swapping tanks

[onehawksfan]

I have a problem My 20 gallon tank has a slow leak that is increasingly getting worse every day. I have recently purchased a new 29 gallon and plan on "swapping" the tanks (I want to reuse the same stand) and sump. I plan on filling a rubbermaid bucket with saltwater and holding my rock in there during the move. I will use a separate bucket for my fish, mushrooms, and polyps. After draining the water, I was going to scoop out the sand into a bucket and transfer it to the new tank. I believe I can do all this within a 3 hour window.

Should I reuse some of my old water in the new tank? Will the tank have to cycle again? Should I expect losses? I can't think of anything else to do. I'm a little worried about the sand, it currently has some detritus on top. It's a shallow sand bed (1") of fine aragonite sand. Even after rinsing the sand well when I first got it, I remembered the tank being cloudy for a day or two. Should I expect the same thing? Thanks for your input.

 

[plack]

yea get everything in buckets then get the sand out and maybe clean it then put the sand in the new tank and add water to cover it maybe siphon off the top water even though you already siphoned or rinced it beforehand that should help minimize things then aquaspace the rock then add the corals and fish with the water plus enoughp new to fill it up and do not turn on the pumps until you can see them to stop possable damage due to sand getting in the impellers and scratching them up :-(
I got a 100 micron sock to clear up the sand after i stirred it up again it only took 5 hours but I dont know if youve got room for one or if youve got a sump otherwise yea it shoud take time to settle down .