A friend is giving me a nice bow front. probably a little bigger than my current 29 that has been up and running for 4 or 5 years. My question is how to do a proper tank change with out making everything go haywire. All i have is a few snails a clown and some star polyps. any tips on how this can be done?
Swapping tanks
- Thread starter proberok
- Start date
Properly cleaning the tank is very important. You would want to make sure that there are no leaks in the new tank prior to breaking down your system. I would not recommend reusing your live sand if you have any, most likely you will stir up unwanted nutrients being processed. You would want to make sure you have all of the necessary working equipment and plenty of plumbing parts (always get more then you will need and return the ones not used). In the process you would want to make that your livestock is comfortable. Other than that its pretty much just transferring things from one tank to another.
- Location
- Howell, NJ
the worst thing he can do is reuse his 4-5 yr old sand bed. get new sand and seed it with a cup or 2 of your old sand bed. stay away from the bottom part of the sand 
- Location
- Mohegan lake
what about water?? Could 25-50% of his water be used along with freshly mixed water? Or can he just use 100% freshly mixed water??
- Location
- Howell, NJ
he could use 50% without a problem unless he has a phosphate or nutrient problem. then i would only use 25%. these are my opinions...
Depending on the parameters of the water, if they are ideal then I would reuse as much water as possible. Like mentioned previously stated, stay away from the bottom.
I think the tank is brand new. So how about all the little critters in the rocks? just put them in the new/half new water with new sand? What about all the critters in the sand? What do I do with the old sand? My sand bed is like 3 inches deep.
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It depends on whether you use dry or live sand. If dry, wash it out thoroughly. Use a cup and seed the new tank in all 4 corners, and once in the middle. Stay away from the bottom. Throw the rest out. If using live sand, don't worry about the old sand. If I were you I'd buy live sand and not have to worry about it being dirty. Try to dig out any nassarius snails. Don't worry, you'll get more critters soon. The rock can be placed in the new tank. Based on the water parameters, keep as much water as possible to minimize the risk of a mini cycle.
ok so i went ahead on my own and swopped out the tanks. iI moved all of my rock and 3inch sand bed over to my new tank. I did reuse the sand after giving it a good cleansing in the tub. I rinsed it several times and got out most of the muck. I used half of the original water and new water for the rest. Mind you, i did this all a few hours. beside a small algae bloom which was happening in the previous tank, everything is running nice and smooth. I even aded a couple more damsels. everything is doing great!!! never noticed how many star fish were in the rocks but they sure let me know they are in there!!!
http://instagram.com/p/i3pgdzMoQu/
http://instagram.com/p/i3pgdzMoQu/
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well, actually they are brittle stars. Not really starfish i guess. My tank isn't really new either. It's been running for about 5 years now. I just transferred everything over to this new tank.
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