Upgrading reef tank procedures and thoughts

[Dary421]

I'm thinking that in a few months I'll be up grading my tank from it's present 75 gal to something In The neighborhood of a 125- 180 gal tank....so here's my questions,..when the new tank arrives, it'll be going right where my present tank is now,.(and possibly thinking of converting the 75 gal tank into a sump? ) I assume that I could drain the present tanks water into some rubbermaid trash cans along with the live rocks,corals and fish stock,.. ( tossing out the old sand bed),...add a powerhead for circulation etc to keep things alive while in the rubber maids ,..... Then I could shimmy the old tank away and shimmy in the bigger tank and stand into it's place,..... Ok,...now ,.the new tank is in place,.. I'll add new dry or live sand along with some dry base rock,....fill up the new tank with a combination of new water and some of the water removed from the old tank,....then add the live rocks from the 75 gal tank ( about #100 lbs)..letting the water clear itself of course,..at this point can I add the fishes,corals or will I have to wait? will this procedure cause another recycle , diatoms ,algae bloom or any other unforeseen dilemmas ?
At this point I'd still have to convert the old tank Into a sump and rig all that up also which may take a day or two....I'm just trying to clarify some of these things before I decide if it'll be worth the hassle or not , I'm sure there's a bunch of you guys that have done this before so any thoughts would be appreciated., thanks,Dary

 

[carey]

I just did the same thing. I moved the 55g onto another wall so I could have the luxury of setting up the 125g at my leisure. Do you have anyplace you can put the 75g for a few days? This would also give you the chance to make sure all the parameters are good. I ended up with a lsight ammonia spike when I moved my rock over.

If you don't have the space I think your plan sounds good. It will be a LOOONG day that's for sure. LOL

Good luck, keep us updated.

 

[Dary421]

I just did the same thing. I moved the 55g onto another wall so I could have the luxury of setting up the 125g at my leisure. Do you have anyplace you can put the 75g for a few days? This would also give you the chance to make sure all the parameters are good. I ended up with a lsight ammonia spike when I moved my rock over.

If you don't have the space I think your plan sounds good. It will be a LOOONG day that's for sure. LOL

Good luck, keep us updated.

Carey,..moving your 55 to another wall must had been a real pain ,..did you , drain water into rubber maids as I eluded to in my original post?.... Did you toss out your old sand bed etc.,.... Please don't make me read 900 pages of carey's 125 build ,.... Lol....when you stop and really think about it, there's a lot stuff ya gotta do,....and quick

 

[carey]

I drained the 55g almost 3/4 of the way into a huge container, put most of the LR into buckets and my b/f and a friend lifted up the tank as i slid the stand to the other wall. Then I used a pump to put the water back in the 55g in it's new location. I had the fish in a bucket too, except for the goby and blenny they were kinda tough to catch. LOL This process took me about 2 hours.

The 125g has brand new sand in it so all I had to do was move the rock over. I let it sit like that for a couple days then I moved the last few pieces of rock and the livestock into the 125g. I didn't use any of my old tank water in it either. Thats why I wanted a week or so where I could monitor it.

I still have the 55g up and running with some extra base rock I had, I'm gonna let it get live and then probably sell the setup. :-(

Any more questions please feel free to ask, I may have skipped over something. lol

 

[kdogg85]

I wish i had that luxury, when I setup my 125, I had to ruch because the 75's stand was about to give out. Got the sand and heaters in, let it settle for a day, then went the rock and fish. not ideal but didn't have any problems. Exactly where would you place the 75 sump at?

 

[Hinds04]

I went from a 20 to a 75 doing this with no cycle. I would suggest using all new sand rinsed well. There can be some pretty nasty stuff in the old sand that can cause a small cycle when stirred up.

 

[Dary421]

I went from a 20 to a 75 doing this with no cycle. I would suggest using all new sand rinsed well. There can be some pretty nasty stuff in the old sand that can cause a small cycle when stirred up.

Yep as in my original post I will be using new sand in the new tank,..I think what I'll do also is to add a couple of inches of sand then put down a sheet of egg crate and then add another couple of inches of sand on top of that and then put my rocks on top of of the sand,...why? I'm not sure of you other triggerfish owners but my triggers love to burrow under the live rocks to make themselves a comfy little cave,...but unfortunately ,..they really stir up the crap and when they do that it causes a lot of " nutrients" to go amuck and you know what that does for your tank and it's parameters! At least this way they'll only be able to only go down a little way before they hit the barrier ,....

 

[Hinds04]

If you set your rock on top of even a couple inches of sand they will still burrow under it and maybe make rock fall. I would say add your bottom layer of rock, then add sand and water, let it settle, then add the rest of your rock and livestock. This way there is no way they can get under it and you dont have to worry.

 

[Dary421]

If you set your rock on top of even a couple inches of sand they will still burrow under it and maybe make rock fall. I would say add your bottom layer of rock, then add sand and water, let it settle, then add the rest of your rock and livestock. This way there is no way they can get under it and you dont have to worry.

I'm not worried about them burrowing under the rocks and making them topple, ,... They will still try and burrow to the bottom,... I just don't want them to burrow thru 4 inches of sand and causing a " nutrient " cloud,....they're like the salt water version of gophers,...I'd rather them hit a wall at two inches