Emergency setup

[gjuarez]

Hey guys, I had taken my tank down because it was leaking and I needed to fix it. A friend called me this week and and he is giving me all of his livestock, including rock and corals and maybe some shrimp. My question is will I have a mini cycle that is dangerous to kill the corals. I will not have a sandbed so maybe that will help. Like mentioned earlier I will also use some of his water and live rock.

He has some expensive corals like micromoussas, acan lords, blastos, and some nice sps corals that I dont want to lose if due to the cycle. The tank is going to be a 29 gallon tank with enough metal halide lighting and flow. Filling up my entire setup with his water is not a problem. Do you guys forsee a me having a problem? If so, how can I take care of it? Out of courtesy to my friend, nothing is up for sale or trade. Most of the stuff will be fraged and will be sent back to him once his tank is established, so no Pms about that please.

Thanks,
Jerry

[gjuarez]

His tank is a 75 gallon tank, so there is plenty of live rock for filtration. More than what I need. I also have a skimmer that is adequated for something larger than my setup so filtration will not be a problem. Need suggestions.

[Richard]

I'm sure you will get different thoughts on this. If it were me I would just use a bacteria culture like TLC or BioSpira as a precaution to prevent any ammonia/nitrite spike. And I would not move the old sandbed and either use new sand or just go BB.

[gjuarez]

I am going barebottom and we are not thinking of moving a single sand grain of that sand bed. I have never used BIO-Spira, I might try if it helps.

[thedude]

I disagree, here is what I would do. My method would create a pristine tank condition and give every thing a greater chance to survive.

First off, how many of these corals are encrusted, the less the better, but you can chisel even encrusted corals off of their rock. Secondly, LPS are hardy little suckers, and are very difficult to kill. They can tolerate quite a range of swings without dying. The SPS on the other hand are delicate creatures and will have to be transferred accordingly.

Again, I would remove every coral you wish to save and place them into the tank supported by a pvc and eggcrate structure. I would then follow Sean T's method on reefcentral.com for "cooking" liverock and cycle the rock this way. It will expell any waste the rock has collected over the years and allow your system to become trully barebottom instead of phosphate enriched rock with no sand.

[gjuarez]

I have cured rock before, but time is a luxury that I dont have. Cooking rocks can take some time. This tank has to be setup by monday of next week. Several people, whom I have considered very good reefers, have contacted me and said that I should be fine. I am in the process of cooking some rock for my 75 gallon tank though. I really do feel that rock must be cooked in a barebotton tank so it will help keep it detritus free. I will use all of the water from the same mature tank and all the liverock. It wont be too long since the bacteria grows in all the surface areas. I still want more suggestions if anyone has them. Hey Diego(Reef69), I know you switched tanks recently. What should I avoid in your opinion? Gary, I need you on this one. I have a pretty good idea on what I want to do but I just want your input.

[gjuarez]

I will be reliying on my skimmer and rock for all the filtration, so as far as curing rock will have to wait a while. I do intend to do it later though.

[thedude]

Ok how about you do a half and half method. Cook 1/2 of the rock immediately and put the other half with the colonies in the tank, skimming wet, and wait. Then when the cooked rock looks good, switch them out, cooked into the display and you'll have all your rock cooked then.