Coming to Completion

When the cycle had reached completion, as indicated by zero ammonia and nitrite, it was time to transfer the contents of my 40-gallon into the new tank.

Using the procedure in the Moving Day article, just modified slightly, piece by piece I moved into the new tank. I started on Sunday morning and worked all day. I had a 20-gallon Rubbermaid tub that I placed several corals and rocks in, and covered with original tank water. I moved this to the new tank and drip acclimated the entire tub full by using regular airline tubing and siphoning off the new water into the tub, and bailing out the tub water and placing it back in the 75. I did this for about an hour a tub-full.

When most of the rock and all of the coral where in the 75, I put the rest of the rock (~3 medium pieces) in a dark bucket and caught the fish, and put them in with the rock. I covered the bucket so it would stay dark, and help lessen the stress.

This is when I began the long task of moving the substrate. Using a large Lee's Specimen container, I scooped up a load of the sand-bed, poured of the excess ( and nasty) water, filled up a 1-gallon Ziploc bag with it and lowered it to the bottom of the new tank. Then I would upend the bag and slowly pour out the sand, trying to cause as little of a dust storm as possible. This went on for hours. Finally, the sand-bed was in place.

The water at this point was pretty cloudy, so I busied myself with other things until it cleared up. I pulled the fans from the canopy of the 40-gallon and installed them into the new canopy. Also, I began moving over timers, wavemakers, probes, heaters, powerheads, and everything else I could use.

After a couple of hours, the water was clear enough to add the fish. So, using the drip method above, I acclimated my bucket o' fish and introduced them to their new home. At this point, I refrained from flash photography and bright lights. The kids had been through enough.

By Monday, everyone had settled in and I began the running the lights. The results, in my opinion, (very biased by the way), were spectacular. On Wednesday, I rechecked all of my levels, (all perfect), did a 15% water change for good measure, and ordered a new cleanup crew from eTropicals. All arrived the next day, were drip acclimated and began about their business. All is right with the [undersea] world.

Everything is acclimated and are beginning to thrive, and I am pleasd with my work. I suffered no losses during the move, except for a small clam shell that was partially covered with Green Star polyps. Somewhere in all that rock and water, I am sure it is alive, I just don't know where.

More photos of the final results are in the Features section, under the New 75g w/12KK Metal halide bullet.

prev | next