Transfering to a new tank

[sal-t-dawg]

Hi Guys - This is my first post so please be gentle. I just picked up a 72gl bow front and I want to transfer everything from my 150 into it. But I also want to keep my 150 up and running so I can put together a predator tank. I am using a Rena canister xp on the 150gl and will be setting up another one on the 72gl. Here are my questions.....should I run the new Rena along side the old one on the 150gl to get my bacteria established? If so, for how long? Whats the bare minimum amount of live rock and sand that I should leave in the 150? I guess the best question would be: whats the best way to do this?

 

[fallinapart]

I'm going to assume that you are talking a fowler tank, so yes run the rena with the 150 for a while and also do a water change on the 150 and put the water you take out of the big tank into the 72gl, if you can put 50% old water in the 72gl then very little cycle should be seen. Make sure you add live rock from the big tank that is already established and with all that, it should be a pretty easy transition

 

[DMBillies]

Yup... if we're talking about adding a new FOWLER, run the new filter on the old tank a bit, transfer quite a bit of the old water into the new tank, and use some of your old rock in the new tank and the cycle will be minimal if you have anything at all (I don't think you would unless you dumped a whole bunch of fish into the new tank right off of the bat).

If you're starting a reef tank in the new tank, the only thing I might recommend differently would be to make sure you get as much gunk out of the old rock as you can before you move some of it to the new tank and I wouldn't put quite as much old water into the new tank. Reason being that you don't want to bring nitrate problems into the new tank... which wouldn't really adversely affect a FOWLER too much. A.k.a, it might be better to be a little more patient on a cycle for a reef tank.

 

[sal-t-dawg]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I was also considering borrowing some of the media from the established filter and putting it in the new one. Im going to keep the 150 up and runnin. I'll probably just take the 70 gallons of water out of the 150, along with the live rock, and transfer it to the 72. I think that I'll go ahead and buy some live sand. Would a couple of diamond goabies help keep the 150 at acceptable bacteria levels? I would like to put a couple of lion fish and an eel in the 150 eventually. Thanks again guys.