Moving & transferring fish

kamoton

kamoton

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Apr 9, 2008
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Hi everyone,

I just purchased a 265 4 days ago to make a larger home for my babies that are currently in a 110. I also ended up getting about 10 more GOOD sized fish from the previous owner which are all in my now CROWDED 110.

My question is: How long do I have to wait to transfer the fish over to the 265?

I put 30 gallons from the old 265's water, transferred 30 from mine, and premixed the other 205. There is 3-4" deep of aragonite sand which was scooped from the 265 and put back in when I set it up at home. I have had the filters running for over 24 hours and the water is still a bit cloudy? I was told to start adding the fish after I get the sg in range and water circulated for a day or so???

I have well over $1200 invested in livestock and don't want to lose any of them! Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!! I'll put a list below of everything left that needs to be transferred with their sizes beside them...I have already put 3 damsels in the 265...acclimated for an hour and they have looked happy and stress free for the past 4 hours---unlike my other fish in the crowded tank.

FISH:
Panther Grouper 14
Wolf eel 16
Spotted moray eel 14
california stingray 10 around
Desjardini Sailfin tang 10
Emperor Angel 8
Black dogface puffer 8
Blue line grunt 7
Powder blue tang 5
Bicolor foxface 5
Half black mimic tang 5
2 Domino damsels 4-5 doesn't include the 1 in the 265 already
Spade 4
Yellow tang 4
Sailfin tang 4
Dwarf lion 4
strawberry grouper 3
flame angel 3
scorpionfish 3
spiny box puffer 3
sharpnose puffer 2
3 striped damsel 2
Catshark egg...soon to hatch


INVERTS:
blue linkia star, snd sifting star, choco chip star, 5 brittle stars (all 4-5" each)
sea biscuit 5
1" urchins- 3 long spined, 3 pencil, 3 black, (1 pink pincushion 4")
crabs-sally lightfoot, 3 decorator, 2 emerald
anenome-curly que, rock flower, pink tip sebae 4-5"
3 flame scallops
sea squirt
cucumber 5
50+ blue leg herms
200+ tiny snails...if that many---the sharpnose had a field day with what I couldn't get out of
the tank


10 pcs. live rock from 5-12 inches
2 8" tree sponges
1/2 lb of dead man's fingers
10 gallon tank full of caulpera


I know the damsels are the best adapters, but if you guys have any ideas on when and who to move next...please help me out. I know you can add more fish to a larger system at once, but I'm scared that I added too much premixed SW and may have messed up the biological filter?

 
wow, thats a lot of fishies! i wish we had some pix. i'd say after the water clears up and all of ur parameters are lookin good then i'd say u should be good. from what i can gather the 265 was up and running right before u got it so it should be cycled already correct?
 
I'll definitely post pics when I get everyone in the big tank. Yes...the 265 was up and running. We tore it down and I kept the fish, 30 gallons of water & 3 oceanic buckets filled to the brim with aragonite sand. It took us 2 hours to get home with everything and it was down for about 12 hours before we had it filled with sand and water. We didn't get the sump running until the next afternoon...don't know if that affected any of the live bacteria or not? All the sand was submerged in water during the transfer. My biggest fear is getting everything moved over to the 265 and then it going through another cycle from the massive load?
 
I would definitely see how the tank would handle ammonia. I'd add in an ammonia source and see how long until it was undetectable. With that many fish and the amount invested (not just money) I'd want to try to do a cycle. I'd kick myself and feel horrible if I started adding them in and a massive ammonia spike and they died.
 
i agree with mandy. add some ammonia and see what happens. if the tank can handle the ammonia (doesn't seem to start a cycle) i'd start by putting in some of the less expensive or most hardy fish first. if possible i'd take it slow and not put everyone over all at once. seems silly to go fast with all that stock if you don't need to.
 
kamoton said:
I have already put 3 damsels in the 265...acclimated for an hour and they have looked happy and stress free for the past 4 hours
Click to expand...

Guys he's already got fish in there.. No ammonia allowed!

kamoton; You have a very valid concern about the viability of your system. You should NOT load up that tank without letting it acclimate. It likely has no where near the carrying capacity it had before the move. You should leave those damsels for a day monitoring your ammonia/nitrite at least twice a day. Then add 10% more fish after a day or two. Then another 10%. I think you could well have a disaster if you rush this. Add 10% every day.

The question should be what order to move them piecemeal due to social aspects.
 
ah definitely missed that part. the whole funky blue font doesn't do nice things when I'm trying to read.

maybe I'm just slow, but "10% more fish", in reference to what? I wouldn't know how to figure that out anyways and I don't normally consider myself slow. So, perhaps you could elaborate on what you mean by that.

I think if he's doing fish every day to check ammonia quite often, have an ammonia badge plus testing in case there is a lag with the badge and be prepared to do a large water change. ideally, there won't be a spike, but have to be prepared in case there is one.
 
Yo Mandy; 10%

As you add load to a tank the nitrifying bacteria get more to eat and multiply to "carry" the new larger load. Of course the ammonia ones do this then the nitrite ones do it. If you have a big load change it takes longer for everything to re-balance.

If he lobs in a huge load the bacteria will do its thing but meanwhile you may get a large ammonia spike that stresses them all causing a an outbreak or the death of the ones that are more susceptible.

My suggestion then is to add the fish in stages so the bacteria can build up fast enough to prevent a spike/crash. 10% I'm suggesting that he move 1/10th of his fish over everyday after he is sure his tank has a solid, established bacteria system going.
 
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