moving to a bigger tank

[maguz921]

I have recently thought about moving up from a 20 gal to a 40 breeder. Currently the 20 has mushrooms, a polyp coral(duno the name) and a colt, live rock and sand.Its running on a CPR and a 201 power head and a aqua clear that I use for weekly carbon.I have a rubber maid 30 gal tub and a rio 200.My plan was to have 18 gal of freshly mixed salt water in the 40 take the corals out with the water and place them in the tub with a power head for circ.I would then take the rock and sand from the 20 and place it in the 40.Once all has cleared and the pH and temp sal. were identical to what I had in the 20gal. I would then place the live stock in the tank as well. Now the question is I once heard that it was not a good idea to transfer sand when doing this type of task. The sand that's in there now is the live type which is sold in an air tight bag in pet stores (I forget the name of the company) and has been up as long as the tank 1 yr. any thoughts??

 

[SaltHead]

I have a 29 gal with a 10 gal sump ,and plan to upgrade to a 75 with a 30 sump. Here is what I plan to do. First fill the 75 completely, add new sandbed, and let the system run for about a week. Then once Ca,Alk,pH, Salinity ,ect are all up to par I'll place corals ,rock ,fish in a trash can with enough water to cover them.

Then drain just under half the water from the 75 and add whats left from the 29 to the 75. Then add the sandbed from the 29 to the top of the sandbed in the 75 ,trying not to mix it too much.

Then (,WHEW ,I might be talking myself out of this as I type!! lol) Anywho ,I'll add new baserock and then Everything from the trashcan to it's new home ,making sure to get as much of the water from the old system into the new one!

Points to remember: RINSE the trashcan out very very good. Even though it's new ,you don't know whats been in it! I've seen friends lose hundreds of dollars of fish by forgetting to do this!

When placing corals in the can try not to let them touch one another ,thats not good! And buy a BIG powerhead and some hose to pump water from one tank to the other. Saves time and elbow grease!!!!

Well ,good luck!! Hope this helped!!!

C Mitchell

 

[maguz921]

That certainly some pretty sound advice. I live in NYC and I am kinda cramped for space. I didn't think I would have to run both tanks at the same time for a week. especially when the 20g is on the table I want for the 40b. ok check this out I think I am going to have to take some stuff out of the 20 move the 20 place the stuff back in the 20 in order to have the 40 set were the 20 was eventually taking every thing back out of the 20 and placing it in the forty. HHHHHHHHhhhhhhelpppp!!!!!!!

 

[SaltHead]

Well ,I know that this sounds like a lot of work ,and there are faster ways of doing it. But trying to make the change with as little amount of stress on the corals is of the utmost importance!! So ,how do we do this?

I started a reef in a 6 gallon Eclipse system. I removed the filter pad in the hood and added a few small plexyglass walls and made a little Eco System sump out of it. The tank ran great! But ,just like you ,I felt the need for a bigger system! So I went to the 29. I used the formentioned method to make the switch ,and all my corals did just fine!! So ,for me ,this method is the cats meow!!

If I lived closer I give you a hand ,but I don't think my arm will reach that far!! lol

Good luck!!