Major Tank change what should I do?

[labman]

right now I have a basic tank about a two in bed of sand in my 55 a couple of live rocks and mushroom polup my fish are all happy and have been doing very well but I want to make it a little more natural for them so I have 50 lbs of live rock comming and 10# of live sand so I plan on removing a couple of other rocks out not live rock building some hiding places etc giving the tank a good cleaning then laying down the live rock. problem is what should I do about the fish when I do this I know it will probably take a couple hours to do I don't want to over stress them and I am mainly concerned about my Box fish she is doing really well but very skitish I don't want to stess her out for a couple reasons of course I don't want to poisen my tank. I don't have a quaritine tank to hold them in. do should I do it with them in or but them in a temporay holding area or take them to my pet shop for a couple days I should have all this stuff and be ready Thursday or Friday and should I let everything settle for a couple days before putting them back. I am starting to prepare a larger tank but I don't even have a filter for it yet and haven't even started to set it up.. the best I could do with it at this time is add some water and salt but I think this would be much more harmful please help.

 

[buvaren]

First thing you need to do, is find temporary housing for all of your inverts, coral, and fish.

You're about to start a brand new tank cycle, unless all of your live rock is completely cured.

So you need to find a place to keep all of your stuff for a couple of weeks at least.

 

[labman]

Yes the rock is Cured

I am getting both from a retable sources hopefully this will cut down the housing time but I take it I should still get them to a good temporary home.

 

[seaham358]

You can cure the lr in a garbage can with a power head. That way you can keep the fish in your tank and when the LR is cured you can add a few pieces every few days to help with the stress.
Unless you bought Cured LR you are going to have some die off no matter who you bought it from.

 

[labman]

Well if nothing else I can do it that way I have a couple good pet stores near me I was going to see if they board them for a few days there are two places I would trust for this . the rocks and the sand or from two very good sorces and have been in there tanks for two and three years. so curing wont be nessasary I cant believe how quickly I am getting hooked on my tanks I am planing to get a reverse osmosis system so I can have my own filtered water good for me and the fish it just keeps going and going.