Tank Size Upgrade and Transfers.

[warforged]

This topic is about moving from one tank to a larger tank. For instance I plan on moving from a 55 gallon to 72 bowfront. I don't have a plan of action yet. I am going to move all the live rock and livestock ...and skimmer to the new one.

What's different from a new tank vs new tank having transfers? What steps must I keep in consideration since I am planning to move an entire tank into a new one.

All feedback and warnings appreciated. Thanks.

 

[warforged]

Ok did some web reading and I have a rough plan.

The tanks will be near one another and no transport done.

Put baserock in tank... sand...fill with 20% new fresh saltwater ...put Power head in for flow and heater ...when temp is just right...

Start siphoning original tank water from old into the new... after 50% stop..start moving established rocks and corals into the new tank..which should mostly be made up of the original water... after rocks and kids are moved over...suck out all my original tank water till i have 20% left and then stop.

Move equipment skimmer ...powerheads.. then fill tank with fresh new saltwater to fill remaining amount needed.

Hows this sound?

 

[NaH2O]

Don't forget you'll have to accomodate for a larger water volume in the new tank, if you are upgrading. You'll need more new saltwater than what you are leaving behind, simply due to an increase in volume. The 20% doesn't equal from the old system to the new one.

Looks like a pretty good plan. I waited until all of the water was in before I added livestock back into the tank. The only thing I can't stress enough is to make sure you have more water on hand then you think you'll need. You never know what might happen, and you'll need/want that extra water.

 

[Willy]

The only thing I can't stress enough is to make sure you have more water on hand then you think you'll need. You never know what might happen, and you'll need/want that extra water.

I'll 2nd that. No matter how often you think you will have enough, you will always need 5 more gallons :lol:

 

[DonW]

Put baserock in tank... sand...fill with 20% new fresh saltwater ...put Power head in for flow and heater ...when temp is just right...


Hows this sound?

Pre mix all your new SW a few days in advance and get it up to temp before adding rock. You dont want cold water to cause a die off in the LR base or not.

Don

 

[warforged]

Cool... thanks for the tips.

 

[JasonD]

It looks good to me except for the sand. If it was a barbottom setup, I would say go for it. It took about two weeks for the cloudiness to go away on my setup after adding sand. Isn't there some concerns about disturbing the sandbed, like hydrogen sulphide being released? The dust storm alone can give fish respiratory problems.

This is kind of a rough outline of what I would do:

Makeup new water and have it ready ahead of time.

Remove:
Livestock (try not to stir things up too much, you want to keep the water column clear)
Water
Then
Liverock (5 gallon buckets, brute 35 gallon garbage cans are great, quarantine tank)

Then remove sand and place it in in new tank, add some water, extra power head, and heater

Rinse out old tank

Replace liverock, water and live stock in old tank

Run the old tank barebottom

Start adding more water to new system thru new water and frequent water changes from old system

Let sand settle.

Start adding live rock

Monitor parameters

Once everything is stable, add livestock.

This is similar to how I did my stank swap. I lost no livestock. I completed the swap in 4 weeks.

Sounds a little risky to me, maybe I am way off here?

 

[warforged]

Is there a Problem with using new sand?

I was planning on taking new sand in buckets and rinsing it out...straight stream to stir it up and tip out the water..and continue till I have no more thick dusty water....

Once done just put new sand in the tank with base rocks....from there I was planning on scooping out some of my sand to seed the new ..by using a plastic cup just scoop out and plop it in spots around the new sand.

My end plan after the initial move in one day was to add the bottle of bacteria concentrate to give the biological a boost ontop of seeding and old water.

I figure I can keep the tank stable by the use of Prime and Stability as I test daily for a few days...

I suspect I will have a mini cycle due to base rock being dead rock...and new sand with old sand mixed.

Hmm maybe I should get a trashcan or rubbermaid thing and Siphon out the sand first...I have large hose so snails can pass through with ease to...then dump that into the new tank with no water...preventing the initial big cloud dust...

Hmmm seems Ive ran into a stumbling point with the sand ideas ... thanks for the input you gave me more food for thought.

 

[freetareef]

i just went from a 75 to a 185 volume and i would say that if it was me i would just save your money a little, sell your 70 and go bigger. there is always mass amounts of tanks on craigslist and glasscages.com... butt i just say that because i just switched my setups and i don't wan't to do it again for at least a year. i am really glad i went bigger...