moving one tank into another

[jc]

I decided that having my reef tank in my bedroom is a waste. I want to be able to show it off to visitors so I am going to move everything into my 180 and move the butterfly and emperor angel out and into the 90. I know the emperor will grow to big for it but I plan on selling him when he out grows it. My first problem is that the nitrate level in the 180 fowlr tank is about 60 ppm. All other levels from both tanks are good and equal. I plan on moving all of the LR in my 90 to the 180. That would make about 180 pounds of LR. How fast can I expect the nitrate to drop? When I move the rock can I pull the bio balls out of the wet/dry and not have an ammonia spike? I am hoping all of the new LR will balance out the ammonia spike from taking the bio balls out and hopefully bring the nitrate down. Can I do the move all at once or will the nitrate be too high for my corals. I have a mixed tank with sps, lps, and softies. When everything is moved the 180 will have 180 lbs of LR, a G2 skimmer, 3' long sump with no bio balls in the tower, a 20 gallon high fuge loaded with cheato, and a uv filter. The fish will be a purple tang, powder blue, flame angel, coral beauty, 2 firefish, and a royal gramma. Lots of inverts. What tips can you give me about making this move.

Here are some pictures of the 90 and the 180 from a few months ago.



Next question. Since I plan on moving all of the LR out of the 90, what do I use to provide biological filtration for the 90 that will house my 4" butterfly and 3" angel? The 90 will have a 20 gallon high fuge with cheato and LR rubble. The tank has about 1" of sand and the fuge has 1" of sand and a protein skimmer. Will there be enough surface area to provide bio-filtration , can I use the bio balls in the 90? and how would I use them? maybe just dump them in the fuge?

[hobogato]

you are gonna have to buy more rock. you should have about 180 pounds or more in the 180 reef, and probably at least 90 pounds in the 90 FOWLR. you will have small cycles in both tanks, and you should not take the bioballs out now or all at one time later. move things around, and wait for everything to settle in. once they do, take out the bioballs a little at a time and replace them with liverock rubble.

[GaryP]

Yes, 60 ppm nitrate is to high for corals. 10 ppm is about the max you really want there. You're always going to be fighting nitrates with a 1" sand bed.

[jc]

Well the 90 is going to be a fish only tank, so do I have any other filter options besides LR? How about a hang on tank filter? As for the 1" sand bed, I have had a 1" sand bed in my 90 for over a year and the nitrate is zero. I keep very few fish in the reef tank and the fuge has a lots of cheato.
If I take out the bioballs do I have to refill it with LR rubble? Does the rubble stay in the compartment above the water? Can I just let the water rain down into the sump without anything in it?

The main problems I see is that I cant move LR from the 90 into the 180 without disturbing the corals. And I cant move rock with coral on it because the nitrate is high in the 180 also the butterfly will eat most everything. If I can get the 180 nitrates down to at least 10ppm can I move it all in and transfer the coral eating fish out in a day, without killing everything?

[jc]

Scratch all that. My wife had an excellent idea. I can just make two reef tanks. Sell the emperor angel and butterfly. Buy more LR and aquascape it the way I want to. If I slowly remove the bio balls and add more LR this will bring my nitrates down. When the 180 is nitrate free I can move the stinging corals, clams and fish out of the 90 and into the 180 in the living room. The 180 Fowlr turns into a reef and the 90 reef turns into a seahorse tank. Yes!!!