Question

[kelligrl37]

I am upgrading my 72 bow to a 150gal, I have approximately 100p live rock, some mushrooms and zoanthids, naso tang,and sailfin tang, I bought the contents of a 125 gallon tank from a guy last week 75p live rock and his sandbed, what would be the best way to make this transition I was thinking of setting up this tank with the contents of the 125 stuff that I got last week and letting the tank run for a week or so before adding my stuff, I thought maybe I could add my sandbed slowly to the tank since I have the one I bought. Any Ideas????????????

 

[sir_dudeguy]

I think your plan is good. Set up the 125 stuff first, let that sit for a couple weeks, and then make sure all the tests show up good and you should be fine.

 

[kelligrl37]

do you think when I add my sand slowly it will start a new cycle again?

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

If I was making this move this is what I would do.

First I would thoroughly clean the sand you bought from the 125 gallon tank.

I would setup the new tank with your "cleaned sand" as well as the live rock from the 125 and let that tank cycle. Once that tank has cycled I would transfer the remaining live rock/corals as well as any inverts from you old tank to your new tank. At this point you now have a "cycled reef only tank".

What happens next depends on your risk tolerance and whether your old tank has ever had ich and whether you have QT'd your fish. If you remotely suspect your fish have ich then this would be a great time to hypo your old tank ... take the salinity down to 12% (sg of 1.009) which will help rid that tank/fish of ich. Removing the live rock and inverts have removed the major reason for not hypoing a ST. After 4 weeks any risk of ich s/b gone (including any ich in the fishless new tank because ich require a fish to perpetuate their life cycle) and you can slowly start to migrate the fish from the old tank to the new tank (slowly because your new tank needs to adjust to the bio level)

Just my 02.