Moving my reef to a new tank

[depeche]

I have a 30 gallon reef tank and it just sprang a slow leak. So I'm switching it over to a new one tomorrow (same size - has to be) and I'm looking for a few suggestions.

My current/old tank was originally a fowlr, and then later made into a reef. Switching tanks will let me make a few changes. Crushed coral was used for the bed (~1.5 in.), which sucks, so I bought some aragonite sand to replace that. How much should I use? Is an inch ok? I've read that you should keep it away from the live rock as well. Also, I'm worried about a complete sand bed change and what that would do to the environment. There are tons of spagetti worms and beneficial critters living in there. I've also got a sponge that took over a good 1/4 of the tank floor (probably because of the large gaps created by the crushed coral). Should I move 1/2 of the old bed over?

I've also had several people suggest putting a spray bar under the live rock (length-wise) for ensuring circulation under the rocks. What does this gain you? I have several inverts that live in/under the LR, and I'm worried that putting extra current in there would disrupt their 'sanctuary'.

The reef has now been up for ~2 years and doing fine, with a few minor issues (anemone majano, hair algae, and too much organics mainly). I'm hoping the sand bed change and more frequent water changes will help that (i'm also using lemon juice to rid the tank of the majanos).

I'm sure a lot of these questions depend on your setup, so...

- Equip: Prism (hang on back) skimmer, 2 power heads, heater.
- About 50lbs of live rock.
- 130w power compact lighting, and some moon lighting.
- Tiny refugium (~2 gallons).
- No sump.
- Inhabitants: Lots of soft corals, few mushrooms, two hard corals, feather dusters, coral banded and fire shrimp, yellow sea cucumber, ~20 hermit crabs, ~20 snails, and a few small fish (clown, yellow tail damsel, cardinal, watchman gobey, lawnmower blenny).

Alchemy: I keep the alk at 10.5-11 dKH and calcium at 4ish. I use the seattle aquarium's saltwater and do changes about every 2 weeks (~7 gallons). Organics are high, nitrate and nitrites are low, ph is normal.

If you have any suggestions, please let me hear them. Now's a good time for me to make some changes.

Thanks!

 

[Krish]

Hi depeche! I use to have crushed corals in my old setup and too had to change it. I went with the fiji pink and am currently using like a 1.5 inch sand bed. If you are only using the substrate for looks and to house a few critters and not really for biological purposes, then the 1.5 inch deep substrate would be fine. They say it is more work as you have to kep it clean by siphoning it regularily, but if you have a few critters in there to keep it relatively clean, then would wouldn't have as much work to do on it like someone like me would have (FO setup). About changing it all one time is another story which I'm not too sure about. If your tank relied on the substrate for most of it's bacterial colony and you remove it all one time, you may end up with a problem. That one you may have to leave up to the pros to answer, but probably, you may have to use some of the old substrate to seed the new one(sorry).

If you have to change your tank anyway, did you think about getting a bigger one that can sit on the same stand? I know you said you had to replace it with the same one. Is it because you can't go any longer on your current stand? If so, and you could go taller, I would go a little taller for the extra water volume. I went from a 75 gal to a 90, and was able to use the same stand and canopy...Just a thought. I hope I gave you some info you could use. Good luck with the change over.

 

[CarlaW]

If you replace your sandbed, you are likely going to cycle again, I would take a few cups of your old bed and place it in with your new sand to seed it, that might help a bit.
You only want to stir the top 1/4 inch of your sand bed, if at all. The more you disturb the bed, the more bad stuff is gonna happen. JMHO
I am not a big fan of Prism skimmers, but that is just me. I myself would look into a Remora pro hang on skimmer, they are much more efficient in my opinion.
The spray bar would be to help keep the detritus that settle behind the rock in suspension in the water column. That will help the skimmer pick that crap out.
HTH.

 

[Blazer88]

I switched my sand bed when I upgraded my tank from a 26 to 65. I didn't have any cycle at all when switching from crushed coral to aragonite sand. I put about an inch and a half and just a very light dusting under the rocks just for looks. Everything went fine for me.