How to change tanks....

[thenamshow]

I dont know if this is the right place for this but here goes. i have a 29 gallon tank with a clown fish and bicolor psudo, i want to transfer all of this to a 54 gallon tank. what is the best way to do this? I cant really have both of them set up at once

 

[grubsnaek]

get some totes, have plenty of extra powerheads and some heaters, extra water pre made, some towels and have the other half away for half the day. hahaha
this is what i did for my 125 when i broke it down about a week or so ago.
i got three 32g totes from Kmart, one very large tote, and a spare 55g tank.
tote 1:
All sand and some water, with powerhead and heater
tote 2:
All sand, rubble rock, water, and macro from fuge with powerhead and heater
Large tote:
All live rock from DT, water, heater, powerheads,
55g tank:
all extra water that was drained from DT, with heater and powerheads.
i put all fish and coral in a frag tank i had set up.
hope this helped.

 

[thenamshow]

where can i put the fish if i dont have another tank sent up? and will it be ok with 29 gallons old water and 25 gallons new?

 

[helpme74]

Yes that will be ok

 

[grubsnaek]

it would be like doing a good size water change on your new tank as if it has been setup for a while. make sense

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by thenamshow
where can i put the fish if i dont have another tank sent up?
Buckets. Just take everything you've got and seperate it into buckets/containers/whatever, and save as much of the water as possible.

 

[thenamshow]

alright, it might be a while until i do this, would there be any type of cycle for the new water?

 

[rbaldino]

Originally Posted by thenamshow
alright, it might be a while until i do this, would there be any type of cycle for the new water?
No. It will be just like doing a big water change.

 

[sh00tist]

Wanted to chime in here. I actually just helped a buddy a couple of weeks ago change over a 75 to a 180. Since you seem to have some time before the big change one thing I would suggest that would save a lot of stress on your animals is to buy a 20 gallon tote and as you do regular water changes put your old water into the tote keep a powerhead running in there. Once you have around 15 gallons add 5 more fresh made to it. The day before you change over get a heater going in the tote and you will have a nice stable environ to put all your creatures into and you wont feel so pressured to get everything changed over in a great big hurry. Im sure you could use just one more tote to fit all your sand and rock into with some water from your tank,keep a heater and powerhead running in there as well. Actually once you have most of the water out of your tank you could move your new tank into position and transfer your sand right into the new tank. This way if you dont get all your plumbing done or you need a part or something else goes bad you wont lose any livestock. Worse comes to worst you can even set your light over the livestock tote and get by for a day or two. In addition you would only have to make up 5 or 10 more gallons of water as opposed to a massive amount almost half your tank volume. Above all else make sure you have plenty of heaters,one for each tote plus at least one more to bring your new tank up to temp,I would even get a spare because one could go bad(like my buddys did),water temps can swing in a great big hurry in smaller tanks/containers and if you lose one animal it would cost you more than buying an extra heater. Hope I helped ya out a little,smart thinking asking and planning ahead Im sure your changeover will be a great success.