moving to a bigger tank (1 Viewer)

[arthur08]

i want to go from my 72 bf to a 120. have a few concerns

should i clean the sandbed before i transfer it, scoop it up and put it in the 120, or take it out rinse it then put it in, i have more live sand in another tank that i want to put in the 120 is that ok
im thinking its gonna take a bout 2hrs to get everything the way i want it , i have over 60 corals and about 6 fish should i worry about anything dying or beign stressed out, or anyt othe precautions? thanks for enyones help or suggestions

 

[Reggie]

You are going to have to cycle the new tank. I did essentially the same thing in October and removed the sandbed to 5 gal buckets along with all my live rock into a 50 gal plastic can. Moved my tank to the other side of the room and put everything back together. Since the live rock and sandbed had all of the necessary bacteria the cycle time was only 2 weeks before I was able to restock the tank in the new location.

This is a long explanation to state, get someone you trust to hold all of your corals and livestock until the tank finishes cycling and then but your corals and livestock into the tank. There are no shortcuts and the stress will be the least.

 

[padanky]

Just pulled this from a post I made to another member a couple weeks ago. I made basicly the same move:

I just recently moved my 1.5 year old 72 Bowfront w/ 20gallon sump into a 135 w/ 55gallon sump, with very little cycle and it's been a month since the move. Steps I took, remember I had to add about 13 buckets of fresh saltwater water.

First I added some rinsed used sand to the 135
Drained the 72 down some and started moving corals and fish into extra tanks I had
Emptied all the water out of the 72 (KEEPING ALL THE OLD WATER)
Spread the fresh sand to the ends of the tank and put my old live sand from the 72 in the middle of the tank and spread the new over top of it.
Had about 13 buckets of saltwater made before the switch
Layed trash bags over the sand and filled the tank up 3/4 of the way (trash bags kept the water from stirring up the sand, just make sure the water hit the bags and you don't miss)
Put the old water that I didn't have fish and corals in into the tank
Threw a heater in and got it up to temp
put corals in when temp was right
then started adding fish
added whatever old water was left into the tank.

I started after work around 6pm and finished at 12am that night. 4 Tangs, 4 anemone, 2 clowns, sps, etc. Lost nothing and Tangs didn't get Ich or anything, and I've added 8 more fish in the last two weeks, 7 Fiji Chromis and a Neon Dottyback.

Old 72 before the move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnecLi6rP8U
New 135 two weeks new, 30 minutes after lights came on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik9MmYtPW3w

​

 

[MyReefLiving]

Chris I haven't seen your tank in person bro!! Ill head down there one day!

Oh and yes try to stress the fish as less as possible during your move, and your sand bed will have allot of dead nitrate spots so be caution...GL

 

[arthur08]

so padanky ur saying i wont start a cycle right? also is it ok for me to add some sand out of another tank that i have nothing in but live rock and sand and crabs? the tank now is only abnout 1in sand bed im goin to do a deep sand bed on the 120.

 

[padanky]

Not much of a cycle, I had no problems with anything. I just made sure to bury whatever live sand under the used rinsed sand that way all the gunk and whatever was in it didn'tmix with all the water. I did what I thought would work best, an it worked. I had very little brown color on the sand in a couple spots on the sand, but it was gone in a couple days. I havent' even checked the water since the move.

 

[emixa]

padanky,

i am having to switch tanks but still will come across the same issue. so when did you remove the trashbag?

 

[padanky]

Pull the trash bags out when you are done filling it. I did this and the water was pretty much crystal clear. The bags will start to float on you so just pay attention to where you pour. Note: I filled it first and then added the rocks.

Bigger the bags, the better. I used the big black 45gallon trash can bags.

 

[emixa]

Awesome, so it took you some hours, how did your corals do? Did you keep your fish in a huge container or bucket? I am thinking about transfering over my water into a couple of big trashcans. Did you run a filter or anything?

 

[padanky]

I had 10 & 20 that I brought in from the garage, and a small tub. Base rocks went in a 35 gallon trash can with most of the old water. I had most the fish and corals sitting in the 20 with a powerhead. Other stuff just sat with no powerheads. Yellow polyps went in first and were opening up within 5 minutes. Nothing seemed bothered being without flow for a few hours, probably because they were in a decent amount of water.

 

[arthur08]

ok cool i wil be doing it ur way wish me luck today and thanks for ur help

 

[padanky]

Glad I was able to help. Let us know how it goes...

 

[arthur08]

the change went good it took me about 12 hrs to transfer everything, just went with a new sandbed. then another 5 hrs doing all the plumbing so i was tiring but got it dont thanks to davegt007 came over and helped me out for a bit. i already added about 20 new corals and doing great! wioll post pics soon