Connecting Tanks

[jonathanw]

I recently connected a new tank to my existing 14 gallon nano reef that I have been enjoying for the last 2 years.

The new tank is also 14 gallons but is hexagonal and vertical. I am using an overflow/skimmer and it is working well. The new tank is intended to be fish and live rock and I have it lit with a dim 10 LED blue/white Rio Mini Sun. It has a deep sand bed, lots of live rock up the back side, three very small percula clowns, a variety of snails, a cowrie, a hermit crab and a chocolate chip starfish. It looks great with the dim blue light playing off the rocks and sand.

My old tank has a small tomato clown, a blue damsel, and a spotted cardinal as well as clean-up crew. It also has a green star polyp that dominates one side of the tank and some button corals that aren't faring so well on the other side.

My questions.

1. Since the water is circulating between the tanks, will the sand critters eventually make it over to the new tank sandbed? Or is that too much to expect. Is there a way to help that along? I do have some cyano bacteria issues in the old tank that I would like to avoid bringing over to the new tank.

2. Would it be possible to cull part of the green star polyp periodically to bring over to the new tank to feed the starfish? Would doing this monthly be too traumatic to the coral? Would the starfish appreciate it?

Jonathan

[Amphibious]

jonathanw,

Welcome to TR.

Q1. I doubt that many of your sand critters will make it over to your new tank. The exception might be the larval stage of some critters may be swept into the current and make it over. You can help it along by transferring a few scoops of sand from #1 to #2. I understand your concern about the cyano but, that has probably already invaded #2.

Q2. I may be wrong but, I doubt your starfish will eat the Star Polyps. There normal diet is shellfish in the form of clams and such. I have fed starfish small pieces of fresh raw shrimp. I would cut a small piece of shrimp and place it under the starfish. It was especially interesting to do this while the Starfish was on the glass wall of the tank. A starfish eats by inverting it's stomach surrounding the shrimp meat and dissolving it.

If you can, post some pics of your systems. We love pics.

Dick

[lReef lKeeper]

i dont know Dick, when i first started in this hobby ... i was sold a "reef safe" chocolate chip starfish, and it ate everything that it came in contact with in my reef. IIRC, it even ate most of a GSP colony that i had (not that i would care about that today, lol), but that is just MY exp.

[Amphibious]

I haven't had that experience with CC Stars. That's why I began the answer with, "I may be wrong". :)

[JustDavidP]

There are no reef safe CC Stars :) Sorry... some may be "reef safer", but for the most part, they are destructive in either a) their eating habits or b) they are just plain ol' bulldozers.

Dick is right, sand critters will not make it over unless in a medusa or larval stage. You may want to get some live sand from another reefer if your bed in the first tank is not desireable. Other critters like pods, mysid etc. can make the journey.

Green Star Polyps are pretty darned hearty. You can put some rubble or something next to the existing colony and let them grow in it, to be moved later or you can literally scrape and peel some of the colony off to move to the other tank. The stuff peels like carpeting and is bullet proof.

Dave

[CarmieJo]

Hi Jonathan and :welcome: to TR.

[jonathanw]

Thanks for the nice welcome everyone.

Fighting conch question. So far my experience with conch has been that I add one to the tank. It does a bang up job of cleaning out the diatoms, but then after a couple of months dies. I am thinking that the poor guys just can't get enough food out of a 14 gallon tank.

So my idea with the new set-up with two tanks, is to wait till he clears out one tank and then move him to the other -- repeat as necessary. Since the tanks are connected, there shouldn't be acclimation problems right? What do you think?

[CarmieJo]

Jonathan,

I can't answer the conch question because I've never kept one. But if you have 2 tanks plumbed together you could move anything from tank to tank with no acclimation.