in a 10 but you will want to upgrade personally i would keep it in the 125
I would, but I want to get a couple of Ocelleris clowns. I guess the maroon is pretty.... :thinking:
 
hardcrab67

hardcrab67

Member
If you move everything but the sandbed, I say you can set it up with the old water and do a wc to replace what you use to transport the fish, THROW this away after acclimation.
Put the rock in a tote of fresh SW, THROW this away after you put the rock back in the tank. Let the tank circulate for an hour to settle, test and start acclimating. If your fish are in the bucket longer than 1hr you are going to risk loss, an air pump would ensure a little more time without temp loss and do not overcrowd transport bucket, 1 large fish to a 5g bucket or 2 small ones. Cooler would be better for temp, but IMO the sloshing around would be more stress the fish more.
You need fresh SW so mix some now, at least 50g(estimate for 20% wc and rock tote). Have 10g RO water for spot cleaner equipment as your resetting. Anything your don't want to die has to stay wet. Keep overflowboxes, pwrhds, etc. submerged to avoid losing coralline.
Have had success at this in moving a friend's 55g FOWLR from room to room, but did not acclimate fish till next morning. The fish had 20g of their own till then. All tests were 0, but his nitrates did rise that week to 40ppm, 0 loss. I would rather give the tank overnite but I have done FW several times without loss in a matter of hrs. If you do not supply the fish w/ air you have a max of 2 hrs, in SW this time is cut in half, IMO. I know they ship overnite, but they have an O2 tank to shoot pure O2 in the bag and stress reducer to lower metabolism before transport, you do not have this luxury.
I have took my tank apart to clean rock, replace fuge, did a 90% wc to get rid of phosphates(lost a yellow gorgonian, out of 10 corals just putting straight in a 10g(matched) and fish stayed in 2" of water in a 55g long enough to start refilling, 0 loss).
I didn't see you list any corals or anenome, w/ the anenome move the rock not him, put him in a bowl and put more rock around the rock(w/o touching the anenome) to hold it upright in the bowl, acclimate first, you know what to do w/ the bowl water, THROW it away(how I'm going to do it). Corals will need their own buckets w/ old water and a pump if in there for more than 2hrs, just keep from touching one another. Again THROW this away after acclimation. Have lids for everything. If you stay with it you could have that tank up again in 2 hrs. Make sure temperature is EXACT match in all water. Scrape the tank down before draining to save the coralline. If its algae syphon off after the move.
Make sure the vehicle is not too hot or cold, outside temp of 76-78 would allow a little fluctuation. Moving in a trailer you would want do it when you could keep the tank from getting too hot, a little cooler won't hurt the sand, IMO
This is my plan for moving a reef, I've only done fish so far "down the road" and "through the house". An organized extra pair of hands will guarantee minimal loss if any. Archieve "moving tank" and you will find good and bad stories. Get a "game plan" in your head, be organized, and things will click. Hope this helped.
 
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