Transferring tanks...fixing my nitrate problem!

[SugarFox03]

Well, after a TOO LONG battle with extremely high nitrates and every algae you can think of, I think I finally have an answer. Someone mentioned that the bottoms of the rear chambers accumulate crud, which without being removed, sits and rots. Fabulous. I've never suctioned out the back chambers. My tanks been up since April of last year. Although I will miss the beautiful look of the AquaPod, I must move on with my life.

I will be switching to a 26 gal bowfront that a local reefer has graciously offered at an awesome price. I will be setting up a 10 gal fuge/sump next to it, so I can keep my skimmer, but it wont be in the tank. I will need help with this also, but that post will be later.

I have never transferred a tank. What on earth do I do first? How much of the water do I keep from the old tank? Would this be a good time to introduce more live sand (I want about 10 lbs more.) Will this move cause my tank to cycle? I dont want to stress my fish and corals out. I was thinking of keeping the live stock in separate 5 gal buckets overnight, fish in one and corals in another (with some pieces of live rock, of course, so they can hide and not touch each other) while the tank is clearing up. Is that a good idea?

Any other pointers, suggestions, recommendations, advice? I will need all the help I can get! If anyone is local to WPB, I'll throw in some beers & pizza for the help!

Thanks in advance, you all are awesome! :fish1:

 

[shag26272]

I just moved my tank and I used 5 gallon paint buckets, save all of your water for the buckets to keep your livestock in, start draining your water and move the livestock to buckets transfer your sand and fill it with water and your rocks, run some filter floss to clear up the water, it should clear pretty quick , I added my livestock within 30 minutes, also have some saltwater mixed up to do a water change and make up for any water you lost, I did mine as fast as I could and had no problems whatsoever, it maybe took about 45 minutes total

 

[SugarFox03]

WOW...45 mins? Thats awesome! It's going to be about 2 weeks before this will happen. I want to have plenty of time to prepare and also set up the fuge.

Since the tanks are the same size, can I do my regular 10 gal water change as usual? I dont want to transfer any nitrates over, if possible.