Upgrade from 55 to 125. Help

[newbsaltwater]

We currently have a 55 gallon fowlr. Two false percs, yellow tang, hippo tang, sand sifting goby, pigmy angel, one chromis, cleaner wrasse,2 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of snails and hermit crabs. Everything is great with the tank but we decided to upgrade to a 125 gallon. One of our local LFS that we regularly go to said we could transfer all water sand and live rock into the 125 and then top it up with fresh saltwater. Leave it run for about 24 hours, then add our livestock. We stopped by another LFS today looking for more live rock. He said we should let the 125 cycle with fresh saltwater for at least 30 days before adding anything from the 55 gallon. He said when we do our weekly water change on the 55, we could put that water into the 125. We are running Fluval FX6 on 125 and Fluval 406 plus two hang on the back filters in the 55. No sump, refuge, overflow etc. I want to do this right so we don't lose any livestock if at all possible. I need help figuring which way to go with this.

 

[lmforbis]

I did the same thing last March. I had to move the 55 first because the 125 was going in the same place. I had to pretty much empty everything just to move the 55 out of the way. Once I got the 125 filled, I used all new salt water. I reused the sand (big mistake) and rocks from the 55 I moved the fish and inverts with in 24 hours of filling the tank. I had a mini cycle that lasted about a week. Just added Prime daily until the tank stabilized. The only thing I would do differently is I would have gotten all new sand.

 

[newbsaltwater]

We were able to slide the 55 over to put the 125 in that spot. We bought new sand but I was planning on adding the old sand as well. I am planning on using all the rock from the 55 as it is pretty pricey here at 5 to 8 dollars a pound and there are only 2 LFS nearby. Did you lose any livestock? That's my biggest worry.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Buy dry rock its much cheaper than live rock and use your old rock from the 55 to see the dry rock with. It's not necessary to use all live rock

 

[lmforbis]

I lost no fish or coral. A couple snails and crabs didn't make it.

 

[scooter31707]

IMO, don't use any of the old sand. Just use completely new sand. Use the live rock and go purchase some dry rock. The old rock should be enough to help with the cycle. I don't think you will have a huge cycle, probably getting a mini one. Just watch for ammonia and nirates spikes, being really to change water on short notice and keep Prime on-hand. Make sure the 125 water matches the 55(PH, Salinity, Temp). IMO, the losing fish part comes from the stress of the move, not really something the hobbyist do.

 

[makeshift101]

I just upgraded from 75 to 120, ive done before 55 to 75 before as well

55 to 75
the new tank was in the same place as the old one.

I took out all the water into buckets, placed the rock and fish in them
moved the new tank in place, added new live sand and had new water (heated) to fill up tank
placed all the rocks where I wanted them, added fish reused some water and everything was fine

all in all it took about 5ish hours

75 to 120
This tank was going somewhere else, so I set it up with new live sand and some dry rock
I took 3 large rocks out of my old tank and placed im the new tank, and filled it up with new saltwater. I ran everything for about 3 weeks to make sure everything was tip top

Then I emptied the old tanks water, rock and livestock
placed the rocks in, acclimated the fish, and I was good to go

Both times I have not lost a fish

I never reused sand, it gets pretty nasty when you start moving things around, I always scoop it out after everything is moved clean it and give to someone in our club that may need it or hold it for later.

heres the 120
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2532441

 

[Silly clownfish]

For my 30 to 75 upgrade I moved the old tank (full) to another room. Then I took my time toset up the new tank with new substrate, some new dry rock, and moved over most of the rock from the old tank. This part took several days because I spent a lot of time building my aquascape - drilling rock, inserting rods, etc.

I let everything run for a couple of weeks, then moved the last few pieces of rock (leaving the mobile inhabitants with no place to hide ). Then moved the livestock.

No losses.