Tank upgrade/transfer

[thompson2224]

I currently have a 20 gallon tank that has been up since September and I have bought a 72 gallon tank to upgrade to. Now preferably I would like to setup the 72 gallon and move everything into the tank because I want to use the 20 gallon tank as a sump for the tank.

I have bought 65 additional pounds of dry rock to go with my 30 pounds of live rock that is covered in coraline algae and very cycled. The 20 gallon tank that I would use as the sump is also covered in coraline algae. I also have 20 lbs of sand that has been in the tank since september, and I bought 40 lbs of live sand and then 20 lbs of dry sand.

In the tank now I have an anenome, 2 acan colonies, frogspawn, ricordea mushroom, torch coral, green star polyp, zooanthid, blue mushrooms, rhodactis, and a leather coral. I also have snails, 2 cleaner shrimp, and a blue tang. I had a few more fish but sadly they died to ich this morning and I need to quarantine my blue tang now as well. Before people freak out about the tang, she is as small as you can buy them, I'd say barely half an inch.

So if I move allow of this into the 72 gallon tank will it cycle and be harmful to my corals or anenome? I will then leave the tank fallow for 2 and a half months to rid it of ich and treat my tang in a separate tank.

If this is going to be harmful to the corals what is the best way to go about this?

 

[thompson2224]

Has everyone done this before or what do you do when you upgrade?

 

[twilmot]

I will leave the tang thing alone, other then to say Fish grow.... Poor planning and excuse. But if it was me to handle the tank transfer I would set up a QT tank for the tang asap.
I would purchase another 20 gallon tank (or better yet a larger one) and use the just purchased tank as your sump for your new tank. A 20 gallon tank can cost around $20 bucks brand new during a petco sale, or you could buy used online.
This would allow you to cycle your new tank correctly. Because yes, it will harm your animals to put them in while you cycle. To me spending another few dollars to not kill anything else is a better idea then taking a chance. Just my .02

Also, posting this in the reef discussion forum would probably get you some more traffic, to get you some other opinions.

Good luck

 

[thegrun]

It is hard to say for sure if you will have a cycle or not. My guess is that you would be okay, but there are several factors that could start a cycle for you:
If the new dry rock has dried on organics that could overwhelm the existing bacteria’s ability to process it as it decays.
If the 30 pounds of new live rock you are adding wasn't truly fully cured or was left out of heated water for more than an hour there could be enough die-off to start a cycle.
I'm not a fan of "live sand" and it could also add enough dead organics to start a cycle.
If you want to be completely safe set up the new 72 with everything except the contents of your existing tank and see if it does cycle (wait three weeks) before adding your corals. To speed the "wait period" up after a week add 0.7 grams (7 ml) of 10% solution pure ammonia to the tank Use pure ammonia without surfactants. To be sure the ammonia does not contain surfactants; shake the bottle and if it bubbles up like dish soap it has surfactants in it, pure ammonia will not have bubbles. Adding the pure ammonia should raise the ammonia level above 2ppm. If the tank is cycled the ammonia should drop back to zero within 24 hours. If it doesn't drop, wait for the cycle to complete (ammonia and nitrites drop to zero) before adding your corals to the 72.
As for the tang, even a small blue tang needs more swimming space than you can provide it. I would recommend trading it in for store credit.

 

[dyazdani]

I would just buy a new sump and get the 72 cycled on its own. Additionally, get a QT tank for the tang and leave your existing 20G fallow for ~10 weeks. Once all this is done, then worry about moving your inhabitants into the 72. No need to rush this, it will save you a lot of headaches...