Upgrading my 20 to a 40, looking for advice/help

[dicearx]

I need some help upgrading my tank. I am going from a 20 to a 40 gallon and don't really know the best way to go about it. I have everything I need for my 40, but I don't have the luxury of keeping my 20 intact. I am wondering what I should do as far as my fish and corals. I will be using new sand, rinsed tropical sand, possibly seeded a little by my old live sand and 40 pounds of live rock seeded by my current 20 pounds of live rock. I will be using my old water, about 20 gallons worth and filling the rest with RO/DI mixed water.
Will my tank cycle, making it unsafe for my fish/corals?
Is there anything, or everything, that I should be doing differently?


Thanks for all your help, I am stressing pretty big about this...

 

[Brad W]

I did pretty much the same as you going from a 18g to a 30g. I just put everything in a rubbermaid brute (food grade) trash can while I worked. Keeping it nice and stable with my heater and powerhead. Took longer than I thought it would, about 5 hours and I must say it was a little stressful. I had no problems though, cycling or otherwise. Zero losses.

The only difference with your situation is I didn't add any new live rock. If the new live rock you are adding is not cured I'd say you'll have some cylcing for sure. Since you have so much live rock already maybe just use dry (dead) base type rock and it will become live in short order. I don't think you'll get any major cycle that way.

By the way, I would definitely use a little of your old sand unless its really trashed or something.

If you are set on using 40 lbs. uncured live rock (if it is) then I guess the best you can do is a lot of water changes, run carbon, poly filter, and/or purigen etc. and skim like crazy if you use one. I think this route is risky though.

 

[dicearx]

It's 40 pounds of dry base rock.
I have moved my 20 gallon before without a hitch, I just don't know if upgrading and using new rock/sand will cause my tank to cycle again.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[dicearx]

Sorry for misspeaking there I meant base rock in my original post.

 

[dicearx]

I guess my big questions would be:
Would the new sand, say 40-50 pounds, seeded with like 3-5 pounds of my old sand make my tank cycle?
Would the Dry Base Rock, seeded with 20 pounds of current Live Rock make my tank cycle?
Would the two in combination with each other make my tank cycle?

And since I would be adding more new, uncycled water than old, cycled water would that make my tank cycle?

 

[Brad W]

Oh, well then I don't think it will cause a cycle. I used new sand too, with just a couple of handfuls to seed and similar % increase as you in water volume. I did change about 20% of the water every two days or so for a couple of weeks and did my tests just to be safe. I don't think you will have any problems.

You'll get some more responses from folks with more experience than me. Let's see what they say too.

Good luck.

 

[dicearx]

Brad W has been a big help, taken a lot of weight off of my mind, but does anyone else have any input?

Thanks

 

[dicearx]

Bump

Noone has anything, no input, no experience with this type of scenario???

 

[dicearx]

If I were to add everything, Live Rock, Base Rock, New Sand, Old Sand, Flow, Skimmer, etc. Just nothing living, wait for a few hours and then fully test my water would I know if my tank were cycling? Or would it be too soon?

 

[dicearx]

noone else has any input?

 

[Brad W]

Patience dicearx. You'll just make people mad and they won't respond. Just give it some time. Its not unusual to have 10's of views (or more) per actual reply.

 

[wetWolger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6530162#post6530162 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dicearx
If I were to add everything, Live Rock, Base Rock, New Sand, Old Sand, Flow, Skimmer, etc. Just nothing living, wait for a few hours and then fully test my water would I know if my tank were cycling? Or would it be too soon?

You wont know if it is going to cycle till there is some increase in ammonia. there is no way to tell if your going to cycle in such a short amount of time.

 

[dicearx]

oops, and thanks. Sorry, I didn't mean to offend or seem pushy. I had jsut planned the move for this saturday, and don't want to postpone it (my 20 gallon is not at my house, it's at a friends so I am using their electricity and I can't watch over my tank, which is almost as stressful as the move...

 

[demeyer2]

interested in this, bump

 

[dicearx]

bump