Tank Upgrade, How Do I Move Livestock

[Yellow_donkey]

Quick question on tank upgrading. I am going from a 30-gallon lagoon to a 60-gallon cube. I and drilling the tank now. I have all of my water made up and ready to go. My question is how do I transfer the livestock. I will be using my existing stand in the same place for new tank.

So I was planning on using a 20-gallon tote. Fill it with existing tank water, I have minimal live rock (all media in sump) and all coral aside from two pieces are on the LR, so move that all to the tote and then move the four fish. Clown pair, mandarin, and 6-liner. I will loosely place the lid on this tote (black tote) to allow for gas exchange. I will add a good output air pump with a couple of stones and a wavemaker to keep water moving. Since my Nitrate is around 10, cheato issue which is fixed now, I was going to move everyone with about 20-gallon of existing water and then do a 5-gallon water change with everything in place in the tote, for a 25% change. I also have a 4x6" bag of media from sump I will place in tote and plan on having 12 to 16 hours of down time for me re-plumb the system at the DT.

Does this plan sound A-OK. I have not done a full tank swap before and wanted to know if I am overlooking anything or should I be OK. I can also add a PS to the tote if needed and a net to the top, around the PS, but surely I can go 10 to 20 hours with a PS running.

Anyone see anything I am missing? Any better ways of doing this? Thanks everyone.

 

[Mishri]

you shouldn't need to cover it unless you are worried about contaminates getting in.. I haven't had a problem with any of those fish jumping... although some people have had 6 lines jump mine have always been more interested in hiding in rocks.. if you have an airstone you can cover the top completely though..

Don't forget a heater (unless the room temp is = to your aquarium temp).. just the airstone would be sufficient for that duration. just match up ph/salinity/temp when you transfer and you'll be fine.

 

[Yellow_donkey]

you shouldn't need to cover it unless you are worried about contaminates getting in.. I haven't had a problem with any of those fish jumping... although some people have had 6 lines jump mine have always been more interested in hiding in rocks.. if you have an airstone you can cover the top completely though..

Don't forget a heater (unless the room temp is = to your aquarium temp).. just the airstone would be sufficient for that duration. just match up ph/salinity/temp when you transfer and you'll be fine.

Ahh heater, yes, I would have remembered as I set it up. My rimless water line is 0/25 inches from top now and I don't have jumpers I was just afraid hat the new tank (tote) would cause some confusion and jumping, anyways thanks for the post, I feel better about the approach now. Thank you.