I have a 300 gallon tank with a 125g refugium and a 100g sump. It’s been running for over a year and now I would like to tie into this system a new 135g tank. The new tank would share the refugium and the sump with the old one plus I’m moving about 100-150lbs of LR from a tank I’m taking down and their inhabitants (about 9 fish) to the new 135g.
Will I see some kind of cycle?
Thanks,
Bill
I’m not sure Bill, if all that rock is already cured i’d guess you’d be ok. The only concern is the extra fish addition, but with all that water volume i’m thinking you’ll be ok with that also (unless they’re huge fish) . with all the extra surface area of addiding a new tank, i’ll bet you get the normal algae cycles in it though…
I’m just speculating… hopefully others had some experience
If the rock is out of water for an extended period you will see a cycle.
I would be expecting to see some sort of cycle, figure if your moving rock around your going to disturb the orientation of where things were living at causing some to die off and triggering a cycle, how bad or how long? No idea?
I plan to have the tank ready… the water, temp, salinity and ph all the same as the one it’s tying into, ready to go before moving all the rocks and livestock.
Does the benefits outweighs the risks?
Benefits:
One ATO
One larger water change instead of two water changes(2 tanks)
The 135g will have more stable temp, salinity and ph with the huge water volume.
Risk:
If disease strikes… oh crap!
One good thing is that all my fish (the 300g and the existing tank I plan to take down) has never
had a sickness so far.
What do you guys think?
I think you’re more than likely going to see a small cycle - the longer you have that rock out of the water the larger / longer the cycle is gong to be. With that much water volume I wouldn’t worry too much about it though you could probably poor a cup of pure ammonia in that system and wouldn’t see any ill effects (although I wouldn’t recommend actually trying it).
I also think the benefits outweigh the risks. As long as you’re careful with your additions you should be relatively safe from disease and downfalls.
ATO is listed as a benefit, but is it possible your skimmer overflows onto the ground or down a drain and the ATO keeps filling and you flush the whole system with fresh water while your away on vacation(because everything always happens when we are away from the tank or too busy to notice)
If you have reliable equipment one system has a ton of benefits, but marine aquariums are pretty fragile complicated systems and if you don’t trust your equipment…
with an ato on a controller you could lock it out the whole day except for one hour right? this could eliminate the possible overflow/salt dilution.
Correct, but if you use an independent ATO device that fills when the tank gets low you may not have the option. All depends on what you use.
[quote=“dunk, post:8, topic:4810”]
with an ato on a controller you could lock it out the whole day except for one hour right? this could eliminate the possible overflow/salt dilution.[/quote]
Good idea, I’m writing that down…
Depending on what controller you use there is probably a better way. There are many lines of code involved in my ATO. Once a day top off for someone who loses 5-6 gallons a day could mean the main pump sucks air or a coral is hit with fresh water once a day as the water isn’t mixed in slowly.
If you only feed from a small reservoir appropriate for your size aquarium then you can’t have a massive dump of fresh water. Also if you set the controller to oscillate, say 30 minutes off 30 seconds on, then your controller adds little bits through out the day, but can never add a massive amount at a time. Or if you have a second fail float if the tank gets too full you can get a message that your first float failed. Or if you have leak sensors you can get a message that there is water on the floor.
Lot’s of fail safes you can build into things especially when you’ve been in the hobby or on the forums enough to experience or hear about someone experiencing just about every failure out there.
My ATO reservoir is only 30 gallons and even if it dumped all 30 into the system, there will be barely any noticeable change in my salinity. I know that because it happened once and my salinity barely moved. And that’s without the 135g I’m adding to the total volume.
I’m thinking like you… one system to take care of if easier then two :
:
Are you adding any sand or aragonite gravel to the new 135? that would take time to colonize with bacteria. same with all the tank glass, and piping. if you have the time, it might be nice to run the new tank tied into the existing tanks/sump/fuge for a month but with no lights or bio load. let everything activate and settle. then start with actinics only for a bit and then bring on the white light cycle. and start adding critters and corals. i think doing something like this could cut down cyano and stuff in the new tank. let the biofilter adjust to the increasing load.
[quote=“kaptken, post:14, topic:4810”]
if you have the time, it might be nice to run the new tank tied into the existing tanks/sump/fuge for a month but with no lights or bio load. [/quote]
Good idea but with no increase in bio-load wouldn’t the colonization of the new tank and substrate take longer as the existing tanks and materials would already have adequate bacteria to handle the current load?
I would think that at least a new fish or 2 would be necessary to adequately build the bacteria levels to adequately handle the additional tank.
On the same token, if he were to add cured live rock (let’s pretend no die off in transfer) wouldn’t he then run the risk of bacteria dieoff as the current bioload would not produce enough waste to support the bacterial life, thus creating a cycle?
There should be no die off from the rocks at all since the existing tank I’m taking down is literally next to the proposed new tank, so it’s like taking the LR from here to here, am I right?
Other question: I intend to use an in sump pump to run the new tank 135g, how much water temp rise should I expect? Right now in the fall/winter, my tanks run higher since the tanks are in the basement at 79-80 degrees but in the summer, it runs around 77-78.
what pump are you going to run?
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[quote=“saltcreep, post:17, topic:4810”]
what pump are you going to run?[/quote]
Most likely a Supreme Magdrive 12, 1200 GPH. Any better alternatives? Any cooler running in sump pump?
the mag 12 pulls about 145 watts i think, i have a few. it might be like a 100w heater