Tank Upgrade

[cwbhawk]

Hey all, hopefully everyone's having a good afternoon

Heres the situation: My friends got me a 55 gallon, undrilled tank for my birthday. I am very excited! And now it sits on a stand in my basement, with a 10 gallon tank under it that will be used as a sump. Next to it there is a box of 25 lbs of marcorocks dry rock, 30 lbs of aragamax sand, a new 48" current sundial T5 light fixture, a rio 1400, heater, and a new bucket of reef crystals salt mix. My eshopps overflow and plumbing supplies, and my 2 new koralia 750 powerheads are expected to be delivered to my house tomorrow. I am upgrading from my 2 and half year old 30 gallon soft coral reef tank with multiple corals and an ocellaris clownfish. It has about 30 lbs of live rock, and 30 lbs of live sand, also it has a coralife super skimmer that I plan to use on the 55 gallon tank. I want to transfer everything from this tank to the 55. How should I go about doing this? I've been interested in the hobby for around 5 years now, but I don't want to make any mistakes. I am really confused about using my sand because I know that stirring it up releases toxic substances. Thank You So Much for your help, sorry for such a long post.
Attached are acouple pictures of my 30 gallon reef, my first saltwater tank ever... I think it turned out pretty well :frog: Thanks Again! Colin

 

[Palting]

Congratulations on the new tank, and all the new equipment!! Happy birthday!!

I upgraded a few months ago, and have a few points for your consideration.

1. Take it slow, plan everything down to the last clip and wire. You have your other tank to look at and help keep things slow .
2. May I make a strong recommendation to drill the tank?
3. Do not re-use the sand. Too much hassle and pressure to clean and rinse well while everything is waiting in buckets. Just use a cupfull of old sand to seed the new sand.

 

[cwbhawk]

Thank You so much
Mhmm! I've thought the process through loads of times in my head and planned everything out as well as I could, and now i made this thread
I wanted to drill the tank, but that changed when I saw the bright orange sticker saying that all panels were tempered glass :furious:
Okay, thats what I was thinking I might have to do. I was hoping to save a few bucks and reuse it, but theres probably no way I could do so. Should I just mix up some saltwater and let the tank stabalize with the base rock + sand and everything running, then continue to fill it with water from my old tank, then transfer my fish, corals, and inverts? How should I transfer my fish and corals?