upgrading...HOW?

brat

brat

Member
Hi all. Been reading throughout these forums for quite some time and have become comfortable with much of the advice that has been given.
I currently have a 20 gal that has been up and running about 18+ months or so and am going to upgrade to a 55. The water peramiters and all livestock and LR are thriving well and I am concerned with making the move to the new tank. I do not want to mess up the numbers nor do I want to inflict extra stress on the current inhabitants. :scared:
I have purchased the new tank setup, along with 60lb of live sand. My questions are as follows:
What would be the best way to move the items and water from the 20 gal(except for cc and 10lb sand) to the new environment? Should I complete a new cycle with the new tank and the LS? Should I move the inhabitants into temporary bags, move the LR to the new tank use the current water from my salt tank(containing pods, etc) and add the water that I have already mixed to top it off, providing that the parameters on the mixed water matches the display water? Would it be adviseable to then reacclimate (drip) the inhabitants? :thinking:
Please offer any processes, ideas or advise. All is appreciated.
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
hmmm... i would add the LS to the tank and mix new water for it. Then i'd remove most of the LR from your current tank (leave a few pieces for your fish to hide under), and put it in the new tank. That's when i would add a raw cocktail shrimp to make sure you won't have a cycle when you add your new fish. Let it cycle for about a week (test water parameters every day), and when your ammonia and nitrites are back at 0, do a water change to get rid of your nitrates, and you can start adding your fish. I'd do a drip acclimation before you transfer them into the new tank. Make sure you have a heater on the new tank when you do this, or you could kill your LS and LR.
How many fish do you have currently? Do you have any corals?
 
brat

brat

Member
Currently I have the following :
1 Domino Damsel
1 Engineer Goby
1 Neon Goby
Blue Leg Hermits
Turbo Snails
4 pepermiint shrimp
on order
1 Gold Stripe Maroon
1 Cardinal
2 purple urchins
1 bta
1 Condi Anemone
1 mushroom Polyp-Green Ricordea
 
littlebuck

littlebuck

Active Member
you are getting new stuff with starting a new tank. You might want to wait. you might end up killing everything. Just watch out.
 
brat

brat

Member
I will be putting the new stuff in QT's that are already set up but I will place a hold on the order temporarily. I didnt want to add the new stuff to the 20g - dont want to overcroud
 
bill f

bill f

Member
If the new tank is going in a different location, I would just set it up, cycle it for a month and transfer everything when ready (obviously the simplest way).
If it has to be done quickly, work around your next water change, transfer everthing to a temp or qt tank with older water(no substrate), you can scope out the old LS (like a piece of cake) place it in the new tank without disturbing too much, add new substrate to fill out the tank (the old LS will seed your new tank). You will probably experience a spike in your levels but it should clear up in a week. You can then transfer everthing when levels lower.
Key here is not to disturb LS too much.
 
damselsrck

damselsrck

Member
MY only advice to you, and it is not about the actual moving, is that if you haven't bought the 55 yet, go as big as possible! (wish I'd gone bigger myself..not even done stocking tank...)
 
J

jdragunas

Guest
you're not going to add all of the 'on order' fish at once, right??? Make sure you add them 1 per every 2 weeks or so...
 
jhebi

jhebi

Member
Originally Posted by brat
Hi all. Been reading throughout these forums for quite some time and have become comfortable with much of the advice that has been given.
I currently have a 20 gal that has been up and running about 18+ months or so and am going to upgrade to a 55. The water peramiters and all livestock and LR are thriving well and I am concerned with making the move to the new tank. I do not want to mess up the numbers nor do I want to inflict extra stress on the current inhabitants. :scared:
I have purchased the new tank setup, along with 60lb of live sand. My questions are as follows:
What would be the best way to move the items and water from the 20 gal(except for cc and 10lb sand) to the new environment? Should I complete a new cycle with the new tank and the LS? Should I move the inhabitants into temporary bags, move the LR to the new tank use the current water from my salt tank(containing pods, etc) and add the water that I have already mixed to top it off, providing that the parameters on the mixed water matches the display water? Would it be adviseable to then reacclimate (drip) the inhabitants? :thinking:
Please offer any processes, ideas or advise. All is appreciated.
Hello,
This is a thread by WAX that gives you an excellent instruction on how to upgrade....I myself upgraded without any loss.....great info....

https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...ng+bigger+tank
 
nrage

nrage

Member
Originally Posted by damselsrck
MY only advice to you, and it is not about the actual moving, is that if you haven't bought the 55 yet, go as big as possible! (wish I'd gone bigger myself..not even done stocking tank...)
Amen...only now am I finding that some of the stuff I wanted may quickly grow too large for my setup. With as much as I spent already, I really think I may have been better off just going one step bigger.
Oh well, I'll probably move into a new house within a couple years, and when I do, I'll just start a new larger tank and move everything over I guess. Plus, I'll be able to use my 60 for quarantine and such...
 
brat

brat

Member
No not all at once, I currently have a couple other smaller established tanks that I will be adding one of the on order(maybe I should say wish list) items at a time. Eventually, I want to move the 20 and the other smaller tanks to the one larger tank. With the exception of the shrimp, I want to move the three fish from the 20 to the 55 first before adding anything to the new tank purchasing any new items for the 20.
Thanks for your reply. I have gotten nothing but good advise from these boards.
 
brat

brat

Member
JH and wax. Great information, just what I was looking for.
I set up the new tank with new filter, power head and lights yesterday in a new spot close to the 20 with new ls, 10lb newly cured lr, 15lb estab lr, premixed SW, SW from an established tank that only contained hermits and snails, all equipment (biowheel, skimmer, heater, powerheads, etc ) from existing tank.
Filled the tank 3/4 full just to where the filter would reach. Ended up with 18g esablished SW from tank and 10g premix(1+week old). Want to add water from 20g to new tank when I do water change tonight on 20.
Testing this morning resulted in:
New Tank 20G
PH 8.2 8.4
Trites 0 .01
trates 0 10
Amm 0 0
temp 82 83
SG 1.025 1.025
Let me know what you think. I am off to a meeting so will check back later. Thanks
 
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