Upgrading tank process

[Bolo Tran]

Hey guys. I currently am running a 50 gallon mixed reef cube tank at the moment. Everything is flourishing and thriving and I am running out of room really quick with about 30 sps frags on the frag rack.

So I think it's time to upgrade to 100-120 gallon tank. Only thing that's holding me back is the whole process of upgrading. My sps are doing so well that I'd hate to upset them during their time of growth with changing tanks.

Looking for advice on how to do this with MINIMAL stress and NO loss of corals.

Do I reuse my sand or just start fresh with new sand and new rock? Do I just throw everything in a large plastic tub and let them sit in there with a light over it or do I remove the tank water, move the new tank in its place and then put all livestock back into the old tank in a temporary spot?

Please give me some insight on how to plan this ordeal. Thanks!

 

[jeff240gallon]

Upgrading tank process

Coming from experience.. It's a pain to move tanks. I would not suggest using completely new sand and rock because your corals are accustomed to the bacterias you have in your tank now. Unless you set the new tank up, cycle it with newly added sand and rock (including some of your old sand and rock, helps with cycle and shares bacteria, fauna,etc), then slowly transfer corals the same way you did when you first got them.. You may lose some if not all.

When I moved my tank I lost so much I just finally quit and started from scratch. Just be patient and when you do end up transferring the corals, try to keep them as little stressed as possible. Good luck [emoji106]



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[kgeig001]

Don't reuse the sand but definitely reuse the rock. What I would do is put existing water, rocks, fish and corals in your sump and a brute container.
Put a bulkhead at the side top of the brute container, connect a PVC pipe to the bulkhead and route it downward back into the sump.
Redirect your return pump (or another smaller pump) to the brute container. Make sure the water exiting the brute container is above the sump. You may have to use a ball valve to lower the flow coming out of the return pump.. Now the brute container is basically the tank.

Keep fish and all rocks in the container and sump while you fill and set up the new tank. You may have to move sump or if its a new sump, even better.

This may work or may not work for you depending on your particular set up and new set up but it has worked for me a couple times now with no losses. It doesn't have to be a brute container but you get the point.

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[JammyBirch]

Can you run both tanks at the same time? The reason i ask is, the simplest way in my mind would be to setup the new tank totally independent of the old tank. Once you have it going then transfer the coral over.

I assume that you'll be using different sump equipment since the tank is going to double in size from what you have now. Just a thought, it's the way i think about it when the time comes anyway.

 

[GimpyFin]

I did this same thing about 3 months ago. It's a bit of a chore, but it actually went well. I had the new tank and equipment setup with water, new live sand, and some new rock. Made sure the temp/salinity matched the old tank. Pumped some water from the old tank into a separate holding tank with a powerhead and heater. Used that to hold some of the reused rocks with corals and my blennies that were hanging out in them while i figured out where to put them in the new tank. Also pumped some existing tank water into the new tank and added some bio spira bacteria just as an added safe measure. After that, I carefully caught the rest of the fish and inverts and transferred them over. No losses and everybody has been happy.

 

[thegrun]

I transfers from a 50 to a 120 a year ago and all went well. I couldn't set up both tanks at the same time, so I first cycled the additional rock I wanted to add to the new system in a Brute trash can. Once the new rock was cycled I broke down the new tank into brute trash cans and a some 5 gallon buckets that I kept heated and aerated during the process (it was an all day affair setting up the new tank). I then moved the new tank into position, filled it half way with new heated saltwater, aquascaped the rock, old and new. I then added new dry sand ( I would not risk using "live" sand) that I had washed well the day before the transfer, added as much of the old tank's water that I could save, and then moved the fish over and reattached the corals that I had to remove when I redid the rocks. Matching the temperature, salinity and alkalinity as close as possible is important. I had no losses in fish or corals, no ammonia spike and within a month the coral growth was very strong.

 

[CafeReef]

I just did a move from my biocube to a 50 cube. I prepped for about a month or more it seems. I took time to slowly remove what corals I could from my rock and moved them to the sand bed, this way when I was ready to move, I could easier. most of the rock I had in my tank became fuge rock as I went with dry Life Rock for the display. I kept almost all of my live rock, but will not be keeping any sand as I do not feel like introducing a potential cycle from all the crap built up in the sand bed of my bio cube.

 

[Bolo Tran]

Thanks for the replies guys. All the advice has been extremely informative.

I do plan on moving the old tank about 6 feet away to a temporary location while the new tank is cycling. My plan is to do 2 islands. One island will be a completely new structure and that will be the cycling rock.

Once the new rock is cycled I will move the old rock structure over to the new tank. How does that sound?

Would I be wise to at least use some of the sand from the old tank for some of the microfauna or do you guys suggest starting with fresh sand?