Switching Tanks

[Tiredguy]

As if I didn't have enough to deal with around my house/work I thought It was a great idea to pick up a new/used tank and upgrade my tank this holiday season... So Its going to be a basic transfer over of old tank to new... 40gal-80gal.. But I have a few questions as my wife wants the new tank in the same location as the old tank... 1 day tear down and rebuild. I'm worried about causing a mini Cycle in the tanks. so I have some questions.

The substrate, I believe I'm going to use all new... Or should I be trying to use some of my old mixed with new? Should I rinse and bake the old first?? or just all new?

Rock I'm going to be moving over all the existing, with about 40 more points of dry reef rock to fill in the gaps.

My plan is do move over as much existing water as possible as well. Most likely save some from waterchanges so in the end it might only be 20gal new mix going in.

Thoughts and ideas on how to make this one day move less stressful and easy on our fish and coral friends would be appreciated.

Cheers,

 

[Sewerat]

Grab a few rubbermade totes, remove rock and fill with tank water, remove and rinse existing substrate, try not to disturb sump as much as possible, remove water from sump to alleviate future back problems, replace tanks, add substrate and rocks, add old water, make new water to fill, add occupants and test heavy for next few days for ammonia swing. Could even get a bottle of Drs to help switch over, but existing live rock should have plenty of bacteria on it.

 

[heath]

agree with sewerat, save as much of the old water as possible.. the only thing that I would do differently is just lightly rinse the old substrate.. you want as much of the existing bacteria as possible...think of it as a super big water change...good luck and congratulations on the new tank..

 

[Quartapound]

The substrate, I believe I'm going to use all new... Or should I be trying to use some of my old mixed with new? Should I rinse and bake the old first?? or just all new?

How old is the existing sandbed? How deep is it? How often, if ever, was it cleaned/disturbed? If you're going to re-use the old I would rinse it VERY well, there might be a ton of nasties built up...

IMHO I would sooner replace all the sand. maybe keep a few scoops from the old tank and sprinkle it over the new stuff to help seed it.

I think the more old sand you use the more chances of cycling you'll get... especially if it was an old/deep/undistrubed sandbed.

....make sure you take as much water out *before* disturbing anything!

Just my 2 cents! good luck with the move!

 

[Tiredguy]

the old is 3 years old... about 6 inches deep, with a good clean up crew in it shifting it around,
I like your thoughts, thanks

 

[reeferkeeper420]

save as much of the old water as possible.

Whenever ive done a tank switch ive always used all new water. So needing to save all the old water isnt completely neccesary. If it were me id just be using the old tank water to keep the rocks wet and use all fresh water in the new setup and just make sure all your params match up. Whatevers easiest for you is the best route, because a tank switch can be soooo much fun....not lol.

 

[Luke.]

I just swictched my 20 gallon to a 40 gallon 5 months ago and I did this because i screwd up by over feedingv reef roids and.caused bad syano algee and I gaveup and started over i reused live rock (cleaned it up a bit) and I beleive I ditched the sand and bought brand new live sand and then bought 10 more pounds of the best cured live rock I could find and I used 10 gallons of old tank water and didn't touch my filter but I'll be honest this is my mistake becareful of anrmones and "sassy" corals lol I lost my anemone due to the chemical changes from what my tank was to all the new water the ratio of my smaller 20 gallon compaird to the new 30 gallons of water mixed up took a big role on my anemone and corals will get stressed but will get better ! , im not sure if this was because of the new water , or even how to over come this problem . Let me know how it turns out I'll be watching this post good luck!

 

[TORX]

Same water is fine. Just dont take the last few inches that gets all mucked up as you take stuff out. Leaving a small amount will also limit that seaweed smell. 50/50 old and new is good.
New sand...or clean the old stuff repeatedly for hours, if not all day, especially as it was so deep. Not worth it IMHO, and I am the first one to save a buck. Clean the old stuff later if you want and resell it. That is what I would do.

You will have a mini cycle no matter what you do. Even if you just disturb enough rock in an existing tank, you can cause a mini cycle. Shouldnt be too much to worry about.

 

[Tiredguy]

all great advise. So looking like I will just go with new sand for sure,,,, But what i may do is put in in a bin or extra tank and let it run with some "seed Sand" before the big day for a few weeks... sound smart? or smart like truck?

 

[Luke.]

I wouldn't worry a lot about the sand any new live rock that you put in will have die off even if it's been 100% cured like Torx said aswell it will have a mini cycle no matter what I think the best advice here so far is about getting your parameters all aline the best that you can because it's it way off and if you were like me and I didn't redripp the corals because you trying to do a switch over in a day is challenging and a bit stressful