Tank Transfer and first fill of new 180

[Jan]

I just broke down a 240 reef tank and moved my fish and live rock to holding tanks. Now I have an empty 180 that I'm getting ready to fill. Most of my corals were sold but I do have a few left in a frag tank.

In my area of the Pacific NW, the TDS averages ~33 (not too bad compared to some areas). Do you think it would be safe to fill the 180 using tap water, dechlorinator, salt mix, and put GAC in a filter bag for a day or two? Or would you hold out for a multi-day fill using the RO/DI? I think it will take 8-10 days this way.

Two of my fish are large 6+ inches, a foxface rabbit fish and sailfin tang, and they are cooling their heels in a 55 gallon tank right now. That is the argument for a faster fill.

Thanks.

 

[thatguy559]

i would just go get the 25cent a gallon ro water and fill up with that. that's what i have always done

 

[NC2WA]

Jan,

So you getting back in the hobby?

 

[tike]

WOW! Long time how have you been? In my opinion if you're just doing softies I would just fill it up. In the past when i did just soft corals I never used RO water and my corals grew like weeds! My water down here test at 23 straight out the tap.

 

[trido]

You know Jan, come to think of it I used to run only a carbon filter on the frag tank system. By running the water through only a carbon filter my water came out at zero TDS for over a year until I broke that system down. I guess I better get some plumbing done right away then.

 

[TJL]

Hey Jan, great to see you already jumping back in on this. I know you're planning on having a few SPS in the coral mix but since it'll be a huge batch of fresh water I'd just fill it up and run GAC & Chemi-Pure for a couple of days. I ran my Softy / LPS system this way for 10 years.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Jan]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the welcome back...I never really got all the way out (it just seemed like it). Kurt, I sold almost all of my live rock, all remaining corals except a frag of scroll coral and a couple of rics that were stuck to the bottom of my 240, also sold most of my fish. Then...I changed my mind about getting all the way out!

Duane found me a good deal on a used 180 so that's what I have now and I'm excited to get going again.

I'm going to run all T-5's plus supp VHO's; no more halides. It will be mostly softies/LPS with a few hardier SPS at the top of my rockwork.

I'm also not going to run Zeovit with this tank. I think maybe the bacterial food I was always adding may have fed a bacterial disease that killed off most of my choice SPS a couple years back. No formal diagnosis, it was just one of those things watching the colonies and frags die one after the other, month after month.

Back on the how-to-fill question, I called BR yesterday and asked them how they start up new reef tanks and the answer was, 'always 100% RO.' They haul lots of 5 g buckets with them. I think I'll start saving up RO/DI in extra containers, but will buy some more carbon/chemi-pure in case I end up adding some tap water to the mix.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

A 100g per day RO/DI units can be had for $100 delivered. You can fill the tank in a couple days and not worry about it again. The only reason I say this, you will be moving back to LPS and SPS before you know it and want to prevent as many potential problems as possible...

 

[Jan]

Hi Mike.

I do have an 80/gpd RO/DI unit but for some reason it takes ~36 hrs to fill up my 55 gallon drum.

Also got a second RO/DI unit with my tank purchase. Maybe I could get that set up and run two of them for a bit.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Jan if you want, I would loan you my 100 GPD unit, between them all, could fill in one day :>)
Mill Creek isn't far from Lynnwood at all

 

[Somethings Fishy]

i would try to use ro just to start with a clean slate, why you moving from the 240 the 180?

 

[krisfal]

Jan,
Sounds like you need a booster pump for that RODI, I added one to my system and now truly get 75gpd, results in a lot less waste.

 

[Jan]

Wow, great ideas here. Thanks for the offer, Mike. I'll talk to Duane about possibly doing this (he is helping me with my tank transfer--yay, Duane!). Kris, I haven't heard of this but it would be outstanding to fill a barrell faster and with less waste. I'll look into it.

SF, I am downsizing to a tank that is smaller, shorter, not Peninsula style (less surface area to keep clean), and not acrylic (easier to scrape). I'd let this monster growth rate of coralline algae get ahead of me on the 240 peninsula and I don't have enough time to stay on top of it. So, for all of those reasons.

 

[NC2WA]

Jan,

when you get settled, I have a large RBTA for you if you want one.

click on the LiveWebCam link under my signature to see what the RBTAs look like.

Kirk

 

[Jan]

That's a kind offer, Kurt. Thank you. But I had bad exerience before with an RBTA and a powerhead...I decided after that to stay away from them. My clownfish host in a frogspawn, which doesn't move around on me!

 

[Boomer]

Jan

~33 (not too bad compared to some areas)

I ran all my tanks in water like that for 35 years So, you should be fine for starts just use some dechlor and Gac until you get the RO/DI issue solved.

"booster pump"

What is your line pressure ?

 

[Jan]

Hi all,

My tank is filled...Duane put a 2nd RODI on my line and it filled up the 55 gallon drum in no time! I finally got ammonia down to 0 and am waiting on the nitrites.

 

[ryannat1]

Hey Jan new tank sounds nice!! I just tried sending you a pm. It says your full Later