Upgrading tanks

[Sumfingwong]

Hello,

I am still relatively a SW noob. I am going to be upgrading my 65g to a 155 in about 3 weeks here. What are the steps you guys go through when transferring everything from 1 tank to the other?

I am hoping to get about 100lb eco-reefer rocks and live sand. Then slowly add SW from my water changes (the waste water from 65 to the 155) mixed with prepped water. Then add some existing LR from my 65.

Would this be ok?

Or if I keep the LR in water the whole time during the transfer process, would a 1 day transfer be ok? upstairs to the basement.

thanks for all the help!

[Wayne]

If you are adding new live rock you might as well treat it like a new tank setup. Feel free to use some of the existing water from your existing tank but there isn't a lot of bacteria in the water column. If its cured rock then there won't be much of a cycle, if it isn't you will have to wait a few weeks to a month for it to cycle.

I would take a few pieces of your current live rock and put it in the new tank just to help seed the new live rock and sand. Taking the live rock out of the water is fine as long as its only a short period of time (upstairs to downstairs is good, out of water for hours is bad)

Also most importantly what kind of live stock do you have? It is strongly recommended that you drip acclimate them into the new tank after they come out of the 65. Try and match the two tanks in salinity and tempurature to make the process that much more seamless. Oh and good luck!

[fishytime]

heres what I would do......get your dry rock in the new tank with either new or old water or a combination there of...just enough water to cover the dry rock....power head or two and a heater should be all you would need.....let simmer for a week or two(even though its dry rock, it still may leach out some stuff once it get wet again)....test water to taste.....then when you are happy and are ready to do the move, use as much of the water from the 65 as you can and transfer the whole shebang as quickly as possible into the new tank.... do not use the old sand(except for maybe a cup or two for seeding purposes) unless you thoroughly clean it.....good luck with the transfer and have fun with the bigger tank:biggrin:

[Sumfingwong]

Thanks all for the info.

Why can't I use the sand from my old tank? its only been running for about 5 months.

I will definitely use some old LR to seed the new eco reefer rocks I will be ordering next week. I will keep this thread updated.

[Wayne]

5 months old should be ok. If it was older with black layers do not use it has toxic layers of broken down food and detris that will make the tank inhospitable. If your is clean (which it should be) you will be ok ;)

The only problem you will encounter is when you take the sand out it will cloud the 65 and when its in the 155 it will cloud. So fish will be in buckets for a few hours (suggest hospital tank for that duration)

BTW what livestock do you have?

[Sumfingwong]

I have 3 yellowtail damsels
1 porcupine puffer
1 yellow dogface puffer
1 flame hawkfish
Lots of snails and hermit crabs
I hear mantis shrimp. But I thought I had killed it with a 48 hour fresh water dip (soda water) this is a tough SOB!

The dogface was only 1.5 inch when I got him. Now he's about 4. The porcupine is about 5

[Sumfingwong]

Ok, so I have run into a bunch of problems with my basement development, so it looks like I am about a month away from the move.

My LR from my 65g is in rough shape, my protein skimmer slowly died on me and my puffers eventually ate all the snails and hermit crab (theres 1 left) They left them alone for months.

My buddy is shutting down his tank and giving me most of his LR. Should I cook/cure them, his tank is running but not in the best shape.

My ultimate goal is to start my 155 without any problems :mrgreen: