Moving from one tank to another.

[Chowder]

Hi I will be taking my 65 gallon down and setting up a 105 gallon in a different spot in my place. I believe I can have the new tank running for about 2 weeks before I have to switch all the contents over. I do a 10-15 gallon water change on my old tank now and was thinking of using the aged water in the new tank. I was planning on setting the new tank up doing the water change and putting the change water in it. I was going to do two water changes a week to produce about 60 gallons of aged water for the 2 weeks. I would have an extra 70-80 gallons of cleaner aged water to move over from my old system the day of the move. I was going to keep the water stirring with powerheads and my new skimmer in the tank. I was also planning on using new sand and taking a pound or 2 from the old system to seed the new sand. I am using my old rock and was planning oncleaning as much as possible in the move. I also have about 50 pounds of clean dry rock cycling now for 2 weeks in a rubbermade with a 8 pound piece of live rock. So I don't know if this is a sound move or not. I am open to any suggestions to what might be better. I would also like to here any other peoples experiences with there tank swaps and moves.
Thanks, Chris

[marie]

When I moved my 2 smaller tanks into the 175g tank, I put all new salt water, new sand and dead base rock in the big tank and then let it cycle with cocktail shrimp for a few weeks. Then I spent a day moving everything over.
I first removed all the fish and put them in buckets, then cleaned all the algae and rinsed the rock off really well in the old tank water before placing in the new tank.
The move went well and I didn't lose any corals but for some reason all my fish came down with marine velvet 2 weeks later and i lost most of my them before i could get them all into a hospital tank and treated.
My suspicion was that my yellow tang was the carrier because he was in the same tank as a majestic angel that died a few months earlier of velvet. The yellow tang, clarkii clown, and 3 chromis were all that survived

[Chaloupa]

I swapped out the glass on my 120g with new glass.....I put all fish, water, rock and corals in a 100g "tub" and cleaned all the sand, put in the new glass, did a major water change and put them all back in ...so was a 12 hour change over...and all did well!

[Chowder]

Marie I would like to go the new route but I know my wife Willow would not like it to take to long with two tanks running. The whole reason she is ok with the new tank is because the 65 is right out side our bedroom. The vibration the tank makes gets amplified through the wall and is louder in the bedroom. So I could only wait about two weeks. I don't think I could get a good cycle in that time to take my bioload of the 65. This is the reason I want to use the aged or dirty change water to cut down on the cycle or cut it out completely. Also sorry to here about the marine velvet. Would be very frustrating to loose your fish to that. Especially is the new tank should be exciting not disappointing. Sarah sounds like yours was none eventfull just time consumming.
Thanks for the info. Keep it comming.
Chris

[christyf5]

There shouldn't be much of a cycle at all as all you're adding is new water and because the new rock/sand is dry I wouldn't imagine you'll see much of a cycle at all as there is no life pn the rock or sand to die off and create one.

Your tank critters will appreciate the large waterchange. Each of my tank moves/swaps/upgrades have involved new water additions of 30-50% (depended on how much RODI water I could make) and polyp extension and color was always much better for the first bit after setting up the tank (probly due to increased water clarity).

[marie]

The reason i wanted it to cycle was because when I moved the rock over i hoped the bacteria would help hold the sand down and not make it hard to see where i was puting the rock. It sorta worked :lol:

[Chowder]

I'm mostly worried about my SPS in the change. All my fish are healthy. I also know the fish will enjoy the extra swimming room. Your right Christy it would be like a large water change. I guess I worry about the new tank syndrome.
Chris

[Chaloupa]

It only took that long so that we could move the new tank into place and glue all the plumbing together (and I'm a freak about making sure it is not leaking) and doing a full tank leak check.....it was really really easy, and no cycle at all...that we noticed. All fish were out and swimming after about an hour....and the anemones (7) were fine. It was sooo simple!

[Chowder]

I figured it would take a long time as well. I have a few rocks that have alot of mushrooms that have grown out of the rock. I still want to keep the rock so I am going to have to chip them off as I move them out of the old tank. I also have a few SPS that have encrusted the rock that will need to be removed as well. All this will be quite time consumming.
Chris

[christyf5]

I figured it would take a long time as well. I have a few rocks that have alot of mushrooms that have grown out of the rock. I still want to keep the rock so I am going to have to chip them off as I move them out of the old tank. I also have a few SPS that have encrusted the rock that will need to be removed as well. All this will be quite time consumming.
Chris


Oh definitely, even without all the fiddly parts its still a good 6 hours from start to finish and that was the fastest I'd ever done it without moving from one house to another. By then I was pretty good at it though (I ripped my tank down 3 times in one year battling dinoflagellates).

[Chowder]

Is there any way other then scrubbing and a good swish in a bucket to get rock cleaned quickly in the transfer?

[Jason McK]

Chris, Could you pressure wash the rock?
have it in salt water then pull it out spray it with a pressure washer then right back into SW?

J

[christyf5]

Chris, Could you pressure wash the rock?
have it in salt water then pull it out spray it with a pressure washer then right back into SW?

J

Even if you take it outside, quickly pressure wash it with regular water, then swish it around in some saltwater and put it back in the tank you won't see much if any of a cycle. I've done it twice with success :biggrin:

[Jason McK]

Even if you take it outside, quickly pressure wash it with regular water, then swish it around in some saltwater and put it back in the tank you won't see much if any of a cycle. I've done it twice with success :biggrin:

I thought if anyone had it would have been you. Did it resolve the problem?

J

[christyf5]

It resolved the caulerpa problem (for a time) and kicked the arse of the dinoflagellates (however at that time I also removed my sandbed so who knows what did the trick). Plus its damned satisfying watching all that ugliness peel of the rock like melted bugger. In the archives of my blog, I see that I did have a bit of a cycle (I kind of went a little gung ho with the powerwashing as my rocks were pretty nasty) but the algae was confined to the rocks and sandbed and was gone within 2 weeks.

[fishoholic]

We moved our 65g into a 120g (two years ago) and in Jan. we moved our 120g and 30g into a 230g. Each move took us one day to do.

First (a few days before the move) we filled up the new larger tank with new sand and mostly new water. Then we seeded the new sand with some of the old sand and added a little bit of the old water and ran the skimmer to clear up the water.

On the day of the move we put all the LR into rubbermaid containers that were 1/2 filled with SW, power heads and heaters. We had the large rubbermaid containers set up in front of the new tank and we used buckets to transfer the rock over from the old tank to the rubbermaids. Then we transfered all the fish into a different rubbermaid that had a couple of LR pieces, a heater, a bubbler and a power head in it.

Then we placed/set up the LR in the new tank and after we had it the way we liked it, we added the fish.

The move was a lot of work and it did take all day but the move went very smoothly and we didn't loose any corals or fish.

[Chowder]

The pressure wash idea would work but I am on the second floor of a appartment building and I am not sure how to contain all that water and mess. I also think it would set off a cycle for sure. Fishoholic thanks for the input. I am sure this is going to take some time. I have so much coral in the tank right now that I believe each piece of rock I take out I am going to have to move coral around just to get those rocks out. I am also going to have to worry about the small fish hiding in the rock. I'm thinking the quike scrub and swish might be the best route to take.
Chris