55 gal upgrade questions

[fishfreak1242]

So we are going to be redoing the carpeting in the room where my 55 gal aquarium is and I will have to be taking it down temporarily, so I have decided to take the opportunity to upgrade to a 75 gal RR tank. I am going to do the upgrade in a couple months, but I want to make sure that everything goes smoothly and that my fish live through the upgrade. Right now my plan is to move all of the fish and a few pieces of LR to a QT I am in the process of setting up (the LR wont be in there for good, just for when the fish are in there), and then drain the DT and sump and take everything down, and then setup the new 75 gal tank. I will also be moving the canopy that I recently built to the 75. Will 2x175w Metal Halides and 2x55w T-5 actinics be enough to support corals in a 75 gal? Also, will I have to cycle the new tank once its setup or have a mini-cycle? My old 55 is almost 1 year old so it is established and I have about 85lbs of LR that has good algae growth on it. If I think of any more questions Ill just ask them along the way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

 

[grubsnaek]

wow 1st to respond, here we go..... do not drain and dispose of the water out of the 55. fish should go into QT tank, rock does not...
ill try to break down this process as easily as possible......
get a couple of rubbermaid totes, or just one big one. also need a couple of buckets...
say you get a big enough rubbermaid tote. you drain the water from your 55 into this tote, you also transfer the rock into this tote with the water from the 55. add a small power head and your done with that.
take all the sand and put that in another tote with some water from the 55 and add a small power head. thats done.
any remaining water should go into buckets
fish go into the QT tank temporariliy of coarse. thats done.
im guessing you did the ur home work about a fuge and sump and all. by chance what equipment are you transfering over to the 75. this is where you should also be game planning on upgrades for equipment ex: sump return, powerheads, skimmer, fuge, etc etc...
no need to throw your old water away when breaking down the old 55 cause all that water can be used in the new 75. just add 20g of new saltwater and theres your first water change on the 75. by keeping this old water there will be little to no cycle at all. if you do get a cycle it will only last about 2-3 days. def keep your old water.
just add the sand from the tote to the 75 then the water from the same tote. stack your rocks add that water from the tote and add your new salt water and done, you will have to test salinity along the way so you can top off wit fresh water. water will evap from the totes.
i have broken down my 125DT twice, a 20L twice, transferred over a 90g to a 220g, redid a 29g, and helped move two dif 55g all using this same method. hope i didnt over whelm you with all this, but it works its easy and organized, nothing is wasted, and all is appreciated even more..

 

[grubsnaek]

do not dispose of the old water, why wait 3-4 weeks for a cycle when you can enjoy the tank in just 2-3 days. hell ive seen and actually transferred over corals all in the same day and everything was fine. no probs....
obviously there are more steps like plumbing, and lighting, and placement of equipment, fuge, skimmer.... but i can help more if you answer those questions i asked earlier in my last post.

 

[grubsnaek]

that light is fine that you have planned. hopefully the T5's are with individual reflectors

 

[fishfreak1242]

Thanks for the help. For the QT, I just thought that since I wasn't using any medications, then it would be a problem.

 

[wattsupdoc]

Absolutely put what ever rock you can in the QT. Especially if the fish are likely to be in there for any amount of time. This will make them feel more comfortable and provide a FILTER in the QT.
Now, when you handle the tank to break it down this is how I handle it.
After siphoning enough water out to house the rock and the corals in their new location. Begin removing them to this location. When the rock is all removed the fish will now be much easier to catch. Of course try to handle them as gentle as possible. Most mine on the last move just let me remove them with my hand. Once the fish rock, corals and anything else is gone, all your left with is sand. This is very important to handle this correctly. If you have a NNR sand bed, either DSB, or SSB. You need to approach it carefully. You are going to destroy the anaerobic bacteria regardless of what you do. So be prepared to deal with that. However, you wont need to destroy all the flora and fauna in the SB. If you just start scooping it out, your going to do that. Sulfur will be released as well you will bury many things and cause them to die. So here's my approach to dealing with it. Start my draining all the water out of the tank that you can. Once the water is out, start scooping off the top 1 inch of sand, a small kids toy shovel like they might get to play at the beach works well for this. Scoop that first layer off and set it aside. This layer will have many critters living in it and should be kept wet. Without the sand from underneath it smothering it. Now the remaining sand can be "rinsed so to speak. By this I mean moving it all over to one side of the tank and piling it up. Then siphoning and discarding the murky water that drains from it. This is highly sulfuric and needs to be handled separately from everything else. Place this in it's own container and keep it wet also. If there is going to be an extended time between breakdown and restocking, then you may be able to add the top layer of sand back on top of the bottom layer. Generally speaking, I wouldn't, but believe it would be safe to do so. Using a fiberglass screen would be helpful during this process as you could just place the top layer on the screen when removing it, then you can handle the screen and not the sand every time you need to move it.
Saving the water will do nothing at all to prevent a cycle. NOTHING. However, it can be used still, and there's no reason to discard it. As well it will allow for no acclimating of fish and corals to new water conditions. All and all I would recommend you do save a large portion of the water. As much as you reasonably can.

