"One Piece at a Time" or "Wait for it, Wait for it"

[BlueMoonFox]

I have an upgrade question. I have a 20gal, was 30gal pre-move, that has been "established" for about two years. As soon as we close I will have my 150gal that is becoming the new reef.

Do I:
A) keep the reef in the 20, and slowly purchase the equipment for the 150 (sump, lights, pumps, etc.) or,

B) Move everything into the 150 and add things as I go.

The bioload is small, only two clowns, a sixline, small CUC, and a handful of resilient coral. I would like to get the tank and new rock up, cycled and then move things over. I'm sure others have faced this dilemma. What are your experiences?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Option A. I tried Option B when I moved from an IM20 to an IM40 and it wasn't great.

 

[nereefpat]

I would like to get the tank and new rock up, cycled and then move things over.

This is the way to do it.

 

[jml1149]

A is the way. I did the same when I went from 29 to 120g. I did a fresh cycle on the 120 using Dr. Tims, establish a couple easy fish, then started moving stuff over. 0 losses.

 

[billdogg]

I vote for option A as well. I would also add that moving the sixline to a larger tank will just make it that much more difficult to catch when in finally goes rogue and begins wiping out the other fish. When it is time to move things over, I'd move it to the LFS and get something else.

jm.02

 

[BlueMoonFox]

Lol, well I guess that's that. I was hoping for a few "option b worked for me" stories. Oh well, time to start saving up. Patience is the key to a successful reef after all.

 

[Sk8r]

I'd go for A. Once you're ready, you might consider putting the small tank sand and rock and all into circulation with the big tank. It would help colonize the big one with a very minimal cycle. I did this, simply hooking the old sump/fuge onto a new tank, and trusting it to 'carry' the system by providing processing power. As long as you don't rush to stock the new system, it might work for you...no ammonia, just a slow spread of bacteria and life onto the rock of the larger tank.

 

[Cymonous]

I would say A as well, but don't re-use the sand or get new sand either. Would just be a waste. Move the 20 over with 50% saltwater, rock/corals, fish and new remaining saltwater.

 

[xCry0x]

So I think your question was about if you can use the equipment from the 20 to run the 150 less so the actual process of moving to the 150-- right?

Unless you have a monster skimmer on your 20, the 150 is simply too much water volume for a nano skimmer to process regardless of bio load.

Lighting -- technically if you put all your coral in a spot that the lighting from the 20 could cover.. that could work.

You would also need a bigger heater and a bigger/more power heads. Also, you seem to have implied it was a drilled/sump tank in which case a sump for a 20g cannot work for a 150 -- it would be a huge overflow risk. So at a minimum you need the bigger sump to even turn your filtration on.

As for the actual migration; when I moved from my 20g to my current 60-ish-g I did the move all at once. I went to LFS and bought all the water I would need to fill the tank; put in the new rocks and then moved all my existing rock livestock over at once.

I added about a cup of sand from the old tank.

Everything went fine.