IM SR-50 Build

Hi folks,

So I sell my IM fusion 20 to a nice guy and head up north to purchase a IM fusion 30 or so I think. I get all wrapped up in the game and come home with a SR-50 lagoon. Setting it in the spot where the 20 resided and this tank is huge! I'm so use to owning nano tanks, that this tank is going to take some time to get use to the foot print in my dining room. I have the 3 AI prime on it now and am hoping it will continue to grow and color my SPS. If not, I will have to purchase 2 AI 26 hd's a little down the road as recommended. Thoughts,comments please?

Nick

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Question.......I will only have about 10 gallons of old tank water to add to the new 50 gallon tank. The rest will be freshly mixed saltwater. Will my inhabitants and SPS be okay since a lot of the nutrients will be gone? I never went from a small to a large tank... It was always nano to nano. Thanks for the help.


Nick
 

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
Question.......I will only have about 10 gallons of old tank water to add to the new 50 gallon tank. The rest will be freshly mixed saltwater. Will my inhabitants and SPS be okay since a lot of the nutrients will be gone? I never went from a small to a large tank... It was always nano to nano. Thanks for the help.


Nick
I just plumbed a 120 into a 60 and had 120 gallons of new salt water. The key is to match parameters as closely as possible for the key parameters. Salinity, temp, alkalinity, calcium.. If you do this, your inhabitants should be just fine!
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
It's not so much the water that you transfer, but the live rock. The bacteria isn't free floating in the water, it's on the rock. That's why in an established tank, you can do nearly a 100% water change with no issues. So on that note,how much rock are you transferring? That's what really matters.
 
Thanks guys! Funny you mention the rock. I was thinking the same thing. I have done massive water changes matching the parameters and inhabitants were fine. But I remember trying to add SPS a couple years ago to new rock and the SPS declined rapidly. I transferred everything over the other day and decided not to add new rock to the display and just leave my two bommies and allow lots o f room for the SPS to grow. Transfer went well until...wait for it.....I forgot to turn on the auto top off system because I was called in to work and the visitherm heater shut off because of the water level. So I'm at the,hotel and at 3am my apex sends a text saying my tank temp dropped to 72 degrees. Called the wife immediately, had her add water till I got home and today lost 3 of my most beautiful pieces. Miyagi tort, purple bonsai, strawberry shortcake. I was really really bummed....as of right now, everything else looks fine. It's amazing how quickly things can change after all the hard work to get to a beautiful SPS system. My heart goes out to the guys with 100+ SPS systems that have major crashes with huge colonies. Anyhow, I appreciate the feedback guys!
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Thanks guys! Funny you mention the rock. I was thinking the same thing. I have done massive water changes matching the parameters and inhabitants were fine. But I remember trying to add SPS a couple years ago to new rock and the SPS declined rapidly. I transferred everything over the other day and decided not to add new rock to the display and just leave my two bommies and allow lots o f room for the SPS to grow. Transfer went well until...wait for it.....I forgot to turn on the auto top off system because I was called in to work and the visitherm heater shut off because of the water level. So I'm at the,hotel and at 3am my apex sends a text saying my tank temp dropped to 72 degrees. Called the wife immediately, had her add water till I got home and today lost 3 of my most beautiful pieces. Miyagi tort, purple bonsai, strawberry shortcake. I was really really bummed....as of right now, everything else looks fine. It's amazing how quickly things can change after all the hard work to get to a beautiful SPS system. My heart goes out to the guys with 100+ SPS systems that have major crashes with huge colonies. Anyhow, I appreciate the feedback guys!
Well, depending on how much rock you transferred, you could go through a cycle and your corals, and even fish, could suffer. Adding new rock won't help (initially) because it isn't seeded with bacteria. Over time however, it will help.
 

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
Well, depending on how much rock you transferred, you could go through a cycle and your corals, and even fish, could suffer. Adding new rock won't help (initially) because it isn't seeded with bacteria. Over time however, it will help.
Agree 100%

As part of me adding the 120 to my 60g system I added a large amount of rock also. I did, however, cure this rock for 1-2 months with some of the live rock from my 60g to manage the cycle.

Testing once the new tank went online, I had a few days where alkalinity was hard to maintain because of what I can only guess was the rock was absorbing it? But no sign of a cycle.

My SPS slowly moved over to the new display without any issues. Nothing happens fast. I'm sure with dead rock uncured I would have experienced a lot more problems.

HTH




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I transferred over only the rock ~15lbs that was already cured for a couple of years. No new rock was added. I may have found the "main" reason why my frags rtn'd. I recently purchased a tailspot Blenny that was considered reef safe. I just found him nipping at all of my SPS, even after feeding him. So out he went....hopefully things are on the mend.
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
I transferred over only the rock ~15lbs that was already cured for a couple of years. No new rock was added. I may have found the "main" reason why my frags rtn'd. I recently purchased a tailspot Blenny that was considered reef safe. I just found him nipping at all of my SPS, even after feeding him. So out he went....hopefully things are on the mend.
I doubt nipping is your RTN cause. If that were the case, every coral in my tank would be RTN'd. I imagine it's your water parameters.
 
Thanks for the feedback saw....tailspot was traded out...water parameters are spot on and all other coral as of this morning look like they are on the mend. I guess the temp drop to 72 may have been the reason for the rtn. Anyways, still upsetting losing my prized pieces.... the whole tank was glowing! I was pretty damn impressed with my SPS keeping skills and this just humbled me:)
 
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