90-->150 Overhaul : Advice welcome

[WuHT]

I'm planning on swapping from a 90 gallon FO to a 150 gallon Fowlr. Presently, i have my sump on the side, running a undergravel filter.


Now i'm looking for the best way to make the transition between the tanks AND the sandbeds as good as possible.

I'd like to switch from my crushed coral (and bye bye UGF) to a shallow sandbed. I've heard that people recommend I do this slowly, switching part of the sandbed at a time to prevent any major changes in bacterial population.
However, since im' going to be switching a tank, would it be better to start seeding the sand NOW, or to add the sand as i switch the stuff between the tanks. If the switch was going to happen in a few weeks... or a few months..what difference would it make and what do you recommend I do?

Now for liverock, it's obviously best to pre-cure it regardless of source, so i'm under the impression that i should obtain some BEFORE the swap and just keep it in a light-less tub with powerhead/heater.

in addition to my UGF, i also ran a trickle filter and a hang-on filter, so just to clarify, I should keep those 2 for a little while AFTER the switch so i can seed the aquarium with the present bacterial colonies still? Would it be best to just take some and keep it in the tub w/ the curing liverock, or should i keep it seperate???


So while i should look for some liverock ASAP, I jus want to know if i should switch out my sandbed now or later???




Thanks in advance!

 

[xenon]

Only use brand new sand and then you can take 1-2cups of the top 1" of your old sand bed to seed the new one.

Keeping live rock in the dark for a long period of time is called "cooking" and it will make the LR very clean because the bacteria will consume all the detritus.

I would ditch all your filters and go with 100% natural filtration. With enough live rock and dsb, you should be able to keep nitrates at zero.

10% water changes per week will simply replenish the trace elements that your corals will use up.

Good luck!

 

[bertoni]

If possible, I would set up the new tank and cure the new live rock for it, then move the live rock and animals once that's accomplished. If that's not going to work, I'd cure the new live rock in a tub.

What's in the tank currently?

 

[WuHT]

O yeah there already are fish in there.

Obviously i plan to upgrade to natural filtration (whole point of the operation heh)

The thing is my current tank is where i want my future tank to reside..so how will the best way of swapping be.

I understand the best would be just point A to point B in 2 established tanks, but I'm thinking i can only have 1 established tank at a time, due to space limitations

 

[alve]

I was in the same situation. I had a 100g and moved it over to a 156g that had to go in the same spot where the 100g was.
I used a completely new sand bed, seeded with a couple cups of sand of my 100g sand bad. The sand was dry aragonite with two bags "live" sand.
I had a trash can with marco rock cooking in the garage for several weeks.
When the day came to move everything I emptied the 100g.
Live rock and corals were put in big tubs, fish (only 4) were put in QT.
I kept a couple cups of the old sand, trashed all the rest.
Once the 100g was empty I moved it out and brought the new stand and tank in, did the plumbing, added new sand bed, drilled live rock and put it in the new tank with the Marco Rock I had in the garage. I used probably about 75g from my old tank and had another 100g of mixed, and heated saltwater ready in Brute Trashcans to fill up the rest of the tank and sump.
It took my about 5hrs to do this swap with the help of 4 friends.

I kept the fish in the QT for a week and checked my water in the new tank daily and did not have a reading for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. After a week I put the fish back in the new tank. Now, almost 4 weeks later I still did not get a reading for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites but I do have hair algae all over the marco rocks and plastic overflows.

 

[WuHT]

Thanks a million Alve, nice concise summation of what you did and how long it took. Hmm i'll probably save a pile of my crushed coral to seed... then scoop it out when after the readings have settled.