Ok, I purchased a 110 high gal tank about 7 months ago. I had it set up by me LFS in my home. I am starting to work in a few corals and now I don't like the tank. I want to sell the tank and stand and purchase a 125 long rather than tall. I think in the long run it would make a much better reef set-up. So...my question is this, I can't cycle a new tank because I want to use all of the equiptment I have under the tank currently. Wet/dry with bio-balls, protein skimmer, uv ster, chiller, but I also want to ad a refug in the new tank because I will have more room in a 6 ft long instead of 4 ft. I will have room, YEA! But how do I do it without cycling a tank? I have 9 fish, 50 hermits, 50 turbos, 3 starfish, 100 lbs of LR (I want more which I will buy a week ahead to cure) a star polyp, a brain coral, a plate coral, some mushrooms, and some sponge and other stuff that came on LR. I want to change to a DSB instead of crushed coral. Can I just setup the new tank w/o cycling by taking out all livestock while underwater and placing them in a container, live rocks in another, and coral in another. Then put new live sand, then use clear tubing to siphon all water from old tank to new move all equip to new, set-up refug and connect it all and add by rock, coral, and fish? Will the new livesand cause a cycle? Or will this totally not work at all? My wet/dry is for a 125 as is all of my equip. So that is not an issue. I have bacteria on the bioballs, will that be enough to not cause any cycle and kill everything? Please help with any suggestions. Can I put the old crushed coral in the refug to help no cycle or spikes? I am really confused. I want to do it right so I will do in about a month or so after I know EXACTLY what to do as I don't want to lose anything. Thanks for any info.
ok, want to upgrade tank, how? any info would be great!
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f-dean
Aquarium Advice Regular
what about setting up 2nd tank slowly move rock over time with a 50% water change leaving fish in old tank till rock settles then use a QT and add your cleaners to the new tank, watch for spikes in amonia, and then add fish slowly over 10 day periods in pairs of 3s, I learned my lesson about rushing threw in some LR in my 55 that was about 1 month old and bam amonia spike sick fish ick 5 days later it was funeral time for 2 clowns anemonie, 4 damsels. Good luck, Sound like you already had a good tank, hope you survive the move.
that idea would not work for me being that I need all of the equip. from old tank to go to new tank. And the qt tank would have to be way too big to house all of this stuff for quite some time. How would I add rock into new tank with no filtering system? It would all be on old tank! I am not adding new rock, just old rock from old tank. It won't work w/o a spike doing it this way?
reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you use the wet dry from the current tank, there should be no cycle unless you add more LR (you can easily cure LR in plastic tubs or rubbermaid garbage cans, the addition of a refugium should not make any impact on ammonia or nitrite.
The live sand should not cause an issue, unless there is alot of die off in the sand. One thing to make sure of, is to acclimate all your animals to the new tank, there is liable to be a large temp change from the time they come out til they go back in the new tank, as well the parameters are going to change because the water from a 110 will not completely fill a 125.
The live sand should not cause an issue, unless there is alot of die off in the sand. One thing to make sure of, is to acclimate all your animals to the new tank, there is liable to be a large temp change from the time they come out til they go back in the new tank, as well the parameters are going to change because the water from a 110 will not completely fill a 125.
reefrunner, thanks. This seem like it will be fine. I am in FL so I can cotrol the temp in the room for a couple of hours pretty easily +/- one to two degrees. When you say die-off in LS what do you mean? I am thinking of using the bagged agragate (sp?) sand. Is this ok or is there a better option that will cause less spikes?
reefrunner69
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would put down dry sand first, then put down the existing sand bed on top of that. I would waste my money on the bagged LS, all your getting is some bacteria, no critters. Either way there should be no spike, I meant actual collected LS with fauna in it that might have died during transport.
Thanks for the advice,but the existing bed is CC and I no longer want this ANYWHERE in the tank. I want only sand. Can I go to the beach and collect a bunch in the water or will I risk bring home pollution into the tank? I am in Ft Lauderdale so I don't know how clean the water is here. Otherwise where can I get "real" LS? I like the idea of "real" LS better. Otherwise I could buy the bagged and put in a bunch of pods, worms, etc...but will the dry sand cause more spike than the bagged stuff? This is complicated stuff, but I want a perfect plan here to put into action. The CC bed is trapping too much junk, I hate it!
Overstocker
Aquarium Advice Freak
Can you connect the two tanks with the one sump? Using the same equipment for both would be just one large tank basically. Would need extra pump or split the returns and connect overflows temporarily.
So moving stuff after they have been "connected" for a week or so should be no prob.... It would be like moving to a different area of the tank instead of to a completely new tank....
So moving stuff after they have been "connected" for a week or so should be no prob.... It would be like moving to a different area of the tank instead of to a completely new tank....
no, I can't do it this way. I bought the 110 so I could fit it into a cretain area of my master bedroom and now I am moving around the sitting room in the master bedroom and it is on the other end of the room. It would be about 15 feet away from the current tank. It would be crazy to even try it, but thanks for the idea anyway.
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