Upgrading to a 150g reef. Logistics?

[dianapickles]

Hi

So as the title suggests, I'm upgrading my 60g to a 150g tank. :hammer:

Now, I've upgraded tanks before from a 16g to the 60g but that was only 2 clownfish and some live rock.
This time, I'm moving an entirely established reef. A lot of live rock, fish, and all sorts of different corals.

I'm wondering if anyone has any information, advice or insight on how I can get this transfer done? I have no idea where to even start or what questions to ask... :sad2:

-Will I need to cycle the new tank?
-Could I just move everything over without cycling at all?

I've decided to do a DSB in the new tank with all new sand and maybe just some old sand to seed. I currently have no sump at all and the new tank has a massive sump.
(http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-LARG...hash=item3a90c5236c:m:mAYEfmsJHRaWI_5-QSrN9xw) [the tank im upgrading to].

If I transfer in one day, how would I go about that?

Plan 1:
To just set up the new tank as you would when starting a reef and just slowly transfer my old live rock over the course of 4 weeks give or take. When water parameters are good and tank is cycled, add the fish and coral slowly.

Plan 2:
Get a **** load of buckets (or one big bucket) empty as much water as needed just to put all the live stock and rock into the buckets. Transfer all of that into new tank with the old water and then just top off with fresh water.

 

[Sapelo]

Over the summer, we transferred/upgraded from a 90 to a 300.
We purchased some livestock with the 300 that we held in a QT and thus were able to get the 300 up and running with the live rock it already contained. That was very helpful because the plumbing took longer (a couple of weeks longer) than we'd planned.
So our plan was:
New sand, old live rock, new water. It cycled 3 weeks that was before we moved and coral or fish (there were some cuc members on the live rock so those went in early).
I'm glad we did it this way and honestly wish we'd given it a little longer. We did not have a huge "cycle" but two months into the new tank we did have a pretty impressive cyano outbreak that I think could have been lessened if we'd taken more time to do some water changes and allow sand to mature prior to adding fish bio load.
We've had no fish loss from our plan but some of the corals have taken longer to adjust than I would have anticipated.

Depending on your other factors (are you using equipment from your old tank on your new tank? We did so there were some limiters like when to sift power heads, extra lighting, etc) and how much time you have to put into maintaining two tanks, I'd go with the first, slower plan. I just think it gives you more time to work out the kinks before you have coral and fish involved in the equation.

Hooray upgrade!!! Good luck!!!

 

[MelloW33]

What was your QT procedure for your current fish in the 60g? Now could be your chance to put them through TTM to make sure you don't transfer ich to the new tank and then have a little bit of observation time. By then, your 150g should be ready.

 

[MondoBongo]

if you have the opportunity to set up the tank fresh, cycle it, and transfer things slowly, that is my preferred method.

i migrated from a 75 to a 150 as part of a house move earlier this year. it was very helpful to be able to have the new tank fully operational and then transfer things at my leisure, starting with the hardiest animals, and moving to the more sensitive ones.

it was an insane task, made more difficult by me having to pack up everything in to my hatch back and drive it across town. the entire process took me almost 3 months, but that includes all set up, including the lab in the basement where i brew water, and my grow out system transfer. it was a fairly relaxed pace, which minimized losses and stress for myself and the fish.

 

[Reef908]

I upgraded from a 35 gallon long to the 75 and I did it in one shot. It is possible if you have to do it this way, but it was a bit of a pain. What I did was:

1. I pulled all the water and rock and fish and stored in buckets with powerheads or air bubble line, small pico heater, and had a bunch of fresh water prepared to make up the difference.

2. Then I positioned the new tank in place and added the live rock.

3. Next, I filled with water, matching temp and salinity, and added the power heads and ensured the filtration was not leaking. Once I reconfirmed that the temp and salinity matched the water in the buckets with the fish, I transferred over.

4. Finally, I added an ammonia alert badge and tested for any nitrite spikes for the next few days.

I decided to go bare bottom in this tank for ease of maintenance, but in a previous move, I went with all new sand and DID NOT seed with old. I let the live rock seed it. If you have the same bio load and live rock amount, you should see little to no mini cycle, at least in my experience. Others may have different experiences with that but so far I am 0 for 4 with having a mini cycle occur following these steps. Best of luck!

 

[jenjen]

I've done 2 full moves.

The first was an upgrade from 90 to 180. The 180 was going in a different location in the house, so I set it up, added new sand & some base rock. I mixed & added new water to fill it about 1/2. I let it run for a few days, but mainly just because I ran out of time so I waited a few before moving everything over - we reused much of the equipment so couldn't really do a 'slow' transfer. On the move day, I moved all the rock & aquascaped, then moved all the fish & inverts, then drained all the water from the old tank and added it to the new tank. My husband moved all the equipment. We did it all in one day, no problems.

The second was a house move - we had 1 day overlap so had to move everything quickly. We hired a company to move the tank on moving day. They put everything into buckets, including as much of the water as possible. The entire sand bed was replaced, so we dumped the old sand & cleaned out the tank before moving it, then carted it all 30 mins to the new house. New sand, added some of the water then did basic aquascape & roughly placed corals. Added all fish & inverts, then added the rest of the water we had. I made more water over the next few days to fill up the tank and get the sump online, and completed the aquascape and coral placement as the water cleared up. The move took the full day and the sump was online within a week. Aside from being exhausting it went just fine.

As long as you don't increase the bioload and don't decrease the amount of live rock it should be fine. IME adding base rock is ok, but if you're adding live rock that should be cycled first.

Good luck!

 

[dianapickles]

Thanks so much for all the insight guys. I think I'll just do the move slowly and start up the new tank fresh and let it cycle. I'm not in any rush and the new tank is going in a new area with new equipment anyway.

Although in regards to moving over live rock from the old tank to seed, do I slowly add bit by bit? As the new tank runs, that means i'll still have my old tank running as normal so how much live rock is safe to move to the new tank? Most of it or just a little over time?

The new tank will be up and running with new sand and water and hopefully the sump running. I'm thinking to maybe add some of the live rock to the new tank's refugium from the old tank. So in the new display tank I'll be able to aquascape with base rock. Should that be okay ?

 

[jenjen]

I would just move a little of the live rock at a time. Your existing bioload will be staying in the old tank and relies on that rock. Move a bit then give the system some time to recover should work well.

 

[dianapickles]

I would just move a little of the live rock at a time. Your existing bioload will be staying in the old tank and relies on that rock. Move a bit then give the system some time to recover should work well.

Oh okay thanks. I was actually under the impression that I could move all the live rock from the tank and let the fish and coral be in there bare for a few days and then slowly introduce the fish. (maybe even help it out with some prime?) I read this on another thread.

Otherwise I guess my final plan is to just move over a bit of the live rock every day or so. When I notice the cycle stable, I'll move over the rest of the rock.

Does this sound good?

 

[jenjen]

The issue with moving most/all your live rock but not the fish is that you're taking all the filtration (rock) but not the bioload (fish), so the old tank no longer has a way to process ammonia - prime can help, but leaving the rock as long as you can would be better.

As well, you're removing all the territories and hiding spots which could result in some aggression. Of course, the number & type of fish in your system would play a part here too - if there's only a few and they're mainly docile it would be less of an issue.

I think your plan sounds good.

 

[dianapickles]

Well I just got my tank in today and it is a MONSTER. So I'm starting to lean towards maybe doing the move in one day, once I test out the sump and such.
I'm assuming that I can move all the rock, fish and coral safely as I'm not changing the bio load just the water volume?
I'll obviously try to match temp and salinity of extra water.