Upgrading to a 72 gal bowfront - may have to be quickly!!

[WinkeyWoneye]

My current tank is a older 39 gal AGA tank, with thin glass compared to newer aquariums of its size now a days. The center brace has had a slight hairline crack in it for a long while now. Tonight I bumped it a bit too hard when trying to get a BTA out of my tank. It cracked pretty good now, still not 100% thru, but starting to seperate a little bit. I'm really worried that this tank is going to blow out if it cracks all the way thru. I would like to get my 72 gal running ASAP. From past experiece does anyone have any does and donts on doing this?? I dont think I have a month to wait for this tank to cycle.
My Fluval I have running on the 39 gal is full of pods and other live critters. My current tank is way overstocked atm, so my bioload on the fluval must be pretty high. Was thinking maybe I could run the Fluval on the 72 while the Fuge and and Emperor filter build up bacteria's, pods and what not? Basically is there a way I can do this without making the 72 have a ammonia spike??
I have 125 pounds of bagged marine sand, I want to heavily seed it with live sand and put only my current LR and livestock into this tank while its stabillizing. Any help , tips , suggestions on doing this is much appreciated as I dont think this tank is going to hold on for another month, let alone tolerate being moved...My new tank is going right where this one stands. I only need a couple items to have the 72 ready to go. I need a mag drive 7 and all my plumbing. Other than that I'm ready to go.
Thanks in advance,
Dan

 

[WinkeyWoneye]

I also have a hang on tank fuge, that holds about 5.5 gal., and is already established. I was planning on hanging this off the sump tank below until everything stabilizes.

 

[monti-mike]

sounds good, for the change a crack will just blow out and not a pretty site..........if u need some live sand to seed ur sand bed i be more then welcome to help, or iif u needed some macros to fill the fuge (will be placing order for mangroves if u are interested......???)

the cyclling u really dont have a choice u will have to do it again maybe a shorter period of time, and more volume of water wich will be good, just make sure to use RO/DI if possible to really clean the water, i think one of the bigger things people dont do at least RO, if possible.......

The fluval is DEF overloaded for the bio type u decribe,the fuge helps out probally alot to pull out that nutrience out of the water.......

the other thing iu could say is that i am planning on dooing a water change real soon, and u need aged water to speed the cycle time up, that could help u out to....., but try not to mess with it to much just let it balance out naturally......

peace

mike

ps....
any other needes or help i can be feel free to PM .....

 

[WinkeyWoneye]

Monti-mike,
Thanks for the reply. I may take you up on that offer with your old water. Just need to gather up more 5 gal buckets first. I would possibly be interested in a mangrove, need to think about it a bit more though. I dont want to add anything new being that I'm not sure if my current livestock is even going to make it thru this emergency move.
Anyone else have any suggestions on what I should do in my current situation??

 

[jallard]

I could do a 10gal water change and you could take my water ....not sure if that would help. Most of the benificial bacteria live in the rocks and substrate. I wouldnt use your live sand....just a few cups of it at most to seed new sand.

 

[WinkeyWoneye]

I dont have any live sand atm except the couple pounds in my fuge. The tank when I bought it off a friend already had crushed coral in it. I just left the CC and never bothered changing it to sand. I will have to buy some live sand to use for seeding purposes.

 

[plandy]

In the '70s I had a 65 gallon blow up in my living room. Not a pretty sight at all Might want to drop the water level as much as your filtration allows to minimize wall pressure.