ariellemermaid
Well-Known Member
I’ve agreed to purchase a Red Sea XL 525 (139g total). Seller is taking care of break down and moving the tank, I just need to look after the fish and corals until I can get it set up. My fundamental question here is how would you move ~6 large fish including: bristle tooth tang, hippo tang, rabbit fish, angle fish, mandarin, and a medium/large clown? The move is just across town, however, I’m on my own for water and setting up the tank. Fish look very healthy but have never been truly QT’d and treated for ich, he just uses a UV system. I’m just concerned how long it might take to set the tank back up.
Here’s what I have to work with:
What I’ve been thinking:
What I don’t want to do is mix any water or fish with my current set up. We’ve been religious about QT and copper treatment so the 40g is off limits with its rock, sand, fish, and inverts. They’re going to go in a different new tank.
Eventually we might fallow the tank and QT the fish vs. just do ich management with that tank but that’s a discussion for another day. (If we turn the 40g into a copper QT could that many fish be ok for 76 days in that size of tank- or maybe split between the 20g and 40g?) For now just need to complete the move and keep the fish alive. I could move my fish out of the 20g QT to the current DT and use that, but that would be adding to the stress of all fish...but 20g is probably better than 5 or 10.
So back to my original question, given the fish list and the fish size, what temporary storage containers would you guys recommend? Separate buckets for each fish is out because of a lack of heaters. I could buy a large tote but 10g is probably the maximum of liftable (83lbs). I don’t know how long it will take me to reassemble my first tank of this size, but planning for the worst let’s imagine the fish will need to be in there up to 24-36 hours for assembly, filling, and heating. Also there are 2 corals but only one concerns me, an absolutely huge leather. I haven’t read much about temporary storage for corals; would it be ok in a bucket with heat +/- air pump? In other words do corals have fewer requirements than fish (at least in terms of worrying about ammonia)?
Back to the fish, given y’all’s experience, is there a logical breakdown whereby some fish go into one 5g bucket and the rest into another based on the list? Or maybe 3 if my heaters come in time? Or would it be best to throw them all in a 5G bucket then into the 20g QT (30 minute drive)?
Here’s what I have to work with:
- 20g coral/invert QT with a month to 76 days. I’d rather not reset the QT time and it has no cover.
- 20g fish QT that will be done in 2 days with a yellow tang, 2 cardinals, and a royal gramma.
- 40g DT with sand, live rock, inverts, 2 small clowns, and a few other peaceful very small fish.
- 6x 5G buckets
- 2x 44g brutes + 1x 32g brute
- 1x spare heater although the seller’s tank has 2 and I ordered 2 online that might arrive by this weekend, or not.
- Lots of air pumps and stones
- Prime. Lots of Prime.
What I’ve been thinking:
- Make 139g of salt water using the brutes and 5 buckets ready to go. I could pre-heat some of the water but not all of it. Alternatively I could fill some of the buckets with old water but no way to transport full brutes. Any buckets with fish though should probably be discarded, no?
- Keep the fish in temporary storage until the tank is set up and warm. No clue how long this will take me and assuming all the plumbing goes back together without issues.
What I don’t want to do is mix any water or fish with my current set up. We’ve been religious about QT and copper treatment so the 40g is off limits with its rock, sand, fish, and inverts. They’re going to go in a different new tank.
Eventually we might fallow the tank and QT the fish vs. just do ich management with that tank but that’s a discussion for another day. (If we turn the 40g into a copper QT could that many fish be ok for 76 days in that size of tank- or maybe split between the 20g and 40g?) For now just need to complete the move and keep the fish alive. I could move my fish out of the 20g QT to the current DT and use that, but that would be adding to the stress of all fish...but 20g is probably better than 5 or 10.
So back to my original question, given the fish list and the fish size, what temporary storage containers would you guys recommend? Separate buckets for each fish is out because of a lack of heaters. I could buy a large tote but 10g is probably the maximum of liftable (83lbs). I don’t know how long it will take me to reassemble my first tank of this size, but planning for the worst let’s imagine the fish will need to be in there up to 24-36 hours for assembly, filling, and heating. Also there are 2 corals but only one concerns me, an absolutely huge leather. I haven’t read much about temporary storage for corals; would it be ok in a bucket with heat +/- air pump? In other words do corals have fewer requirements than fish (at least in terms of worrying about ammonia)?
Back to the fish, given y’all’s experience, is there a logical breakdown whereby some fish go into one 5g bucket and the rest into another based on the list? Or maybe 3 if my heaters come in time? Or would it be best to throw them all in a 5G bucket then into the 20g QT (30 minute drive)?
