29g to 180g upgrade

[curtcherry]

Hi Everyone - First - Thanks for your help!

I have a 29 gallon, live sand, live rock, 2 clowns, 1 hippo tang, 1 coral beauty and a clean up crew with 1 brittle star.

Moving to 180 gallon.

I get conflicting advice as to if I should wait until new 180 cycles or move them in when I get it setup.

I have dry rock that use to be in a saltwater tank but has been out for a year or more. I would transfer the 20lbs of live sand to new tank and 30+ lbs of rock to new tank as well. Would add about 160+ pounds of dry aragonite sand. I have a 40 gallon sump with skimmer and will add refugium shortly.

How would you do it? Wait a month or do it all in a day?

 

[CarrieB]

In theory your existing rock should be able to handle your existing bioload even in a bigger tank. The question mark is the old rock. If it has any old organic matter in it, it will add to the bioload and may overload the live rock capacity. To be safe, I would put the old rock in saltwater for a week and see if you get any ammonia or nitrite readings. Could either be in a brute tub or the new tank. If the old rock is inert, you could then move everything else over. If it shows signs of cycling, then you would want to wait until that's done.


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[curtcherry]

The old rock is from an experienced reefer. He said it was washed and sun dried. I will certainly have to make sure I understand what "washed" means, but hopeful he did a good thing!

 

[curtcherry]

Should I put the new rock in a piece at a time each day so that it doesn't create a bio load if there were to be one?