Upgrading to a larger tank

[Hooked0nPhonics]

Hey everyone, I have a question about upgrading my tank. I am upgrading from a 20 gal to a 60 gal. The 60 is finished cycling and ready to go, and I'm starting to transfer all my inverts over. My question is can I take my coral over as well? Should I pace it with each coral? Problem is my equipment needs to go onto the 60 (lights, skimmer, etc). Will the coral be fine if I take it all over at once?


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[GimpyFin]

Yep, corals can go over as well.

 

[thegrun]

All at once is fine but try to match the alkalinity in the new tank to the old if possible.

 

[JUNBUG361]

What they said ^^

 

[homer1475]

Did the same thing, moved from a biocube to an 80G cube.

Cycled the tank with dry rock and sand, once cycled I moved over my inverts and coral all at once. Then spread out over the course of a couple weeks I slowly started moving over my fish. Like 1 every couple days.

 

[Hooked0nPhonics]

Thanks for the replies! I transferred everything over last night (I only really have inverts in my tank). Things seem to be ok in the tank.


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[A sea K]

When I transferred from my 30 to the current 80 gal I cycled the 80 first and then transferred everything from the 30 to the 80 in one shot, fish, coral inverts and rock.

 

[Hooked0nPhonics]

That's what I ended up doing. I only had two actual fish, so I wasn't too worried about overwhelming the bio load. I was mostly just concerned about the coral


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[Sk8r]

Coral can tolerate a mini-cycle better than fish can, as a rule. Fish don't tolerate ammonia but do tolerate nitrate. Corals do tolerate ammonia (in moderation) but don't tolerate nitrate.

 

[A sea K]

Coral can tolerate a mini-cycle better than fish can, as a rule. Fish don't tolerate ammonia but do tolerate nitrate. Corals do tolerate ammonia (in moderation) but don't tolerate nitrate.

Are you certain about the above statement?
I've been reading a lot lately about the benefits of actually adding a source of nitrate to aid in coral health/growth and color and am considering doing just that as my nitrates are undetectable.

 

[GimpyFin]

Are you certain about the above statement?
I've been reading a lot lately about the benefits of actually adding a source of nitrate to aid in coral health/growth and color and am considering doing just that as my nitrates are undetectable.

IMO, her statement is pretty accurate (Especially concerning SPS.) Fish can tolerate fairly high nitrate with no issues. While a little nitrate is good even for corals, too much can start to cause issues including color loss, browning, or worse depending on the level.

 

[A sea K]

IMO, her statement is pretty accurate (Especially concerning SPS.) Fish can tolerate fairly high nitrate with no issues. While a little nitrate is good even for corals, too much can start to cause issues including color loss, browning, or worse depending on the level.

Just a tad contradictory. "Her statement is pretty accurate" ("[corals]don't tolerate nitrate"), then say "a little nitrate is good even for corals".

So I guess the truth is that some nitrate in moderate amounts is beneficial to coral health which is what I've been trying to point out.

 

[GimpyFin]

Just a tad contradictory. "Her statement is pretty accurate" ("[corals]don't tolerate nitrate"), then say "a little nitrate is good even for corals".

So I guess the truth is that some nitrate in moderate amounts is beneficial to coral health which is what I've been trying to point out.

Sure, corals need some nutrients and I honestly don't think she was implying that your tank needs to read a flat 0 for nitrate if you have corals. Corals just don't tolerate it in the high amounts like fish do, that's all. My tank stays around 1-2 ppm pretty consistently and everything is happy.