Tank Transfer Questions

[mikediii]

Hey all,
I'm pondering the Idea of transfering a 30g reef to a larger tank, probably 75. The 30 has a sand bed as deep as 4-5 inches in some areas. I would like to add it to the new tank (if possible) to maintain the bio filtration and organisms in the sand but I am concerned about what I have heard about sand bed crashes from disturbing them in the tank. Any advice on how I might go about doing this or what I should do? I also have some new sand and a bag of new live sand, but not enough for the larger tank.

 

[fishguy84]

I would probably add only a small amount of the old sand, and let it cycle with that, some LS and some LR. Any crashes that occur will be safely seperate from any of your reef inhabitants. Transfering can be tricky when it comes to reefs, and probably the best thing to do is to move them slowly once the 75 has established itself. The last thing you want to have happen is to crash the 75 AFTER you've moved everything over, or the 30 BEFORE you've moved them. Simply moving a 75 I wound up with a few dead fish (sadly, a purcupine puffer was one of them

)

 

[mikediii]

Thank you Fishguy. Any other advice or suggestions from people that have done this?

 

[symon]

Originally Posted by fishguy84
I would probably add only a small amount of the old sand, and let it cycle with that, some LS and some LR. Any crashes that occur will be safely seperate from any of your reef inhabitants. Transfering can be tricky when it comes to reefs, and probably the best thing to do is to move them slowly once the 75 has established itself. The last thing you want to have happen is to crash the 75 AFTER you've moved everything over, or the 30 BEFORE you've moved them. Simply moving a 75 I wound up with a few dead fish (sadly, a purcupine puffer was one of them

)
He is right, you will cause a huge crash in the 30 , and the 75 will take time to cycle, if you only take a little of the sand out to ad to the new sand bed it will help the cycle along

 

[mikediii]

Ok so I should just add a little of the old sand and the new sand and LR to the 75. Will I still need to cycle the 75 if Im adding all of the LR from the 30. I imagine it would be best to slowly move things from one to the other, problem is the 30 is set up on my dining room table with the fuge underneath it (still using same fuge btw) and it needs to go before my woman kicks me out hehe. Shouldnt all the existing LR and the existing fuge be enough to support the new system?

 

[whitey_028]

I am going through that now with my 55 to my 185 im am a couple months into it and willbe a couple more due to some delicate fish like my manderins... need to make sure there is enough pods and thing withoud disturbing the lifein my 55. Pain in the butt but havent lost anything so far thank god for that one

 

[sinner's girl]

when I upgraded I use some lr and shrimp to cycle the 75gl...once it was cycled and stable I added my stars from the 55gl (all I had) a few months later I added more inverts.