so i will be moving everything from the 55 to the new 120…i have two questions…
the 120 has about 200ish pounds of sand…its about 4 inches deep, the tank was running and fine when i went and picked it up, and we actually spent a couple hours breaking everything down…so i know the sand is ok, i have it in the tank now with a little water, a powerhead, and a heater…
In the 55 i have roughly 70lbs of sand, not deep at all…should i move all of it over to the new tank?? there is sand from the sand swap in there that i would like to bring over…
combing my 55 and the sump…there is roughly 70 gallons of water in the system…does anyone see a problem with me transferring every last drop of water…and then mixing the additional water im going to need?
will this stress the corals, fish, rock, or sand? or is it like doing a 50% water change on a system?
i know timing is important when doing this also…should i make this a one day project…or does this need be done over the course of a week or two??
yes but its almost impossible to do a tank move without inflicting some amount of stress on the animals
i know timing is important when doing this also...should i make this a one day project...or does this need be done over the course of a week or two??
completely up to you. everyone will likely have different advice and many ways will work. if your animals are established a "waterchange" that large will piss them off but everything should recover just fine. ive moved WAY too many tanks in my life and i use a hybrid method that works well for me.
if you have 70g of total system water and need 120g for the new tank then i would make 60-80g of new water in the 120g and let it age for a couple of days. when you break down the 55g instead of moving all of the water into the new tank divert some to a spare tank or tote with enough water to fill it. a 20g tank or equivalent should be more than sufficent. move all of your animals to the holding tank/tote and put the rest of the water from the 55g into the 120g. if you did your math right your 120 should now be full and you can begin to acclimate your animals in the holding tank the same way you would as if you just bought them. the closer your parameters of the 120g are to the existing system the less time you will need to acclimate them for. not only does this make things more gentle for your animals but it also keeps them out of the way and safe while your aquascaping and setting up the new tank. ideally this would be a one day project and you would only need an airstone and heater in the holding tank. keeping light off the tank should help with keeping stress levels low.
H, I just made same move (72g to 150g) 5 weeks ago. My 72 was bare bottom, but new 150 is 6in deep sandbed. What I did is move all my existing live rock and use it as base rock, add 1 in of sand every few days and add water from existing 72 (5 gal every few days). Add new water to existing tank and so on. It took a few weeks, but transfer went smooth without any loss. It fully cicled in3 weeks(amonia was never detected, but nitrite showed .2ppm and nitrate rose to 5ppm). Now everything is undetectable and I added my first sps week ago. Also coraline alge is starting to take over back wall.
The only concern is grain size of your sand, it’s very important that grain should be .5mm or less. Also make sure you order bristle worms/fireworms kit online so your sandbed filter will not fail. The only thing I am not happy with so far is my ph hangs at 7.95-8.05, I am hopping as system mature ph will rize.
“Sand Bed Secrets” By Ron Shimek is good read.
In a few weeks you should see bacteria and worms activity. Don’t skip on worms, It’s most important to and alot of then in the begining so bacteria dont turn your sandbed into clums when it stars to grow. I had to sped almost $400 to stock it properly.
Cerith Snail
Astraea Conehead Snail
Nassarius Snail
Nerite Snail
Fighting Conch (expensive)
This are all great DSB reef snails
But nothing else, do you research!
Especially sand sifting starfish and gobies , big NO NO
Since you asked about plumbing let me say something. Not to insult your intelligence or anything if you already knew because 99% of people, in my experience, do not understand an overflow box. An overflow box will only… overflow if the tank is near full. Let me explain why this might affect your plans:
Me, “Honestly I would highly recommend cutting out the temporary tank and doing one solid move and then add water later. Plan may vary a bit depending on what you do with the sand bed. I would move 100% of the water rock and animals all at once and put a couple heaters in the tank and power heads. Once your done you can put the sump under the tank, hook up the bulk heads, run the plumbing  “Wait, if I have water in the tank it’s going to go through those slots and flood my floor if the plumbing is not done.” “If it was set up that way ever time the power went out you’d be buying new floors and getting your ear chewed out by your spouse. You need to take a careful look at the inside of your over flow box. If you need put your hand in there and feel, the slots do not go all the way through and that box has to be water tight. You can put water in the tank before filling the whole tank if you are not ready with the plumbing or don’t want to add a ton of extra water and stress the animals. Just keep the water moving and keep it at the right temp.”…“Wow”
Bottom line is I would change tanks one day. Take a nights rest and the next day, perhaps even after you come home from work, finish up your plumbing and add more water. Lots of people worry about getting it all done right away. If you want to take a look again at my tanks I can show you how many filters I am using. Two skimmers which I haven’t used until the last couple of months. Many of my tanks worked without overflow boxes for years and yours did to. If it takes you a couple weeks to get the thing filled all the way they are not going to die without a skimmer or sump.
That being said… One of the biggest issues with moving things is coral slimming which will land on other corals and themselves, stress them out and decompose. Keep the tank significantly oxygenated(power heads near the top) and it would be a good idea to run a significant amount of carbon even if you never have before and never plan to again.(not sure why you wouldn’t run carbon, but that’s beside the point it will help remove the toxins)
Wash your hands when you are done before you do anything else including having a coffee break or… taking a cancer stick break.
[quote=“Rosti, post:4, topic:3063”]
In a few weeks you should see bacteria and worms activity. Don’t skip on worms, It’s most important to and alot of then in the begining so bacteria dont turn your sandbed into clums when it stars to grow. I had to sped almost $400 to stock it properly.[/quote]
Confused by this… how much did you spend on worms? Need some more?
WAIT, it would be horrible advice to add a clean-up crew to a cycling tank and it wouldn’t be the best idea to add them right away when dramatic changes are going to be made. Realistically while we would try to avoid the change being dramatic there is going to be some change in the chemistry and some animals no matter what are going to be stressed, as Shawn said above. Higher invertebrate life is more sensitive, touchy, and delicate then our corals to these changes. The corals might close up a good bit, slime over, and not fully extend polyps for a bit, while the inverts will… just perish.
I wouldn’t get the invert pack to be delivered until the tank has been filled for a week or two.
yah, i wasnt going to get it now, im just putting things in order here…still debating how i want to do my corner overflows so im still a little bit away from the clean up crew…
I probably just washed 10 down the drain that came out of my power heads when I was cleaning them. I’ll see what I can come up with. You coming to the BBQ?
do you mean red spaghetti worms? those are good. i always have some in the sand/gravel somewhere. just not enough , like Shimek requires to clean a fine sand bed. they dont do so well in gravel or anything larger than sugar sand.
[quote=“kaptken, post:16, topic:3063”]
do you mean red spaghetti worms? those are good. i always have some in the sand/gravel somewhere. just not enough , like Shimek requires to clean a fine sand bed. they dont do so well in gravel or anything larger than sugar sand.[/quote]
Yes, spagetti worms, fireworms, bristle, etc, all nesesary to export nutrients and keep sand bed from becoming clumps when bacteria starts to grow. And from what I have red they need to be present in numbers riteaway. (Btw spell checker doesn’t work) same as when you have freshwater planted tank, you have to introduce all plants at once.
Getting ready to do this ourselves. Finally getting a 180 tommorow, putting our 90 stuff into it, moving refuge into next room… Going to be long sat. will list extras when we get it up and running . BoNg
