Upgrading to a new 180 from my very established 90....lots of questions!

[swansondan]

Hello,

I am getting a new 180 this weekend and upgrading my 90 into it. I plan on buying brand new sand.

First some background. The 90 is probably 8 years old and doing great at the moment. I have 8ish fish and tons of corals from softies to sps and clams ect.

1 How would you go about converting to the bigger tank? Far as a cycle? Do you think it would be safe to transfer new sand, and then all inhabitants from 90 into 180 and just go from there? There is probably 130 pounds of live rock in there. All ideas are welcome.

2. I also bought back a 125 tank about 4 years ago from a buddy. I never set it up and have all the rock in garbage cans with a powerhead. No heat and no light however for the last 4 years or so. I want to use some of the rock from the cans. Probably 100 pounds or so...half that in sump? What would you do to the rock...thinking of using it as base in the 180 and then stacking the good rock from the 90 on top.. But worried that will cause a cycle and kill corals and my lovely fish?


HELP!

thanks!

 

[veni vidi vici]

Hmmmm ... I would think the safe way to go would be to set up new tank and let her run for a bit and see what she's gonna do before you put your livestock in.
Is it possible for you to run both tanks for awhile?

 

[swansondan]

It def is. So you mean to set up new 180 with new sand, old rock from garbage cans and 180 gallons of new salt water? Then what?

 

[veni vidi vici]

I think your right to be be concerned about the new LR. If it where me,I would set up the new tank with the garbage can rock and new sand, ghost feed and see what it does.If it dosent cycles then start adding existing LR .I would go slow for no other reason than speed kills lol. Myself personally have really never had good result with anything while rushing. but thats just me IMHO.

 

[ecooper]

I just successfully upgraded from a 75 to 125 but could not run both tanks at the same time because I was putting down new carpet. I put all new sand in the 125, filled it with RO water, set everything up, and then moved all the live rock and inhabitants at the same time. I put some of the live rock in the refugium and the rest in the DT. I put two pieces of base rock in the tank with the live rock. It's been set up for almost three weeks and the parameters are all great. I have some brown algae but nothing bad and the clean-up crew is doing just fine. I think if you’ve got enough live rock and you don’t have much die-off you should be fine. Just watch everything and do water changes! I would NOT use the rocks from the garbage cans. That just seems too risky to me.

 

[sweatervest13]

While I completely agree that taking it slow and steady is the way to go, I do have to ask...You've setup and maintained a 90g full blow reef for 8 years?? You are probably pretty good at testing and inspecting the tank. It sounds like you are more of an advanced aquarist. New sand and of the old rock is "flipped" correctly should be doable. Get some prime on hand just in case and maybe set up a QT so if you need it, it's already done.
Think about it... What would you do if your tank sprung a leak?? Get a new tank and flip every thing over. Just try not to stir up a bunch of gunk when removing the rocks.
I'm not saying you need to do it as quick as possible either. Set up the big tank, get it running a day or two and then move things over as you see fit. Just test daily and monitor.
180 is a real nice size.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[swansondan]

I agree but adding slow will take rock outta 90 slow..maybe causing issues in 90?.if it was brand new I'd go real slow..but I have a 90 full..So I'm struggling on how to get everything in new tank and happy

 

[swansondan]

Sweatervest yeah..I'm somewhat advanced lol. I've had my tank for eight years moved it once when we moved but I'm not the greatest tester anymore..I kinda just do my thing that I always do..lol.it's been up so long I can kinda"tell" when things aren't good.
I know with the new one I will have to kinda start over until I get feel for tank and how it uses up nutrients ect. But I'm just worried about the garbage can rocks and what it will do..if I don't use those rocks the 180 won't have enough Rock. Buying new is not option..I don't think the rock in cans is wasted however..could I cycle the rock in cans seperate from tank and then add or is that a waste..plus I want my 90 tank rock to seed the old rock..u see my dilemma/question?