Mixing old tank into a new tank

[linkedsilas]

Ive been a reefer for a few years.
I am going from a 57g to a 90g, here is the situation.
I dont have a time crunch, I have a well stocked and established 57g, so I dont have to do anything quick
I only have 57g worth of live rock and enough dry rock to fill 90g when combined.
I was planning on seeding and curing in the 90g with all the dry rock and throw in some unused pieces of live rock from the 57g.
Let that cycle.
12 weeksish, do you think the live rock from the 57g would cause the tank to recycle so much when i add it to the new tank it would kill my critters?
When Im ready should I do a huge water change in the 90g and refill with water from the 57g and transport the animals?
any links etc would be great with advice

 

[windlasher]

If the tanks are close enough together, is there some way you could plumb them both into the same sump and let them run that way for a while? You are essentially just adding water volume to the system so as long as you matched the temp, ph, etc you would be ok.

I am guessing, but if you did that with new VERY CLEAN sand in the 90 you would essentially be able to transfer everything over and disconnect the old tank leaving only the old sand. Kind of a transfusion thing.

I did something similar when I added a 90 to the sump for my 220 and suffered no ill effects.

Any reason out there this would not work?

 

[Sk8r]

Not at all a bad idea. Set up with new sand and conditioned non-live rock (generally, don't salvage sand) in the new tank, fill it, put a couple of good live rocks in with your conditioned rock---now, this is an option: you can use totally dry rock, but the risk is rock that imports a LOT of phosphate, which can discourage corals. Fish don't like it much, either. It can be done that way; but brace yourself for an algae bloom.

Have the 2 tanks near each other. You canNOT safely just use two pumps, because they are never at the same rate, and you can overfill a tank that way and have a disaster. But you could put your water-change water into the new tank, as part of the fill, then every day withdraw a half gallon from one, put it in the other, and vice versa. In a number of weeks, you will have a lively culture spreading through the rock and sand.

Back in the jurassic of this hobby, we used to start a tank with all dry sand and dry rock, and take a gallon of fish store water to start with. There's a risk of disease from that practice. But it's what we did, and we'd have a lively tank in 12 weeks from just that start. Trading rock and water would speed that a bit, probably down to about 4 to 6 weeks. Boosting it with one of the bacterial soups might help it along even more.

 

[mcgyvr]

12 weeksish, do you think the live rock from the 57g would cause the tank to recycle so much when i add it to the new tank it would kill my critters?

Absolutely not an issue at all.. There will be no "recycling" whatever that is supposed to mean.. Its highly unlikely that you will need to wait 12weeks either.. At the most 4 weeks to cycle dry rock..

When Im ready should I do a huge water change in the 90g and refill with water from the 57g and transport the animals?
any links etc would be great with advice

There is really no reason to transfer water from the old tank and I'm not sure why you would need to do a huge water change either.. Most of the bacteria is living on the surfaces,etc.. of the rock and very little is free floating in the water.. The "new" water is just as good if not better than the "old" water..


If you really wanted you could just fill up the new tank with new dry sand and dry rock (provided its clean) and of course saltwater and transfer everything from the old tank over that same day...

Last year I transitioned from a 40 gallon to an 80 gallon and simply set up the new tank in its new location.. Washed new dry sand with the garden hose to get all the fines/dust out of it.. Threw it into he new tank.. Filled it with saltwater about 50% of the way (because all the new rock would displace a bunch of water)... Then filled it with 40lbs of dry rock I had hosed off last weekend on the patio and let dry in the sun.. Then as soon as that was done I started moving everything over from the old tank..
I had no problems and there was no ammonia spike or anything as the new rock and sand was dry/clean and the rock in the old tank brought all the necessary bacteria over... I didn't have any problems and was able to transfer 20+ corals, 4 fish, starfish, numerous snails and crabs all in the same day the tank was filled..

 

[linkedsilas]

Thanks

 

[bcb577]

I switched from a ten gallon to a 14 gallon using the same live rock and did the transfer in about a cpl hours and it worked great!