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Tank leak

MarAquatic

MarAquatic

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I'm new to the forum and live in the north Bay. I have a question my 20 gallon long started to leak and I am replacing the tank with a new one. I got rid of the old substrate and I was wondering if I was better off with dry tropic eden or live tropic eden? I only have zoas and some lps. Any help would be great.
 
Live sand vs dry sand dont matter. Dry sand becomes live sand pretty quick but u probably want to rinse the sand with RO water.

However u are trying to transfer a running tank with animals in it.

You should try to avoid an ammonia spike. Bring the old rock from your old tank to the new tank. This new tank will not have the beneficial bacteria growing on the glass and sandbed. Do not bring the old sand or any of the detritus on the bottom of your old tank.
 
Dry will be fine as long as it's clean; you may add the sand small portions at a time and as suggested above, a cup of live sand can help seed the new one
 
I had my old tank leaking about a month ago. It was a 125G. I emptied all rocks, corals & inverts in rubbermaid containers & a large beaten up tank I had laying around. I moved all fish to my QT which I could run almost as a complete system: 30G tank + 20 G sump+fuge. I left the sump of the main system filled with water. Then I added powerheads and heaters to all the containers, to QT and to the sump.
Then I took the sand from my old tank out into a container and left it topped with water & just a lid on top.

Next day I bought a "new" used tank, I got lucky to find a good condition one on CL completely with a matching stand. Then by the 3rd day I had it setup in the house, with the plumbing & original sump, so I started the transfer. I moved the sand into the new tank, I added a mix of old and new water and some of the rocks, the ones without corals encrusted. I left it clear out for a day, just running the water through the sump. After that, I checked ammonia and it was undetectable. Then I started moving the rest of the rocks back, the fish and all the corals.
Moving the stuff back into the new tank took about 2-3 days including the waits for water to clear and the repeated aquascaping attempts. In the end, I didn't loose any corals or fish. Just one of my sexy shrimps is missing since then :(.

BTW, I was expecting the leak. The tank was a really old, glass tank, maybe over 20 years old. moreover, about 7 years ago, I resealed some of its silicone because of another leak. Earlier this year I started looking for a replacement, but then I got busy with work and family and I left it linger. At least I got lucky, I was at home when the tank started leaking, it only formed a ~10" paddle of water on the floor by the time I noticed it. If it would have started leaking a week earlier, would have been really bad, since me and the entire family were out on a trip for a week then.

The morale to me is not to get lazy, better replace it before it gets worse and I have to do it in a rush. Old tank & new hardwood floors don't mix! :)
 
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