I'm buying an Aptasia farm! My new 11 year old turn key 125 gal. Softy-LPS Tank

[reefez]

Any tips or hints are going to be very helpful. My main concerns are
1. Do the move as quickly and organized as possible. Under 1 1/2 hrs.
2. Make sure the water that the fish are in is the exact same salinity, temp, and Ph as the new water they are going in.
3. Keeping all light away from the tank.
What am I missing? Should I try to move more of the water they are in with them so it's less then a 50% water change? Say 70% old and 30% new?

[xcreonx]

Also be sure when you transport the fish to place them in large bags instead of buckets. Buckets are very dangerous for a freaked-out fish, especially that copperband with it's fragile snout. Bags are more gentle on the fish.

[reefez]

I'll do that on the Copperband for sure. I wasen't planning on it but I will now. Thanks for that tip.

[nsreefer]

Keep in mind that tangs can shred bags in a real hurry if they decide to. When i worked for an lfs I sold a particularly agressive purple tang to a customer, i rebagged it 4 times, each time it tore a hole in the bag with it's scalpel, eventually we just put it in a bucket.

[kryppy]

Be careful the aptasias don't eat your thermometer. LOL

[reefez]

Well I started the move at 4:00 this afternoon. It went pretty well I think. Tank is in the living room on the floor with all of the fish and Live rock, and corals. All the fish are swimming up right and look a bit stressed but I think they will be ok. The 75 gal. fuge is in the garage with a heater and powerhead for now. Tomorrow I will work on getting the main display tank on the stand after a cleaning it and drilling a hole in the stand for the overflow that is on the end of the tank.
Hopefully by tomorrow night I will have the display tank plumbed into the fuge in the garage, and everything running as it needs to be. I'll keep you all posted on the move and the condition of the fish. These are some old fish, so I have my fins crossed Wish me luck.

[reefez]

Ok I woke up this morning and all is well. The fish look hungry so I put a clip in the tank with some Nori and they went to town. Copperband and the crew are looking good! I'll update with some pics as soon as I can.

[Frick-n-Frags]

fwiw, anthelia don't capture particles as well as aiptasia do, if at all.

( good luck on the whole move too BTW )

[reefez]

Well the fuge is a muddy mess. I had to take the majority of the 4in. sandbed out of the tank so me and my 12 year old son could move it. It is in a rubbermaid container right now with a power head and heater. Any reccomendations? Should I plumb this mud pit back into the tank after it settles down? I'm sure their is going to be a bigger spike in this then the tank.

[reefez]

Anthelia are nicer looking then Aptasia but I think as a means of nutrient export the Aptasia are the way to go. I got all of the plumbing done today and ready for the move into their home. Now that they are settled in I got to move them one more time.

[illcssd]

good luck with the rest of it man. if you need anything or any help give us a call and i can swing by and help ya out.
austin

[vessxpress1]

Great looking fish.

Anyway, I just saw in an earlier pic that you've got one of those Big Digital Temp alerts on the tank. I had one of those on my tank too. I thought it was pretty neat with the temp alarm and all but I would NOT trust your temp to it long term. It may already be bad.

I hooked up mine and 6 months later, my tank temp reading was off by over 4 degrees. No way to compensate. No way to replace the probe. At least have a secondary thermometer in there.

I have an RK2 now and plan to replace the probes on it once a year. They inevitably go bad after a while.

[reefez]

Thanks for the offer Austin. I Just about have it done. I just need to make one more trip to the hardware store for the 3/4 in. slips to attach the overflow hoses that I got from Patrick yesterday. You guys have been a huge help allready. I might swing in there later today for some maxijets. Rob

[reefez]

Ya I don't trust that big digital temp as my only gauge. I got 2 different ones too.

[reefez]

Well it is all set up and running. However I'm not going to plumb the fuge into the system. It is just too muddy and I think it would be more detramental to the tank to put the fuge back on. But I do have a 20gal. long tank that I want to set up next to the main tank and have a gravity fed fuge with Aptasia for the CBB Fish. I know you all want to see some pics. I'll get some up asap.

[reefez]

Well I thought I would give an update on the tank. Allthough I have no pics to post right now. It has been up for 2 months now and I have made a few upgrades. First the little giant return pump went tits up shortly after the move so I got a used Iwaki 40rlt. I had that on the system for around 3 weeks untill my new Octopus 3000 overflowed and fried the Iwaki. Now I'm on my 3rd pump in 2 months! I now have a Gen-X PCX-20 That is doing a fine job. My new Octopus 3000 is modded as much as it can be and I'm very happy with it now that I have it dialed in. The display is BB with 165-175lbs. of Lr. I'm having a issue with my nitrates. I can't get them under 10-20ppm. All fish are doing fantastic! The Copperband no longer has the Aptasia to feast on because the Aptasia fuge never got plumbed back onto the system, but the fish is doing fine. The CBB really loves Mysis! That's his Favorite! I'm thinking of hooking up a RSB to help with the Nitrates.