upgrading tank and i have questions.

[reefbound]

Last august my wife and I decided when our last Cichlid died we would try converting over to saltwater... well that turned out to be a success (thankfully), but now after 10 years the tank stand is showing some deterioration on the backside of the stand... So what do I do? I started to build my own stand, I have it all framed out and ready for sheeting and while I was putting the finishing touches on the framework it hit me... what was that you ask? Why not upgrade tank size too!!! So now Im looking at going from a 75 to a 90 gal, I would go larger but with the new lights I just got recently and space "we" decided a 90 gal would be large enough.

Now having never done this what would be the best way to go about this?
If you look at the my info button you will see whats in our 75 now.

One of my main questions is should I use the same sand? and Im going to have to add some base rock then put my liverock on top of that with new water, do you think this will cause a mini cycle and I know I could do this in one day or should this be done over time... WOW so many questions... Thanks all for any answers...

[melosu58]

Your cycle time should be more brief if you even have one because of your LR being added from your old tank. Already cured. I know when I upgraded I changed the substrate because I did not want to take a chance.

[afilter]

You are doing the same thing I did last year. I went from a 75g standard to a 90g reef ready and a 30g sump. One caution as many find out if you do a sump you usually have to install it at the time of set up as most tanks(sumps) will not fit throught the doors of standard stands. If you are building your own you may be able to get around this.

I had FW for many years with africans as my last setup. SW is awesome, but my only word of advice to someone switching over is be patient and read everything you can. I truly can take over a year for a new tank to truly become well established and give it a good 4-6 weeks for it to cycle.

Take your time and have fun.

[ellisz]

With 10 yr old sand, I would propbly try to replace it and seed the new sand with some of the old. I have successfully moved my 75 3 times. Took down and set back up in the same day. This can work but with a fresh sand bed, you might want to try to set up the new tank ahead of time and slowly move rock and such over.