out grow
you are right...now into a month in the new tank..the hippo/pallet tang has grown another 1/4 of an inch...WOW..!!!! the Yellow looks a bit bigger too.
As for how I moved it>>>
Prepare enough water to fill the new tank before you start the move. I used almost all the original water from my smaller tank.
1) Buy rubbermade containers(RMC) from HomeDepot - Grey 18 gals capacity is the ones I bought.-- the bigger ones were too difficult to move once filled - I bought 6 containers.
2) Clean them well and let dry before use.
3) I filled the fish tank water in the Rubbermaid containers. As much as I can get out without putting the corals high and dry.
4) Carefully pulled out the coral - make sure water temp is equal - and placed them in the Rubbermaid cont. with water from the tank.
5) Then I placed live rock on another container (this was a black plastic container used to mix cement, you can buy this at HomeDepot as well, it is about 6 inches tall and 2ft by 3 ft. without water...this way I was able to get all the pests out..they all crawled out to the bottom. Rocks were kept moist with a prepared spraybottle (water from the tank)
5) More and most of the water was siphoned out. With water only 4 inch deep, Fish were easy to catch and placed in the rubbermaid container that only had water from the fish tank.
6) I used the childrens beach plastic shovel to take the crush coral sand out. I also used the kid's beach plastic bucket to transport the sand. All tools were carefully cleaned and prepared before use.
7) Several other RMC were also filled with water - this was the extra water to be placed in the new larger tank. It was measured and let it mature for a days before I was ready to put into the new tank. Ph, Cal, NO2, NO3, Salinity were all checked.
8) Once all the sand was out - I pulled out the old plumbing and pulled out the old smaller tank.
9) Bigger tank was place on the stand (same foot print: I did reinforce the stand with wood). The plumbing was connected then I used some old water to test for leaks.
10) I placed the sand in the new tank.
11) filled it with old water as much as I can - except the one with the fishes..that went in last
11) Placed my live rock in the new tank..found huge bristle worms that crawled out. size of a grown man's index finger WOW...
12) filled the new tank with old water and some new water and ran my new system. This helped to cycle the system and make adjustments and helped clean the water from debris.
13) after an hour the system was stabilized and temp normal with almost clear water then I carefully placed the live rock then coral.
13) To lessen the stress on the fish..I placed them in last...
