starting upgrade advice

[dezzydory]

i currently have a 10g nano running with a black and white ocelaris(i suck at spelling ftr) and as far as corals i have frogspawn kenya tree toadstool shrooms and zoas. i also have a 26g that has been running with LR and 2 peppermint shrimp. my husband suprised me with a stand for my 50 so now i want to move everything over. i aquired the 10 and 26 free and they had crushed coral substrate. i want to go with sand now. my hubby got me 2 bags of the CaribSea live sand. i have the water mixed in the aquarium and sand added(very cloudy right now). is there a way i can start adding things once the cloud settles like emppty like 30g of the water and add water from other 2 aquariums like a huge water change into the new aquarium? or any other ideas so i dont have to wait a few months for this one to cycle? pics below of 10g and 26g as well as 50 b4 sand was added... thnx in advance for advice!

 

[Bored4ever86]

Yes, to a degree. You can take some of the water from the smaller tanks and put it into the 50 and reduce the cycle (as long as your reusing the rock) but this won't be a cure all, your tank will still go through a cycle, albeit a shorter, less intense cycle. I would say most if not all inhabitants should be fine to move over, though just for sake of peace of mind i'd condense to the 50 over the course of a month, moving things over little by little.

 

[bigblue141]

I moved my 60 into a 120 in a day.

No losses were noted. All the corals made it through just fine.

Most of your bacteria is on your live rock, hence it being live rock.

I'd use about 50% of water out of your current tanks and put it in your 50 gal. Fill the rest up with freshly mixed water. Let run for 24 hours. Move rock from your 10 & 26 gallon into your 50 gallon.

put your fish in a small bucket or cup to drip aclimate (30 minutes or so should do the trick for you). Put fish in new aquarium and wala, your 50 is set up in under 48 hours.

 

[mfinn]

As long as the rock you have is completely cycled and you keep the amount of time down to a minimum that the live rock is exposed to air, there is no reason you can't move everything over in a single day.
I've done it several times.
It will be just like doing a big water change.
I'd hold the fish back a day untill the dust cloud settles down.
You might want to start looking for a little more live rock.

 

[thatguy559]

+1 for bigblue. thats exactly what i did when i moved my 200g cube to my 210g aga as far as the sand goes take a cup from each of your tanks and put it in your new tank to activate the sand. ( live sand on the shelf is not live sand) this will give you bio diversity for your new tank and with doing that and putting in your live rock your cycle will be just a little ammonia spike due to the small die off from the transfers. tank will get cloudy then all you have to do is a 25% water change. remember when you remove rocks and you stir up the sand from the 10g and the 26g you are going to release nitrates into the water. i would just put the fish and corals into a rubbermaid container with a heater and air stone while you are waiting for the 50 to settle out hth

 

[dezzydory]

ok i added the sand and my biggest piece of LR lastnight and the sand caused a foam to form on the surface of the water.... will this go away or do i need to scoop it out?as a filter i am temporarily using a marineland canister..... we are building my overflow and sump atm and as skimmer using the cheapo seaclone as we got it free. i am going to upgrade soon but for now thats what i have. we went ahead and spent the large chunk on the lighting for now so.... any ideas?