the big transfer , how would you do it?

[darkreef]

Say you had a 33 gallon reef.
You bought a 100 with a 50 gallon sump
Your ro di system sucks and can only fill the tank 10-15 gallons a day.

How would you tank transfer ?

Filled the tank slowly then cycle it with some live rock and skimmate?

Add the 30 gallons of tank water from the other tank and fill it .

Store 150 gallons of water first then transfer it to a fresh set up ?


Thanks guies !!

[Madreefer]

Get new sand, rinse it well.
Make all your water and have it ready, temp etc.
Pretty simple, just be quick.
I just transferred a 144G to a 233G, started at 11am and had everything in my new tank at 4am. All went smooth. I only lost a pistol shrimp just cuz I couldn't find it when I took the old tank apart. People worry way too much in this hobby and make a big deal out of nothing. You'll be fine. No skim mate that's plain silly IMO. It's just like a huge water change. Use all your old water.
Good luck

[gqlmao]

When I do a transfer, I usually have enough room to keep both tanks running at once. If you have this opinion it would be nice. Then I would fill the new tank with all new water, you can leech some of your old water but I never do. Then I would get the temperature, salinity, and if you have sensitive corals try to match hardness and calcium and magnesium if it is feasible. Once everything is running correctly, then I would move all the existing live rock and inhabitants at once, the rock doesn't stay in the air for longer than a minute to reduce die off. If everything goes well, you might not even have a noticeable cycle. Like Madreefer says its not as bad as some people make it out to be if you are quick and able to provide consistency.

For your case it might be different, if you have new uncured rock to cure I would not move anything yet. I would dump the new rocks into the tank and let them do their thing and cycle. Once the cycle is completed and you have stable parameters, you can slowly move your rock over in a course of a week or two and then live stock.

[Coralgurl]

When I went from my 55 to 180 plus 87 gl sump, I ran the RO directly into the tank. I didn't have any water storage at the time. I just let the RO unit run for the 2-3 days it needed to fill, then added salt to the tank. I didn't use any live sand and most of my rock was purchased in advance of setting up so was dry and dead. Once the salinity & temp were good, I added some rock and sand from my 55 and let the tank cycle before transferring the livestock.

OR go get some Brute cans for the water and premix the salt before adding to the tank. Really depends on what you have available, what you are adding to the new tank (new sand, new rock) etc which I believe will determine when you transfer the old system. I found after the transfer, my tank acted like a new set up for the first 6-9 months and went through the typical algae, cyano blooms.

Some however can set up a tank in a day and not see any difference from old to new....so do what you think works best for you!

And of course you should start a build thread!!!

[ddarkz]

keep doing water changes at your old tank and transfer part of the "good" water into the new tank, also mix new water & salt to the new tank, have power head in the new tank running.

[Werbo]

First - Fix your RO unit... 15gpd is silly especially if your upgrading to 150 G tank

[darkreef]

I live in a apartment and can't upgrade my RO . Not even aloud to have one. Lol

I'm thinking on filling it with water changes and fresh water .
Then add a couple of pounds of live rock a day and my GFO , skimmer , corals , fish when I'm don't playing with the rock (dwarf lions)

Old cured rock will be going in it I have 50 lbs in my 33 ATM .

New sand though . Was going to go black decided on pink

[Magma]

Just my $0.02 but when i moved from a 35g to a 125g tank I tried to do it all in one day, what a DISASTER.

I had the 125g setup and ready to go on day one had dry rock, skimmer going, etc. So day 2 I just took all my LR and fish from the old tank (which was about 2 feet away) and moved the rock over followed by fish and corals. I had about 60lbs of LR in my 35gal tank and all of it had been in the tank for about 2 years before I moved it over.

Everything was looking great until day 4 when I lost almost every coral I had and one fish.

Never again will I believe the "just transfer everything quick" method. I learned the hard way. GO SLOW, do it right.

[ronau]

I live in a apartment and can't upgrade my RO . Not even aloud to have one. Lol

So why can`t you have an RO unit?

If you upgraded to a RO/DI with a boost pump and restrictor you would greatly reduce your waste water and increase your RO/DI production.

There is no need to do any permanent plumbing changes; you can get an adapter that goes from your faucet to a male garden hose thread, comes with most Python kits. Then you can get a 1/4" JG x female garden hose thread adapter and voilà you are connected to your RO/DI unit without puncturing a pipe.

[asylumdown]

I would keep your current tank running completely as is.

Then, I'd treat the big tank as a completely new setup, as though you weren't doing a transfer at all. New sand (it's never worth the problems it can cause to try and save old sand IMO), whatever new rock you were going to add to make up the balance of what's in the old tank, then fill it with completely brand new salt water, matched closely in salinity to your old tank. If you're using mostly dead rock like marco or pukani or something in the new tank, you can do the majority of your aquascaping before you fill the big guy with RO water and mix in your salt. If you're using actual live rock, you'll obviously want to wait until the tank is filled with salt water. Make sure to leave allowances for the amount of rock that will eventually be transferred over from the little tank in your scaping.

Now you'll have two completely separate systems running simultaneously. If you've stocked the big tank with live rock, you'll want to monitor it over at least a week to see if there's a cycle, and if one happens ride it out as you would any other new tank. If you've used all dead rock, I'd just wait a day or two to let things settle, the water to clear up, temperatures to stabilize, etc.

Then I would do the transfer. Assuming your big and little tank's temps and salinities were closely matched, I would first remove all corals and rocks from the little tank and place them in your big tank wherever you want them. I personally wouldn't bother doing any sort of an acclimation, but perhaps I'm harsh. If it makes you feel better you could maybe drip acclimate them as if you were bringing them home from the store new, but I don't think there will be a difference in outcomes either way. Then I'd catch my fish, and move them over. Then I'd discard 100% of my old tank water. I personally see no reason to hang on to it or try and save it as there are plenty of tanks that get 99-100% water changes on a routine basis and thrive and it's more trouble than it's worth for what will likely be no more than an incredibly minor and short lived difference.

Then your old tank is no more. For the following week I'd monitor for ammonia closely. Moving your rock this way should have brought the majority of your filtration capacity with you, and you've got the same number of fish per pound of live rock as you did in your small tank, but in a much larger volume of water. However, you're losing the nitrification capacity of your old sand and any surfaces in the actual aquarium itself that bacteria had colonized. If you see a cycle at all, it will probably be very small and easily managed with a product like prime and water changes.

[asylumdown]

oh, the other thing I'd do when I transferred the rock from my small tank would be to do my best to place it in the new tank in relatively similar orientations if possible, at least for the first couple of months while the entire system develops life support capacities. The undersides of your rock will have photophobic critters like sponges, tube worms, etc. on them and the top sides will be covered in photosynthetic life. If you can keep those orientations there should be minimal upset to the rocks that you transfer and they'll keep functioning the same as they did in the old tank.