Advice from those experienced with recent new tank setups

[newtosa]

Howdy,

Got a little problem with my new setup, and since I haven't set up a new tank in a long time, I would appreciate some suggestions. Especially if you're familiar with how SA water can affect your water chemistry.

I sent this PM to Ken from AQSS (knowing that their maintenance experience might provide some insight), so if any of you know him personally you might ask him if he would check his PM box and contact me. Here it is; feel free to post here if you have any thoughts....
Ken,

Knowing you've been in San Antonio for a while, I thought I'd ask you about a problem I'm having setting up my new 150g tank.

Background:
I still have my 75 running right beside the new 150, and I had planned to transfer all the animals once the new SW cures in the new tank, pH aligns, etc.

In order to leak-test my plumbing in the new system (and flow test a diy OF compartment I built), I used city water to fill the new system a couple weeks ago. I made several plumbing changes as I experimented, and I drained all the city water from the system this past weekend. Water was clear at that point. I added new aragonite sand (this batch was from Pure Aragonite), mixed my new SW, and turned on the pumps (I will use all the 75g water & sand; they'll be added to the mix later). This was on Sunday, five days ago.

Problem:
The 150g water is very cloudy. In this case, "very cloudy" means about 3 inches vis. Also, the scale from the original city water remains on the glass sides and acrylic walls of the sump.
And the kicker: my 10-year-old Iwaki pump in the 75 just gave out on me. I've turned the powerheads on 24x7 mode, but I'm concerned that the animals in the 75 need to get back to a high-flow environment pronto.

What I've done:
- I've tested for out-of-balance situations, and I can't find anything based on what I've tested (Ca, alk, and all the N and P organics).
- pH and temp are exactly aligned with a morning reading in the 75g: 7.95 pH and 72F.
- I've added floss/foam in the sump baffles (this is an area of my sump designed to force all water to pass through just before the return pump).
- I've also added a bag of carbon to this area (I think Kent reef carbon; I had it left over).

One thing I remember: as I was adding new water to the 150, some leftover KW powder from the bottom of a jug got into the mix. I initially worried about this, but my pH and alk are great so I dismissed this as a factor.


And now for your expertise:
Do you have any suggestions? Anything I should be testing for, that I haven't yet? What do you think about the following possible culprits:
- city water scale leftover from the plumbing trials;
- KW powder from mixing the new water;
- the new aragonite sand?

Would it be a good idea to get some of my live rock into the new system, so that my worms and fans and dusters can start filtering the water? If so, should I be careful to keep sps frags out of the new tank until the water clears? Or would it be better to add my old livesand and rubble, on the theory that its higher concentration of acids, proteins, and nitrogen might help me out here?

Thanks very much for your thoughts,
Dean Hobbs

[matt]

Sounds like the sand hasn't settled yet. That would also account for the stuff on the glass. Many people prefer to not use any physical filtration; just let the dust settle. This could take some time, like a week or two.

72oF for a reef tank? Way too cold. Try keeping your temp around 80o.

Is your tank half filled now? You mentioned using all the water and sand from the 75. Since this is a 150.... Anyhow, I can't really picture your situation. If the tank is not completely filled, but you have water moving around, maybe that's keeping some sand flying. Probably it's filled, and you're talking about a big water change from the 75.

Here's what I would do: 1. Get the temp up. 2. If you can, use the return pump on your new tank to run the 75; just put the powerheads in the new tank 3. Scoop a layer of sand from the 75 into the new tank, and put in a few pieces of rock. Your tank is going to cloud again when you put the sand/rock from the 75, but it will settle quickly. 4. Transfer animals gradually, put the pump back, you're all set. Try to transfer rock/sand and animals in somewhat the same proportion. This should keep the biofilter/load ratio fairly constant.

Really your tank is way too cold for reef animals.

HTH
Matt

[TexasState]

I have lots of experience from upgrade/downgrade all the time.
This is all my tanks from w/in the last 2 years, and 3 months.
http://www.swt.edu/~xp42012/

I don't think you're going to have problem w/ the SA tap water. Did you let it evaporate/dry out b4 you add your salt water? The scale is probably just calcium. HOw much Kalk did you dunk in?

When I upgrade my tank, I usually try to sell off as much of the old rock and corals, fishes, livestock as possible.

I would mix the saltwater in separate containers. Put the sand down, aquascape the tank w/ the LR. Then slowly pour water back into the main tank.

W/ your current situation, you might want to put some cured or uncured LR in there and wait until the sand clear. What's going to be hard for you is that the sand will get cloudy over the next several months each time you try to aquascape your tank. Each time it cloud up after the sand is laden w/ bactera; it will take about 3 hours to overnight to clear out from you messing w/ the bottom rockwork. I have cloudy tank all the time that doesn't seem to affect some LPS & soft corals, but I don't know about SPS vs. cloudy tank since it's a new field for me.

That's why my newest tank is going to be a bare bottom, I like to reaquascape all the time, and the sand is not helping out w/ their incessant clouding up.

Flosss & a good skimmer can help to remove the small sand particle. But I usually like to keep all of my smaller sand grains if I can. Which might explain why my tank get cloudy alot when I rearrange the tank.

As for the water, I've used up to 80% new water, 20% old water w/ no problem. But I usually mix my new water up for a long time b4 I would put it to use.

This is just basic answer, if you have more question, please let me know.

[TexasState]

An old school Vortex Diatom Filter could filter the sand particle pretty quick too!

[newtosa]

Thanks everyone, and keep posting if you other thoughts.

Matt - nice typo on my part. Daily temp range is 82 - 86. More in line with the Caribbean than Indo-Pacific, but that's a tired old thread I don't want to start up again here. In the new system, I'll be doing something like this to stabilize the daily swing:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...erature+sensor
But I'm off topic already. Bottom line is temp is good. I like your advice on the pump swap, and I'll start thinking about whether I can pull this off. Also, I see what you're asking on the half-full question. I'm bypassing most of the sump volume right now (not having to fill it with water), and I built my OF box on a sliding track, so I make up for the remaining 6 inches of missing water in the display tank by lowering the inside and outside boxes and using really long temporary u-tubes.

Josh and Matt - I think I'm gonna follow your advice (as well as Randy Holmes-Farley's) and put in some of my 75g livesand and try to get some of the organic ooze to help me out.

Vinh - You're probably the best person to comment on frequent new setups ;) so I appreciate your advice as well. I had probably 1/2 inch (which rounds out to 2.5 gallons with my tank's footprint) of city water in left in the 150 when I began mixing new SW. The kalk was considerable, and I considered draining & starting over, but the Ca and pH and alk are totally normal, so it had me stumped.

And it's been five days!

Anyway, I think your suggestions are gonna be productive; I'll keep you posted.

Dean

[Tim Marvin]

I have run into this problem setting up new tanks, it is usually the sand. It will take from one day to a week to settle. A vortex would clean it out fast, but you can also use a back filter stuffed with synthetic pillow stuffing from walmart. At any rate the water should be crystal clear within a week. I would wait on transfering livestock until it settles.