Hrlp in deciding the right course of action to dismantle 1 tank and setting up 2 new one

[fr3n0z]

Hi guys sorry for long post, ATM i have a 64lt AIO tank running for 8 months. All good inside, about 20 frags between soft, zoa and easy lps, 2 clown, 1 ambonmisnsis, 1 watchman gobi, 2 BTA (a 10/15cm one that splitted about a month ago and made a 4cm one), 2cm of sand.

I am going to dismantle this tank and setup:
1 x 60lt tank with 20lt sump
1 x 40lt AIO

- The AIO i would like to make a clown and nem tank (2/3kg big central rock, bigger nem, 2 clown, a carpet and backwall of gsp).
- The other tank will keep all the rest with probably a extra fish and few more frags.

I will add some kg's of rocks that are not been cured yet (caribsea south sea base rock and arka reef ceramics).

The 40lt is ready and setup, the new 60lt with sump it will be ready in a month or so since i need to move studio.

I would like to reduce cycle or not have to do it at all.

What's for you the right course of action?

 

[C4ctus99]

I love the 40L! It looks great! Also, I work with gallons and inches so metric always throws me off

The easiest way might be to get some fluval bio max or similar ceramic bio filter media and let it cook in your 40L tank. Live rock curing would be the best option, but at the very least that. Having anything seeded with the bacteria can skip cycle and your tank will do well. The more biomedia you can cure, the better it’ll be able to handle the new tank.

Another option would be to go ahead and take the sump and fill it with live rock/biomedia and start cycling it now. Then when it is time to set up the new tank move your rocks to buckets of water and set everything up

 

[C4ctus99]

@brandon429 is very familiar with skip cycling

 

[brandon429]

@fr3n0z

don't find this terribly ironic: the same rip clean I recommended for your cyano issue/caused a rift between us/ is how to skip cycle this tank perfectly. if you can work past the cyano issue I can too/we can skip cycle your tank here.

if you are using new sand in the display, you'd rip clean it to 100% cloudless perfection/we can detail that here if needed. the reason: we want a perfect cloudless assembly in the new tank to gauge safe transfer; failed skip cycles are cloudy. we don't want optional sand clouding masking up your transfer, so any sand you use in the new display, new or old sand, must simply be rip clean rinsed 100% cloudless perfection.

*the bacteria in your current or new sand are of no importance, being cloud free is the important part. that's why rinsing out the sand like we do doesn't harm anyone's tank. its the bacteria on live rock we need to ensure is set


*the one unclear detail from the post: can you tell me about the live rocks that are going into the new display. are you transferring your current live rock into that new display? or do you have all new rocks ready to go?

other details: cover any fish in holding containers with a lid so they don't jump

**re ramp your lighting on the new tank as if it's new, start low power work up over a week's time. don't begin the new transferred tank on the same power levels from the old setup. that's a coral bleaching risk prevention step.

you are essentially lifting out rocks that are ready cycled, moving into the new tank on top of absolutely clean sand, filling with new water, all new, matching temp and salinity only from the old system, and ramping up the lights slowly. no bottle bac is needed, no ammonia testing is needed.

 

[C4ctus99]

@fr3n0z

don't find this terribly ironic: the same rip clean I recommended for your cyano issue/caused a rift between us/ is how to skip cycle this tank perfectly. if you can work past the cyano issue I can too/we can skip cycle your tank here.

if you are using new sand in the display, you'd rip clean it to 100% cloudless perfection/we can detail that here if needed. the reason: we want a perfect cloudless assembly in the new tank to gauge safe transfer; failed skip cycles are cloudy. we don't want optional sand clouding masking up your transfer, so any sand you use in the new display, new or old sand, must simply be rip clean rinsed 100% cloudless perfection.


*the one unclear detail from the post: can you tell me about the live rocks that are going into the new display. are you transferring your current live rock into that new display? or do you have all new rocks ready to go?

Whoops… didn’t know y’all knew each other

 

[brandon429]

I love transfer jobs. $$ on the line, plus that tank is so clean above the transfer should go really well

 

[fr3n0z]

@fr3n0z

don't find this terribly ironic: the same rip clean I recommended for your cyano issue/caused a rift between us/ is how to skip cycle this tank perfectly. if you can work past the cyano issue I can too/we can skip cycle your tank here.

