What is the best procedure for upgrading?

[kenyacat]

I want to upgrade my 29 gallon bio cube to a 75 gallon with sump. I was thinking I would set it up with dead sand and a dead piece of rock or two. Cycle it.

I want to use my existing rock. What about my existing sand _ without causing harm to my current tank? I want to seed the new tank with some, but how much is too much taken out?

My biggest concern is my nem and fish. Everyone says wait until your tank is mature before you get a nem. Well is it safe to move my sebae to a immature tank. He needs to be moved with at least one piece of rock he is attached to and the fish.

Not sure of the proper technique and/or order that I should do things. I don't care about time. Could take a year for all I care. Anyone have a game plan?

 

[Randall_James]

How I would do it:

Get the new tank setup with the new sand and get it running
Let it run for a couple days to make sure everything is working

siphon about 4 or 5 lbs of the old sand out and just dump it into the new tank and age it over night to let the cloud die down.. (it may be cloudy still from the new sand)

Now move all your rock over to the new tank and get aquascaped

Happy with look? move the fish and Anemone over... and yes it is going to be hard on the Anemone, you may consider leaving him in old tank for a week or 2 if possible.. let the rest lf the guys all move into the new tank..



Move over

 

[kenyacat]

You mean without running a full cycle? Will moving that much sand release trapped stuff in the sand bed into the 29 gallon?

I can leave both running for as long as it takes. The rock with the nem will be the last to move. I would also wait and move nem with fish. I only have the two clowns that host the nem. Took too long for them to host to split them up.

 

[Aquarist007]

I'll share a slightly different view point on the sand

I would start with new good quality argonite sand.
I would take a cup from the old sand bed by scraping the cup over the top one inch or so of it and use that to seed the new sand bed

 

[kenyacat]

That was my initial thought. To just seed the sand bed after a full cycle. Then slowly move over rocks a piece at a time with about a week or two in between.

Is that too slow

 

[kenyacat]

Oh and what about all the sand later? Would like to use the rest of it in the new tank because I know there is life there, but again, I do not want to stir up bad stuff in either tank.

 

[cdbias2]

You should get the new tank cycling with the additional rock you are going to need and when it is complete, I would add from the 29g what you wanted out of it. I think I'd start with new sand in the new tank and seed it as mentioned. Sand later is going to cause a huge dust cloud in your new tank. There is at least three threads a week on here about that cloud.

NEW TANK ORDER
Rock first
Sand second
Water last

Your lucky you dont want the new tank to sit where the old one is because it becomes much more difficult.

 

[Randall_James]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12192296#post12192296 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kenyacat
You mean without running a full cycle? Will moving that much sand release trapped stuff in the sand bed into the 29 gallon?

I can leave both running for as long as it takes. The rock with the nem will be the last to move. I would also wait and move nem with fish. I only have the two clowns that host the nem. Took too long for them to host to split them up.

4 or 5 lbs of sand is not very much, maybe 2 qts tops? After you are all moved, you could take the remaining substrate out of the 29 and transfer it (if it is more than 2 years old, I would just rinse it out and throw it in the garden)

it will release a lot of detritus yes, but that is also great feed for bacteria.. not going to hurt a thing in the 29 as you will remove it with a hose and siphon it out.. I have done this numerous times with great success.

Do not worry about removing the clowns from the Anemone, they will be fine.. But you can keep them all together anyway.. There will not be much of a "cycle" on the new tank as you have rock from the 29 going in. You have enough bio filtration in the 29 and the 75 will only change the volume of water for the most part.. The bacteria will reproduce very rapidly and meet any additional needs of the larger system...

Keep in mind that all the new substrate will already be in the tank when you add the few pounds of old stuff from your old tank.. The detritus storm you create will be a good thing

 

[kenyacat]

Sounds like a plan, thanks.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12192383#post12192383 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kenyacat
Oh and what about all the sand later? Would like to use the rest of it in the new tank because I know there is life there, but again, I do not want to stir up bad stuff in either tank.

you can get all the life you need for one cup with out the stuff you don't need

I had tswifty pose for you:

here is a good read on how the sand bed works

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/rs/feature/index.php

 

[Randall_James]

I have seeded with a single cup... and it works fine but I ended up with "clumpy" areas of the sand bed that were slow to colonize.. I started using more seed sand and it seems to help.. May not even have anything to do with the seed sand...

I would even suggest you could skip the sand all together and the live rock will do the job but I like the "gunk: factor as good food..

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12199214#post12199214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randall_James
I have seeded with a single cup... and it works fine but I ended up with "clumpy" areas of the sand bed that were slow to colonize.. I started using more seed sand and it seems to help.. May not even have anything to do with the seed sand...

I would even suggest you could skip the sand all together and the live rock will do the job but I like the "gunk: factor as good food..

that's happened to me too Randall---I think the combination of our advise would be to take as much as the sand bed as you can but only the top one inch or so and use the cup to scrape across and not down
does this sound like a fair agree-to disagree comprimise?

BTW
I found necessarius snails really stopped the clumping in my sand bed as do bristle worms

 

[kenyacat]

Since it goes from a 29 to a 75, I could try and seed with 2 cups. Would be hard pressed to get more out of visible area. My rocks cover most everything. I didn't do Rock - Sand - Water. Last time. I did Sand - Rock - Water. Didn't hear about the rock first until after I had it up and running a couple months. Will definately buy a couple pieces of base to put on the bottom first before I add more.