# My 38 gallon upgrade and move...



## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I have been talking a lot about my 180 gallon tank lately, but first things first. I have an existing 38 gallon reef that in 4 weeks must be completely moved. This thread will document my progress and methods of moving this tank. The tank will be upgraded to a 58 bowfront in the new condo. I will document the 58 build in the pics and video area, starting in 2 weeks.

Here is the 38 gallon as it exists today:








My plan is to first set up the 58 gallon bowfront, the weekend of March 5th. A short 2 weeks later, the weekend of March 17th, all livestock will be moved from the 38 into the 58. There will be many steps involved designed to have a "mature" aquarium in place in only a 4 week time. When I say mature, i am not talking about Ammonia and Nitrite. It will be child's play to get Ammonia and Nitrite to zero. I also want a thriving copepod and amphipod population and I hope to avoid the typical algale and diatom blooms.

So... here goes!

Today I purchased 25 pounds of fully cured live rock. The rock if very porous and light weight for its size. If this rock were from Florida it would easily weigh 50 or more pounds. The LFS employee did not know the origin of this rock, but to me it appears to be from Fiji, based on weight and colors.

Before I left home I cleaned out a 20 gallon storage tote and filled it with 15 gallons of saltwater.








I spent a good 30 minutes at the LFS picking through the live rock containers, finding the perfect pieces. I look for rock which does not have an odor, is very light weight, has nice coraline growth, is porous, and has flat areas that make for easy coral placement. I always do my own digging and simply will not buy rock if I feel rushed or unwelcome. I weigh my own pieces and box my own rock. This is the deal. If you want my business, we do it my way. 

I cover the rock with paper during shipment:








More next thread...


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I should wear gloves when handling the rock, but i'm stubborn. I placed the rock pieces one at a time into the tote, making sure they are completely submersed. 








Here is the final product, a 20 gallon storage tote which has become a temporary aquarium. 








I should point out that any water which drains off the live rock during the trip home from the LFS will often have copepods and amphipods and other life. For this reason, I drain all of the water in the bottom of the styrofoam shipping container into the tote.

I will use several totes of this size during my move. Each will serve to fully cure live rock and as temporary housing for fish during the move. More to come as I take further steps.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

im confused. i thought you were doing a bigger tank but it appears you have settled for a 58?

which brings me to my next question. what are the dementions of the 58? ive never heard of a 58 bow.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

onefish2fish said:


> im confused. i thought you were doing a bigger tank but it appears you have settled for a 58?
> 
> which brings me to my next question. what are the dementions of the 58? ive never heard of a 58 bow.


LOL. Tank?? Who only has 1 tank??? This is Mark you are talking to! Yes, I am having a 180 delivered the weekend of March 5th. I also have a 58 bowfront that has been in my shed. ;-) This will be the new home to my reef until the 180 is ready for livestock. 

After the 180 is ready, I will use the 58 as a FOWLR. The 38 will be my quarantine.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

ohhhh! gotcha, now i get it. 

i guess i got confused when i saw "reef" but this is simply going to be the holding tank.


cool, following.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I tested the water in the live rock tote this morning. As expected, ammonia and nitrite are both zero.

A note on tests. Here is my first test:








I use the Aquarium Pharmasuticals FW/SW kit when testing Nitrite and Ammonia. I do this to save money, because I don't care about the exact reading. I just need a positive or negative. The actual level is unimportant. The Nitrite kit gives me a very accurate reading, as compared to the Red Sea Marine kit. The AP Ammonia test does a great job of detecting Ammonia if positive, but the zero reading is difficult to decifer, as you can see in the picture above.

Whenever I get a reading near zero for Ammonia using AP, I then use my Red Sea test to confirm the zero reading:








This testing became necessary because I was faced with an emergency. In my 38 gallon reef I have a pair of Ocellaris Clownfish. They have lived happily since last May, but recently the smaller of the pair has been getting chased by the larger Clownfish and by the Six Line Wrasse. This morning the chasing was relentless and the smaller Clownfish was breathing very heavy. I made the decision to acclimate the smaller Clownfish to the Live Rock Tote as his temporary home.