Ok so in

@fr3n0z

don't find this terribly ironic: the same rip clean I recommended for your cyano issue/caused a rift between us/ is how to skip cycle this tank perfectly. if you can work past the cyano issue I can too/we can skip cycle your tank here.

if you are using new sand in the display, you'd rip clean it to 100% cloudless perfection/we can detail that here if needed. the reason: we want a perfect cloudless assembly in the new tank to gauge safe transfer; failed skip cycles are cloudy. we don't want optional sand clouding masking up your transfer, so any sand you use in the new display, new or old sand, must simply be rip clean rinsed 100% cloudless perfection.

*the bacteria in your current or new sand are of no importance, being cloud free is the important part. that's why rinsing out the sand like we do doesn't harm anyone's tank. its the bacteria on live rock we need to ensure is set


*the one unclear detail from the post: can you tell me about the live rocks that are going into the new display. are you transferring your current live rock into that new display? or do you have all new rocks ready to go?

other details: cover any fish in holding containers with a lid so they don't jump

**re ramp your lighting on the new tank as if it's new, start low power work up over a week's time. don't begin the new transferred tank on the same power levels from the old setup. that's a coral bleaching risk prevention step.

you are essentially lifting out rocks that are ready cycled, moving into the new tank on top of absolutely clean sand, filling with new water, all new, matching temp and salinity only from the old system, and ramping up the lights slowly. no bottle bac is needed, no ammonia testing is needed.

Ok for cleaning the sand, even tough i don't have any more cyano issue ATM i was thinking about a deep clean seen that i will have it all out. So i got that.

About the unclarified details. In old tank i have few KG of rocks that will be split and put in the 2 new tanks along with some more new rocks.

If you have a best course of action for rocks i am all ear. I have enough new dead rocks that i can use only those for the 2 tanks if you tell me is best that way.

To wrap it, i have to fill:
1 - 60lt tank + 20l sump (around 20gallon total)
1 - 45L AIO (around 11gallon total)

I have available:
20Kg of dead new ceramic rocks (arka reef ceramics)
5/7Kg of live rocks (that are

** I am doing what you are saying BUT i am also adding some new uncycled dead rocks

 

[C4ctus99]

It would not be difficult to cycle the dead rocks over the course of the next month if you wanted to, just so they all have bacteria

 

[fr3n0z]

It would not be difficult to cycle the dead rocks over the course of the next month if you wanted to, just so they all have bacteria

what i am scared about is the ugly stage. With the old tank (8 months, so not so old) i never had the ugly stage

 

[brandon429]

nice input. I truly think any dried rocks added will have the ugly stage, even if they're pre cycled or not, but the nice part is you don't have to leave them in the tank the whole time-easy to set an aquascape where you just lift them up and set on the counter outside the tank, and clean them off manually to guide out the ugly stages and you don't have to alter your tank's chemistry to try and suppress them

*a nano of that size is not going to include so many fish that you're going to have a cycle, I can't imagine the new tank being unable to carry whatever your intended bioload is as long as you're using a few pounds of the aged/truly cured rocks right in the middle of the display where the waste will be produced by the fish. Sometimes people put all dry rocks up top for a brand new scape, and the cured rocks they transfer over into the sump/out of sight but this is unideal for safety because fish produce waste in the top section/not cycled and the wastewater has to swirl around in the top section until the outlet directs it to the sump for true oxidation action. in our big sand rinse thread we truly have taken full aquascapes and cut them down by *half* in the new tank, with several fish moved in, and there's still no recycle because rocks in the display are truly powerful and we're all using much more surface area than needed.

it's true you can pre cycle the dry rocks in about 10 days so easily/no testing needed at all/simply put them in a bucket of saltwater with some bottle bac and finely ground up pinch of fish food stirred into the water, it wouldn't even have to circulate. just sit there ten days, stir it occasionally and when you lift out those wet rocks plenty of filtration bacteria would be attached to them for truly skip cycle ability. I don't think I would cut your true live rock inclusions down to a ping pong ball sized amount/that's too deep of a removal/but using several chunks or half of your current rock at least transferred is directly in scale with many of the large tank jobs we did that had many more fish to carry at the time of setup. this will go smoothly for sure with your plan
B