Need help
 

Hi we are still newbies and have had a 33 gal reef tank for the last 2 years, We just bought a 55 gall tank and want to know whats best way to go into with our 33.
We have about 50lb of new tufa rock that has been cleaned and sterilized in the tank now.We also have about 5 lbs of live rock in it now and some live water from our tank and one other.
What should we do now?? When should we even think about moving our other tank into it.
Thanks So much

Wait at least a couple of weeks for the cycle to go through. You might try daily water changes from your existing tank to the new tank. The more "old" water in it the faster it should cycle. At least thats what I would do. Anyone else?

I am new to this hobby as well and i am going to be moving a tank soon. if i were in your position i would set the new tank up and do a water change on the old tank using this water in the new tank. this tank sould run for a good couple of weeks before you consider LS (not including CUC) as it will need to cycle from what i hear. are you using substrate? reusing? new? only asking becaue the rinsing of substrate can take a long time and leave your tank cloudy.

As long as you have a bunch of live rock in the old tank and providing all water parameters somewhat match, then there really is no reason you can't go ahead and transfer everything into the new tank

I agree with what Marie has stated. I have successfully upgraded my tank several times over the years with very minimal cycle by moving all of my live rock and live sand along with some of the tank water(some people say not to re-use sand but I always have). I started out with a 50 gallon and upgraded to a 90 gallon then upgraded to 135 gallon and finally to a 180 gallon. In all cases I moved all of my live rock, live sand and livestock at once with next to no noticeable cycle. That being said my livestock consists of mostly fish and a few more hardy corals but I would not consider this to be a true reef tank as most of my fish are mainly predators such as Triggers and Puffers.

Welcome to Canreef. It is good to see more people from Kelowna and the Okanagan!

Hey Inlimbo, Glad to see you found it. Told you you'd find good advice here.:biggrin:

Welcome aboard.

What marie said is good advice. After the move don't add a bunch of new critters. Wait for a while and allow the new tufa to seed before adding any new animals. As usual go slow and everything should work out just fine.

I agree with marie & Palster. You can move all of it your 33 intothe new 55, and just add water to bring the level up. It wil be like a Larger Water Change.

A few other things you should think of before setting up a reef are protein skimmer, possible Calcium reactor, etc.etc.

If ever you need help, this place is great for getting it.
Welcome to Canreef!

Thanx,i appreciate it.

You can do it,i did the same with my 33,put it all into a 55 and it didn't even re cycle!