Please Help!

[nwdyr]

OK... I have a 40gal breeder , it has been up and running for 6mo's+. Tomorrow (Sunday) I am getting a 75gal. My 40 is FULL of coral and some clowns , 40+ lbs of LR and LS. Now how would you transfer everything into the new 75 without causing a cycle?? keep in mind my wet/dry filter will be the same one on the 75gal that is now on the 40. And also how do I transfer the sand from the 40 to the 75. I have to do all of this AND place the live stock into the new tank in the same day. I have thought this out but I still cant figure how to do it all in the same day. The sand will cause too much "dust" for the coral's , if I add 30 gall of "new" water to the 40 gal of existing water will that cause a cycle....blah ,blah, blah

OK I have to stop now my head hurts

Help me boy's and girl's. Am i just thinking too hard??

 

[1journeyman]

First off, take a deep breath...

Ok.. let's clear up the cycle issue. A cycle occurs when there is no Ammonia fixing bacteria in a tank. Adding 40 gallons of new SW to a bigger tank will not create a cycle.... You are transferring the equipment, rock, sand, etc. which has the beneficial bacteria already.
That said, when you stir a sand bed bad things can occur, depending on the health of the sand bed. Have plenty of water on hand to do changes as needed.
Get several tupperware bins. Place rock, coral and fish in them. Move sand. Then move rock, then fish and corals.
While you are upgrading tanks, have you thought about adding more sand and rock first?
Hope that helps.

 

[nwdyr]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
http:///forum/post/2780948
First off, take a deep breath...

Ok.. let's clear up the cycle issue. A cycle occurs when there is no Ammonia fixing bacteria in a tank. Adding 40 gallons of new SW to a bigger tank will not create a cycle.... You are transferring the equipment, rock, sand, etc. which has the beneficial bacteria already.
That said, when you stir a sand bed bad things can occur, depending on the health of the sand bed. Have plenty of water on hand to do changes as needed.
Get several tupperware bins. Place rock, coral and fish in them. Move sand. Then move rock, then fish and corals.
While you are upgrading tanks, have you thought about adding more sand and rock first?
Hope that helps.
Well....... yea a little. That is kinda what I was thinking as far as the bucket thing. But my concern is how long it will take for the water to be clear enough to add the coral's. And yes I will be adding more LS , I just don't have enough heaters to place in all the buckets holding the live stock if it takes hour's for the tank to settle. And I was actually thinking of moving the fish first , then the coral , then the rock. Then i can get to the sand and this way I wont be kickin any sand up into the coral's. ANY OTHERS??????? thanks again^

 

[liljay0418]

Whats up Mark? Just remember to take into consideration the amount of live rock/sand and so forth. In all actuality you will not have exactly 40 gals of h2o. Due to the rock and everything taking up volume. Good Luck!! I have moved my tanks around more than once and an extra day doesnt hurt the corals.

 

[nwdyr]

What's up Bro!
thanks , I guess I will just wing it and see what happens. I really thought this thread would spark allot of opinions on the "best" way

I guess all those political threads are taking up everyone's time

 

[bigpapa]

Hey, you have helped me in the past and though I am not an expert by any means I did just do this recently and thought I would chime in.
I upgraded from a 60 to a 150 so it was a pretty big jump. Oh, and I was moving too--about a 15-20 min drive. As far as the sand, I actually used all new sand and just seeded with some of my old. I did transport and use all of my old water with those 5 gallon army collapsable jugs and kept making water at the same time to replace those --simply, I took out 5gal increments from the old tank and replaced into the old with the new. That way all my new water and old was mixing just as fast as I could really move it-I used 8 of those containers. By the time I got close to filling the 150-and the 55 sump the sand had settled and I already had my rock in there(was waiting in the rubbermaids) My fish had been all happy still in the old tank and I just transported them at that time. knock on wood but I had "0" losses in the transfer and that was now about 3 months ago. Anywho, then I tossed what was left in the old tank and was good to go. I know this didnt include the corals-didnt have any yet- but I am sure that if you do move them at the same time I did with the fish you should be ok.
I know others will chime in on the sand part but I was advised to use mostly new sand and just seed since I was using all "old" water and lr that it would not trigger a cycle.
I hope I could help in any way

 

[1journeyman]

Unfortunately there is just not a "best" way.
You are going to have a cloudy, sandy tank for a few days. Run your skimmer at max, keep prefilters clean, and let time clear it up.
The only other option would be to keep both tanks running at the same time. If that is an option, which you said it isn't, then you have a lot more ways to do it.

 

[spanko]

Do everything said here for draining the tank, saving the water, rock, fish, coral etc in other containers. Get as much water as you can out of the tank. You want for the most part just wet sand.Put your rocks into the new tank aqauscaped the way you want to. Put the new sand in the new tank first. Spread it out over the entire bottom and around the rocks. Then take the old sand scoop by scoop and put it over the top of the new sand and around the rocks. Now the tricky part comes in. To keep the sandstorm to a bare minimum use a tupperware container, the largest you can fit in, and slowly pour the water back in. The container will overflow onto the sand but once the level of water in the tank reaches the top of the container this will be minimized. Then just keep adding water until the tank is filled. As said run you skimmer and filters and make sure you keep any pad/floss clean. What you will have, in effect, is the old sand on the top will still be "sticky" with bacteria and should help to keep the sandstorm down if you are careful.
This is the best I can offer.

 

[netimreefer]

some good info guys

 

[nwdyr]

WOW!!!

great stuff guy's!!! I just could not get my little brain around this

But your info helped allot

Spanko great idea about how to do the sand! that helped a bunch , Journey and Bigpapa also great stuff! I hope to do this within the next week , now I am going to use mostly new sand so it will take a few days to get it shipped. I will take pic's of the process and post them in a new thread for the 75gal tank. Thanks again you guys are the best

see ya soon
Mark

 

[1journeyman]

I have moved a tank twice... once my 210 from my office to my 180 at home. Then when i took the job overseas the 180 to my uncle 3 hours away.
imo, as long as your livestock is healthy to begin with, you will be ok. Just be vigilant in watching your parameters.

 

[bigpapa]

Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2782174
WOW!!!

great stuff guy's!!! I just could not get my little brain around this

But your info helped allot

Spanko great idea about how to do the sand! that helped a bunch , Journey and Bigpapa also great stuff! I hope to do this within the next week , now I am going to use mostly new sand so it will take a few days to get it shipped. I will take pic's of the process and post them in a new thread for the 75gal tank. Thanks again you guys are the best

see ya soon
Mark
The best of luck with it and I am sure I will be keeping in contact about possible frags in the future anyways..!!
rob