Moving and upgrading, need advice.

[andrew001]

I am looking for a bit of advice.
I have a 75 gal. tank, and I am moving soon, and I have a gut feeling this will be a nightmare. Anyway, I figured, while moving, I would preform some much needed upgrades.
Currently, I have a fluval 305 filter, seaclone 100 skimmer and a UV light. According to my research, this is subpar for the size tank I have.
In the tank, I have liverock, not sure how much, maybe 50 lbs? The creatures are:
1 condy
1 bubble tip (green)
1 banded coral shrimp
1 blood red fire shrimp
1 decorator crab
1 snowflake eel (8 inches maybe)
1 powder blue tang
1 clown fish
1 dwarf coral beauty angelfish
1 yellow longnose butterfly fish
and a bunch of hermit crabs and snails.
Now, What I want to do is upgrade to the proflex model 3 with the proper pump. I am shooting for 600-700 GPH. (Is that ok for a 75 gal? I understand 375 GPH is the min.) I am also upgrading the skimmer.
Now, I do want to add in more corals, and I would like to start adding SPS hard corals, I really like my fish, and dont want to get rid of them, and I have no intentions of buying any more (ok well maybe 1 or 2 small ones)
Question: Do you think its ok to run the above wet/dry with a refugium AND the 305 fluval with carbon and ammonia sponge?
Does the above creature list seem like its an "over population" of a 75 gal. tank?
Basically I want the best water quality as I can get, with the above list, with the addition of a bunch of SPS.
Also, and this is a big one, I am interested in replacing the current substrate with sand. When I set the tank up in the beginning, I used like, crushed corals/sand/shell mix. I hate the look, ugh! I would like to now go with just a smooth sand-bed. How dangerous to the ecosystem would it be, if i replaced the substrate with live sand when I move? I have a feeling this would be a bad thing, and if so, is there any precaution I could prepare for? I really want to setup a nice display tank, and the current substrate looks horrid.
Thanks for not only reading this wall of text, but leaving any advice as well.

 

[smallreef]

well, what is your lighting? are you upgrading that? How have your calcium levels been in the tank so far?
It will end up being over populated when everything gets full grown, but i bet you have a while before then.
I think with the upgraded filtration you should be better equipped to have SPS... i could never keep any...I never had the right lighting..
You will have to rearange your tank a few times to get the SPS where they get good flow and lighting,, but thats half the fun right?

 

[smallreef]

OH and i forgot to mention about the sand,,,, since your going to have to take out what you have, i would suggest replacing it with sand when you move. The coral mixture would have to be rinsed anyway because if its got big enough pieces it can hold layers of nitrates/detritus and such so may as well change it....

 

[andrew001]

The move was nuts!
The movers said they would be at the place between 8-9am. I Started to pack up the fish, drain the tank, etc at 6am. All fish were bagged, and tank was dry at 7:30am.
Movers never showed up until 6:30pm.
I had to call in a favor at noon. Got help and moved the tank and everything at that time, was setup by 2pm and running. I went with a sugar fine sand (oolite). No clouding what-so-ever. I used the trash bag technique, never rinsed the sand. Used the shower to heat the water jugs (35gal) and had a garbage can of fresh mixed saltwater all ready to go.
Didnt lose anything. As a matter of fact, everything seems to be much happier.
I got a refugium setup, along side the canister filter, hang-on skimmer, wavemaker, etc. Everything is on an individual timer. I'm quite happy with how it has all come together.
Here are a few quick pics.

 

[meowzer]

congrats on the move....glad to hear all did well

 

[gemmy]

Glad to hear all went well!