 

[zeroc0o0l]

I did the same thing
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/312009/55g-to-72g-bowfront-diary

 

[fishfreak1242]

thanks for the help doc. In my 55 right now I have a mixed sand bed of crushed coral with LS on top and it is about 1" deep. Is there a special way of taking that out or should I use your method? For the 75 I plan on having just a DSB about 2" thick.

 

[grubsnaek]

doc went a little more detailed than i did, so thats why we post to get as much info as possible. but again like me and doc said. do not dispose the old water. the cycle will be highly influenced between a new tank build and a moving of a tank...
theres no time line on a the cycleing time, but is should be a mini cycle...hope all goes well and start a new thread with pics showing the breakdown of the 55 and the building of the 75...would be kool

 

[fishfreak1242]

Originally Posted by grubsnaek
http:///forum/post/2759881
doc went a little more detailed than i did, so thats why we post to get as much info as possible. but again like me and doc said. do not dispose the old water. the cycle will be highly influenced between a new tank build and a moving of a tank...
theres no time line on a the cycleing time, but is should be a mini cycle...hope all goes well and start a new thread with pics showing the breakdown of the 55 and the building of the 75...would be kool
Thanks everyone for the help. I will definitely start a new thread once I get the tank and I am ready to switch. But like I said in the first post, I am going to be doing the switch in a few months.

 

[grubsnaek]

plenty of time to game plan..hahah.good luck

 

[wattsupdoc]

Well if its mixed then skim whatever you can off the top, leaving the CC behind and discard it. Put your new sand down and put the sand you removed over the top.
I just want to make it clear though, whether you use new water OR old water, whatever cycle you have will me irellevant based on water. If anything you would have less of a cycle using all new water, provided everything gets a proper acclimation that is. doing a proper transfer has nothing to do with the water. It has everything to do with the surface areas and how they are treated during the process. I recently moved my 135 with no mini cycle, nada. IMO, remove much of the debritos off the rocks and "rinse" the SB and you will be good to go.

 

[grubsnaek]

doc we got a fued going here huh? hahaha im not saying that he will have no cycle. but with established water that will most curtainly help with the potential cycle....or have i been wrong this whole time...

 

[wattsupdoc]

No, not trying to fued with you at all grubs.

There seems to be many people who believe that the bacteria, or at least some of it lives in the water. Well there may be "some" in the column. But it is an insignificant and incidental amount if any at all. Because the bacteria is attached to something it is digesting, that has become stirred up and blowing around maybe.

Who knows why it's there, but it certainly doesn't live in the water. Only along the surfaces in the water does it live. So.... retaining the water will do nothing at all to prevent a cycle. Additionally, removing as much gunk from the rock and the sand and anything else that may have collected it, WILL help to prevent a cycle. This includes any junk that's in the water column. Though what's actually in the column is probably minute, it still would be removing some and thus staving off a cycle that tiny bit much more. Hence my reason for stating it really isn't relevant, but "may" reduce the chance of a cycle. However if you are transferring to a larger system then you will be diluting the water when you fill the new tank up. So it really doesn't matter if you save it or discard it. But because it's not cheap to make SW, why discard it? LOL
Maybe I'm arguing with myself, I dunno.

I just wanted to be sure that the impression wasnt given that the bacteria lives in the water.

 

[grubsnaek]

well when you put it like that buddy, much more reasonable..hahaha i was only joshin anyway. but the bacteria is the main key to all this.
but to make my self clear also. i did mean the same thing by saying use the water to fill up the totes that have the sand and rocks. with it being stirred up and all. that will help capture most of the bacteria. die off is a curtain but can be minimalized...