Need help switching from a 55 to a 90

[Masterderrull]

I have a brand new 90gal. tank that i got, and I want to switch everything from my 55 to my 90. I know that this is a huge under-taking, at least it is to me, and I was looking for some advise on the subject. Is there an old thread that discusses doing this? Starting form the bottem up: I have an about 4" sandbed that is home to Nas. Snails, and a tiger tail cucumber that is about 18" long when stretched out; on top of that is all my live rock, which is quite a bit, I only have a few corals (softies mostly), and four fish (2-tangs, 1-clown, and 1-damsel). And of course all mixed in is plenty of crabs, snails, and two shrimp. So I dont know what to do first or in what order. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Oh yeah, and I don't have a quarintine tank, but if I could borrow one...things would be easier. I can also buy one if there is no other way.

 

[vr697getta]

i am in the process switching from a 110 tall to a 125 long. the 125 is going in a different room than the 110. this will make things alot easier for me. my plan is the same i used when i moved my 110 from my town house to this house except the distance is way shorter lol.
the sand i will only transfer a few cups to seed the rest will be new, i transferred a sandbed before and it was a nightmare.
you dont need a qt tank is everything is done is one day bonus for me with the tank going in different rooms. once i have it all plumbed and ready for water it will be as simple taking everything from one tank to another.
i hope this made some sense

 

[acer]

yep - try to do it all in one day - help is always only a PM away. Basically get the new tank up and running with new rock/sand etc. Then cycle to make sure flow,filters,lights etc are all A-OK. You should be able to transfer all livestock that you listed at once without quarantine once your have "Seeded" the new tanks sand with old sand = Spread out a few cups worth of old sand on the top of the new tanks sand wait for it to settle. Transfer live rock (good time to get rid of atipsia, algae,etc. off existing rock ). Just make sure the temps, ph, etc are close between the new tank water and the old tank water before you transfer any animals over.

 

[cloakerpoked]

Here is what I did. Now my situation might be a little different as I was using two similar sized tanks, and had a ridiculous amount of live rock (probably close to 150 pounds) in my 72 bowfront, and didn't need to recycle any of my equipment except the chiller which doesn't run this time of year, and the skimmer, which I don't rely a whole lot on anyway. One night, I broke all my frags off of their rocks from the old tank, and began to store them on a temporary frag rack that I'd made in the 72. I figured out which pieces were going to go into the display, and set it up for about 2 weeks without any sand. Once the rock had stabilized to some degree, and my cycle had passed (was a short, small cycle) I transferred everything off the frag racks and back onto the aquascape. I moved all my livestock, and all of my sand at this time. I run a very shallow sand bed (probably no more than 1") so all I needed to do was rinse it very thoroughly and cup it in slowly. If you are patient, you won't cause a sandstorm that lasts for a week I have over 60 different coral colonies/frags, 4 fish, and a few inverts and my survival rate to this day 1 month later is 100% using this method. I'd highly recommend doing it like this if possible, but understand that you may need to use all the live rock you have in order to have your desired aquascaping, leaving you with little to no biological filtration in your old tank where you're keeping all of your stuff. I've also moved everything in one day many times from when I parted out systems I'd buy up to 8 hours away, and when I moved from WV back to PA with my personal tank, and had very good survival rates just keeping everything in 5 gallon buckets. If you have any other specific questions, please, by all means, just get in touch with me and I'll be happy to answer them.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Masterderrull]

Thanks everybody, I do want to re-use the sand rather than spend alot of money on new stuff. Cloaker, I like your method for my situation, but how did you get a tank that size with water and rock in it off the ground and onto a stand. See my problem is that I want the new tank to go right in the same exact spot as the old one. So I cant set-up the new one fully untill the old one is outta there. I know, I know, I have alot of demands; but it's going to be awesome when it's done.

 

[cloakerpoked]

Thanks everybody, I do want to re-use the sand rather than spend alot of money on new stuff. Cloaker, I like your method for my situation, but how did you get a tank that size with water and rock in it off the ground and onto a stand. See my problem is that I want the new tank to go right in the same exact spot as the old one. So I cant set-up the new one fully untill the old one is outta there. I know, I know, I have alot of demands; but it's going to be awesome when it's done.

It's a different stand. I can't tell if you're joking or if you're serious, but as for the location thing, I can totally hear you. In that case, you're better off getting all the plumbing done and ready with unions. Then you separate the tank plumbing from the in-stand plumbing, tear down the old tank, and set up the new one right away. Hope that makes sense. What you want to try to avoid is setting up a new tank, and having to do all the extraneous stuff like plumbing the sump while you have livestock waiting in buckets to go into the tank.