I will probably keep these fish separated until both can live comfortably inside my 180. If you are interested in seeing my acclimation technique, I will be posting an additional thread with pictures.


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## Kellsindell (Sep 15, 2008)

Pasfur said:


> LOL. Tank?? Who only has 1 tank??? This is Mark you are talking to! Yes, I am having a 180 delivered the weekend of March 5th. I also have a 58 bowfront that has been in my shed. ;-) This will be the new home to my reef until the 180 is ready for livestock.
> 
> After the 180 is ready, I will use the 58 as a FOWLR. The 38 will be my quarantine.


I know what you mean. I have a 10g just sitting around doing nothing... but i could turn that into a SW setup... and then i have another 55g and i could turn that into something, or i could just plum them all together... so many options, but i'm on hold for now...


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

how did this go?


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I was far to late in moving the Clown. I was worried for a few days and should have acted sooner. I am the most patient person in the world when it comes to this hobby and this time I should have acted quicker. His breathing never calmed down after I took him out of the display and by the time I went to bed he had passed. I'm glad I acted when I did, because he could easily have developed an ich outbreak.

These decisions are always difficult to make. I knew that moving him would increase his stress. But I knew that leaving him in the display would be high risk to the other livestock. End of the day, i'd make the same decision again.

As to the live rock... it is awesome. Great great rock. Loaded with life. I sat and watched copepods and amphipods scurrying all about for about 15 minutes yesterday. I am getting excited! Only 11 more days to the closing on the condo! I plan to have the 180 delivered 4 days later, assuming we get the rooms painted in time.

When am I going to have time to move this reef??? LOL HELP!!!!!


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

I'm sorry you lost your clown. I glad that at the end of the day you were satisfied with the decision you made regarding the situation you found yourself in. I'm curious as to when you say you should have acted sooner...does that mean if you had it all to do over again you'd do something else???


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

No, if i had to do it all over again I would be extremely patient and probably still loose the fish. I think that 90% of the time it is best to never rush any decisions.

However, looking back on it and knowing how it turned out, had i moved the fish a couple weeks ago when I first noticed the aggression change, I would have improved the odds of saving its life.

The real problem was not having an option available 2 weeks ago. I really should have a 10 gallon tank running full time just for these situations.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

sorry about the loss, happens to the best of us.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

on the plus side now you can go out and buy 2 $400+ snowflake clowns :roll:


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I picked up another 25 pounds of live rock today for this move. This came from a local reefer who was downsizing his tank. $25 pounds of nice porous rock for $25. I now have 50 pounds of extra live rock for my upgrade from the 38 to 58. I'm ready to roll.

Tomorrow we will be building the sump for the 58. I may as well continue this thread and post pics of the 58 upgrade as we go along. Sump pics coming tomorrow night.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Sump pics will be delayed until later this week.

Today I made the decision on which sand to use for my 58 reef. This was not simple at all. In the short term I need this aquarium ready to go, so that I can move my 38 reef into it on March 21st. The 58 will be my temporary reef tank for about 4 months, until the 180 is complete and ready for livestock. After the 180 is complete, this 58 is going to be a FOWLR.

Wanting to speed up this process as much as possible, I choose to use CaribSea Live Sand. The price of the live sand was the same as the CaribSea dry aragonite sand, which made the decision easier. The # 1 reason I made this decision is that this brand of live sand requires no rinsing whatsoever. You can add it without any clouding of the water, which will save me a couple of valuable days. 

On the down side, I usually like a larger grain size for a DSB, so this will be somewhat of a new experience for me. For my 180, I will use the Nature's Ocean brand, but that is another day.

Here is the CaribSea Live sand:










I also bought a 160 gallon bucket of Instant Ocean salt. 

This is already getting expensive! :-(


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

good sand but your still going to see some clouding.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Oh I didn't expect it would be perfect. But from what i've seen it is a ton better than the dry stuff.


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