Help with setting up 2nd tank

[Jakeem]

Hi everyone

For the past few months ive been taking care of my first reef tank which is only a 15 gallon. Everything has been going really well corals are opening within a few hours and growing fine and fish seems to always have a great appetite.

Question is i have a new tank coming in which is a 150 gallon which is a huge upgrade to me, but im wondering whats the best way to tackle this. I still want the keep the 15 gallon running as a mini reef/monitoring tank for newcomer, but for my cureent live stock in the 15, im planning on moving them to the 150.

I have bought extra bio media sitting in the tank currently because i plan on using it to seed the new tank, what im most worried about is potentially killing my corals on the move as ive seen people lose corals and fish. Ive once lost a coral by literally just moving it a few inches and has never recovered but other corals are completely fine. how do i prevent issues like this occuring

My tank consist of a pair juvenile clowns and a juveline blenny, three frogspawns and several acans.

Thank you

 

[RobZilla04]

From 15g to 150g (literally 10x not including sump volume) I suggest letting the 150 cycle completely and settle in before considering moving any livestock. Fish and inverts can go first once pH is stable and ammonia is gone. As for the coral, you'd be best to wait a while (3-5 months). That may seem long but you'll want to match the 150g parameters (Cal, Alk, & Mag) as close as possible. Alk would be the most important I believe.

Also waiting such a long time will give the tank a chance to go through several stages of ugly along with giving you a chance to get a handle on nuisance nutrient management.

Best of luck.

 

[thegrun]

I agree that you want to cycle the new tank completely before moving the livestock over. However I don't see a problem with moving corals (except SPS and anemones) as soon as the cycle is complete assuming the new tank was completely cycled and the alkalinity was within 1.0 dKh of your old tank. You will go through all the ugly new tank stages with algae and diatom blooms, but they should not be bad enough to kill any corals you choose to transfer into the new tank.