Moving from 30 Gallon to 55 Gallon Tank

[fpg]

Hey guys, I have a couple of questions about my methods for moving from a 30 Gallon to a 55 Gallon tank. Currently I have a couple clown fish and a royal gramma in the 30 gallon tank (along with a few snails and a brittle star) as well as about 25 lbs of Live Rock. I'm wanting to move all of this (including the substrate) to a 55 gallon aquarium.
I've already added some additional sand and crushed coral to the new tank and have everything in place to get it setup I'm just wondering how I should go about the move.
Would it be better to fill the 55 with about 30 gallons of new salt water and get things running for a bit before adding the live sand and live rock? Or would it be better to leave water out for now, empty the 30 gallon into a bucket place all the critters and live rock in there and then move the substrate out of the 30G into the 55G and proceed to move everything else in after I mix the old water with the new?
Any tips on how to make the transition as easy as I can on the fish? We love them to death and would hate to lose them! Thanks!

 

[jeff10]

I guess if you want to use some of the substrate you are going to have to move them to a bucket and just be patient with everything. Make sure you have a pump on the bucket of course and try to match the water Temp with all three. You want to keep system shock down to a minimum of moving them. That is my best advice as I am sure others will have better advice for you. Just make sure your bucket is able to fit the rock and fish decent (I know it will be a bit more crowded) and have a filter on it as well.

 

[ibanez]

I would set up a rubbermaid for the fish with a heater and a few large peices of liverock, move the substrate over and leave it overnight, do watertests in the morning and if everything looks good, add the fish and few peices of live rock. That is just my opinion.