What do I need to know about reef?

fish1031

Active Member
I have read and learned a lot but I am picking up my first reef tank tomorrow.
mostly soft corals and an anenome...
do I need to add any supplements or just feed them some cyclopeze?
any other starter tips...
how do you reccomend moving the tank?
should everything be okay in the move?
should I take the sand out? or leave it in?
should I keep the corals in water or plastic bags (fish bags)?
how much water should I save?
 

petieaztec

Member
oh as for the move how big is the tank? when i moved mine i went to home depot got a really thick board and a couple guys together and moved the tank onto the board. i kept all my corals and sand in the tank but drained water out until i came near they corals themself
 

mopar9012

Active Member
Ive never moved a tank. But I would start with trying to get as much water out as possible, but I would try to save it, maybe put it in a clean BIG trash can so you can use it later.
Does it come with live rock? I would put the LR in the trash can with the water.
That board suggestion saounds pretty good, just be careful. sorry that im not that much of a help with this.
 

geraldwhite

Member
Yeah I would move most of the water and LR to a rubbermaid with wheels.
Suggesting that your Salinity is 34PPT and you said your tank is 65G that would mean that just the water in your tank weights approx 560LBs!
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 

jhuggins

Member
give us some pictures when you get them. Get ready to start spending money. You might think you have everything you need but we all add extra stuff all of the time..
 

sjimmyh

Member
I dont think it is necessary to move the water with the tank.
Check the tanks parameters prior to the move. Mix up water at the new place before hand to ensure it is well mixed. As long as you acclimate your animals into the new water and the water is close to the parameters that they were used to living in (assuming they didnt let the tank go to heck and its all out of whack) you should be ok.
The majority of the bacteria is not in the water, its on the rock, in the sand, on the bio-media, etc. Water makes little difference in the bio-bed. Save the effort. I think its a waste of energy, myself. Besides, why not start off fresh with water that you know is good because you made it yourself. I would keep the rock and sand wet during the move though, or you will loose a lot of the bacteria bed. I moved a 125 gal tank and kept the rock damp and sand wet, set it up with brand new water and never saw a cycle at all.
Anemones live for centuries in the wild. The most successful aquarists and public aquariums fail to keep anemones alive for over a couple years about 95% of the time (meaning they go through about 19 before they get 1 that does). Take the hint, we don't know enough about these animals to give them what they need to survive yet, and we aren't going to find it using the same crap we already know kills them. They arent coral, and the FACT is that treating them like they are (which we are doing as a group) doesnt work. I think that if you hear about an anemone that survived in a reef tank for 10 years you would be either one of very very few to do so OR you would be hearing an exageration. (keep in mind, CENTURIES, in the wild) Let the experts with the funds to do the research to learn what we need to to keep them alive in our tanks. I for one, know I don't have that kind of fundage.
The one thing you need I would recommend to you for reef keeping is to read "Natural Reef Aquariums" by John Tullock. This will assist you into not doing what most of us reef keepers do... SPEND.
 

frankthetank

Active Member
Yea, you do not need to keep the water if you don't want to try to move 500 some pounds of water. Just be sure you make the water close to the same parameters... which in all honesty shouldn't be hard to do if the current water is good. I have broken down a tank for cleaning and then added all new water. Acclimated everything for two plus hours and never lost a thing.
As a matter of fact, I'll be doing something similar here real soon. My lfs sells salt water for $.99 per gallon. I'll probably buy 30 gallons and make the rest for my 46 bow. Forget trying to keep all that water.
 
T

tiberius

Guest
I would empty the tank. It would be less stress on the seams if the tank was empty. Just keep half the water and acclimate the critters for an hour or so. You can use clean buckets for the coral.
I dose the tank with Phytoplex 3 times a week for my corals and copepods. I also use cyclopeeze to feed the tank as well.
 

fish1031

Active Member
thanks everyone
she says all the parameters are good!
hopefully all goes well
i may just go buy some pre-mixed RO Salt water from the LFS to end it off... she has never used tap water on the tank..
 
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