Upgrading Tanks....Helpful hints needed

[cubuffs]

Hello,

I am upgrading from my 8 gallon nano to a 60 gallon cube. I have purchased a complete setup from a fellow reefer so I am good equipment wise. Question is, what steps should I take in transferring to a larger tank?

Plans are:

1. Buy sand online and seed it with a few handfuls of my nano's reef's sand. Or, buy all live sand?
2. Buy 40 lbs of live rock (or dry Rock or combo of both). Will be aquascaping using pvc pipes, saws, and glue.
3. Add a piece of shrimp for cycling? Or add cycling chemicals?
4. Once cycled, add clownfish, cleaner shrimp, and corals from established into new tank
5. Fill up aquarium slowly with corals and add fish over time.

Thoughts?

 

[sdbc]

Sounds solid. It's basically what I did going from a 50 to a 125. I cycled all my new sand and rock and then transferred all the rock, corals and fish from my old tank to my new one in a single day. For 1, it doesn't really matter. I used mostly dry sand. For 2, I would go with all live rock, preferably cured. You get some interesting critters that way and it should cycle quicker.

 

[thegrun]

1. But all dry sand, when you transfer over your live rock it will contain everything that is in your sand.
2. Personally I would go with all dry rock and cycle it either in the new tank or in a separate container before transferring over your livestock.
3. I like to add pure ammonia for a faster cycle, but a couple of dead raw shrimp will work.
4. Yes.
5. Yes, although you can add corals quickly since they do not add to your bio-load. You do want to wait a few months before adding sensitive corals like SPS since they like stable parameters.