adding a 55 gallon to my established tank

[ruthie]

Hi, I have a question and was wondering if someone could help me. My husband and I have finally figured out how to plumb the newly aquired 55 gallon tank to the established 12 gallon eclipse. The 12 gallon will be used as a refugium slightly above the 55 gallon. I have 2 oscellaris clowns and 2 blue green chromis in the 12 gallon. Can I just add saltwater to the 55 gallon and start the filters and pumps? Will the fresh uncycled saltwater kill my established fish? When I buy live rock for the 55 gallon, I realize I can't put in uncured rock to cure in there. I'll have to use buckets for curing and add it later. What about the substrate for the 55. Can it be non-live and not kill my fish, or should I buy live sand and would that be ok? I have live rock and live sand in the existing 12 gallon. I'm a little confused. Please help. :duh:
Thank you , Ruthie

 

[dorkfish]

I would fill the new tank with fresh saltwater, let it sit for a day with the powerheads and filters on in the 55g (to make sure all the salt is dissolved), then turn on the pump that circulates the water between the 12g and the 55g.

Then you can transfer the fish after about 10-20 minutes of that pump running.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with non-live sand, but I would make sure you got aragonite sand, becuase it has similar buffering capacitys to live sand.

Becuase your circulating the water between the established 12g and your non - established 55, the 55 will be cycled almost instantly. Think of your 12g as a "filter" that filters out amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ect. Basically your just increasing the volume of your 12g and you will have the same amount of bacteria.

Live rock and live sand should be thought of as "seeds" that give you different types of algae, micro-invertebrates and bacteria to start off with. If you put in non- live rock or sand, *almost everything(see note)* from the live rock or sand will colonize the non-live rock or sand. So, long story short, all the sand and rocks in the 55 can be "dead" as long as water is circulating between the 55g and the 12g (the 12g contains your "seed").

Note: the types of micro - inverts, bacteria and algaes that won't colonize the non-live sand or rocks, probably won't last long in captivity anyway, so you don't need to worry about them not eventually colonizing new sand or rock.

 

[ruthie]

Thank you DF. I really was soooo confused and I didnt know what to do. :dance2:
Ruthie

 

[jessie]

im not arguing against you dorkfish, just trying to understand something. if what you say is true, then why doesnt just putting a little live rock and live sand in a new 55 gallon tank work. im not saying this wont work, i just dont understand the difference between the two things. im just talking about the cycle when you hook up the two tanks. i would understand hooking an unestablished 12 to a 55 working in this way, but i would thinkany uneaten food and detritus not circulated into the 12 would start another cycle. i guess im not really able to correctly described the question, hope you get the point. again no disrespect, just trying to understand the difference.

 

[dorkfish]

im not arguing against you dorkfish, just trying to understand something. if what you say is true, then why doesnt just putting a little live rock and live sand in a new 55 gallon tank work. im not saying this wont work, i just dont understand the difference between the two things. im just talking about the cycle when you hook up the two tanks. i would understand hooking an unestablished 12 to a 55 working in this way, but i would thinkany uneaten food and detritus not circulated into the 12 would start another cycle. i guess im not really able to correctly described the question, hope you get the point. again no disrespect, just trying to understand the difference.

You would think that, but unless the pump is extremely slow, whatever amonia is produced by the decyaing food or detrius would be circulated through the 12g where it would be converted to nitrite then nitrate by bacteria existing there before it actually builds up enough to bother the fish.

If your really woried about it, you could throw in a little bit of food in the 55g when there's no fish in it (and the pump circulating the water between the tanks is on), and then test the water a few hours later on both tanks to make sure there isn't any difference in water quality.

However, if a 100gph pump is used, almost all the water from the 55g would go through the 12g every half hour, if using a 200gph pump, almost all the water from the 55g would go through the 12g every 15 minutes. That being said, I highly doubt an amonia level high enough would build up in the 55 to show up on even the most accurate test if your using a 200gph pump, and with a 100gph pump, I doubt enough would build up for the fish to even notice (at that level it probably still wouldn't show up on even the most accurate test kit).