Downgrading tank size...

[Kapelakin]

Hi all. Coming to the realization that I could be moving anywhere after I graduate next May, I've been thinking seriously about moving my reef from my 20L into my 7 bow, and kicking out the freshies, in an effort to keep things more mobile. Another impetus is that I don't have the money to stock the 20 with corals to the level I'd like.

 

I think the only things I'll need to make the 7 work will be lighting, and an auto topoff system.

 

Anyway, I know how to upgrade a system, but I've never downgraded before, and I'd like to hear experiences from anyone who's done this. Seems to me that I'd just be taking a percentage of an established reef and moving it to a smaller tank. Shouldn't experience much of a cycle, etc? Should I move things in increments, or everything at once?

 

How many of you have two or more fish in a smaller tank? I'm torn between getting rid of my cardinal, and keeping both the percula and the cardinal in the 7.

 

I'm thinking of the following livestock:

 

12-15 pounds of live rock (dense farmed rock)

 

Fighting conch

 

Peppermint shrimp

 

3 nassarius snails

 

3 left handed hermits

 

3 other small snails (can't remember which spp)

 

Percula clown

 

feather duster

 

1.5" live sand

 

halimeda and feather caulerpa

 

2 existing soft corals, plus whatever I can get in trade on my extra LR and livestock

[Palmetto]

Moving established live rock and live sand into a smaller tank will be just fine, and if you move the top layer of the sand you should experience only a very minimal cycle.

 

After a quick spike of algae when I had two oscillaris clowns in my 5.5, I removed one of them. Now that I have only the one fish, it pretty much runs itself with a small topoff and occasional cleaning of the glass.

 

It depends on the size of the fish, but I recommend keeping fish to a bare minimum in anything less than a 10-gallon.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

How funny... you want to downgrade from a 20L to a 7gal. while I want to upgrade from a 7gal. to a 20L. But do to the $$, my 7gal. will be just fine. I would think you'd be able to move everything over at once without much of a cycle but I don't know about keeping that many fish in a 7 gal. though... :|

[Kapelakin]

Yeah, I think I'll probably get rid of the Bangaii. I think he'd look a little too big in the tank anyway. There's a store over in Tucson the owner has set up a 7 gal nano with a perc, a watchman goby and shrimp, and a redheaded goby, and it looks great, but I don't want to push my luck like that.

 

I would like to keep the 20 gal, it's just not practical right now, since I anticipate changing jobs a couple times over the next 4 years or so, and don't want to be too bogged down. Who knows, maybe I'll get a great job lined up before I even graduate, and I'll get to upgrade instead. :woot: