Move fish and coral from old tank into newly cycled tank

[cmass494]

New to the forum and reef tanks. Have had a 75 gallon freshwater for years.
Acquired an established 55g reef tank from a friend and have been running it for about 3 months. Tank came full of aptasia and green hair algae, so have been trying to fix. Decided to start new with a 90g reef tank with a 40g breeder sump. I did a fishless cycle with new dry sand (1.5" deep), about 100lbs of new dry rock and an 8x8x4 Marinepure block in sump. Just finished cycling with no ammonia or nitrites for a week. I rand this at 5-6 ppm of ammonia each day.

Here's the question: I only have one set of LED lights and skimmer, so can I move all my fish and coral over to new tank at once? Is the 5-6ppm enough to handle the bio load? I intentionally kept it high for this move, but scared of losing some fish or coral. I will not be moving over any of my old rock or sand.

Here is what I currently have in the 55g (not sure of names or spelling):
Fish- six line wrasse, hawk, 4 cromis, fox face, 2 tomato clowns and a gray naso tang
Coral- 2 hammer, gorgonian, 2 Duncan's, 3 mushroom, 2 Kenya tree, devil hand and star polyp
Clean up crew: fire shrimp, snails, crabs, etc

Thanks for the advice!

 

[thegrun]

You should be fine, but I would test the tank daily for ammonia and have a bottle of Prime or one of the other ammonia neutralizing products on the market just in case the ammonia does start to rise. You will want to match the salinity, temperature and alkalinity of the water in the new tank closely to the old tank's parameters to prevent the fish from being shocked by the new tank's water chemistry when you make the transfer.

 

[boojumsnark25]

5-6 PPM daily is a pretty healthy cycle, acclimate very slowly (as always, of course) and watch parameters like a hawk for the first week or two. I think you should be fine though

 

[cmass494]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to take this slow and move the fish over the next few weeks. I moved 3 Cromis fish over to start and will monitor the tank to see if anything spikes. I plan to feed heavy to keep my bio load high. Then add a few fish more over the next few weeks and then move over my coral. I'm running carbon and Poly filter only for now and will move the skimmer over when I have more fish in the new tank.
I will keep you updated on my progress.

 

[uncleL]

That sounds like a good plan just waiting to see how things turn out because I have to do the same thing when I set up my hundred 180 gallon system. Good luck!

 

[homer1475]

Currently doing basically the same thing. Upgrading from a 29G biocube to an 80G cube with a sump. I'm not taking anything from the biocube other then the corals and fish. So started the new tank with dry rock and sand.

I plan to move all my corals over at once(no bioload), then slowly(like 1 a week) move over my fish.

Good luck and keep us posted. :thumbsup: