UPGRADING TANKS

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SassyAngel111

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 16, 2006
Messages
177
Location
Buckeye, AZ
I need to find out I will be upgrading my 29gl tank to a 50gl in the next couple of weeks, could I take the water from the 29 and put it into the 50 and then just add enough sw for top off and then transfer everything from the 29 to the 50, or should I start from scratch with the water and sand?

All I have at this time in the 29 is 1 clown and a clean up crew.

I am open to all sugestions. Thanks in advance.
 
I would just move everything and add enough premixed to fill it up. I would also have extra PWC just in case. But you should be good to go. Congrats on the larger tank!
 
Best thing to do is to move the water/LR and fish into a rubbermaid tube with a heater and powerhead while you do the move. In the meantime, make sure you have plenty of aged SW that is the same temp and Ph of the tank water. Move your substrate over to the new tank and disgard the mucky water left in the bottom of the old tank. You will also need to add some additional substrate as the foot print of the new tank is likely larger. Put some of the new SW in the tank, put in the LR are you wish, add the livestock and the remaining water until full. Switching tanks is a PITB, but with proper planning it it is not too bad. Good luck!
 
I agree...you will need a fair amount of new SW on hand. I went out and got a 32gallon rubbermade garbage can and a 32gallon rubbermade tote. I mixed SW up in both containers 2 days before my tank move. I reused about 2/3 of the original SW but I did several PWCs over the next few days just to make sure the water was ok. Don't forget to keep the water that you keep with the fish heated and moving!!!
 
ok now my next ? is the tank is 12 1/2 wide 21 high and 48 long will this be a problem, since what I have read on this fourm everyone says a wider tank is better? I know that I will be limited to the size of fish and lr since it is so narrow.

Thanks I will be doing the switch next weekend as I have to first clean the tank since the person that I got it from did not keep it very clean as they had goldfish, cat, and angels in it.
 
There are pleanty of options for a 55g tank. You just have to be creative when arranging your LR. Check out some tanks that others have set up. I'm sure you can get some great ideas there!
 
Ziggy, thanks I will and as soon as I get it up and running I will post pics. One last ? Alot of my rocks has sponges on them how would the best way to set the new tank up without loosing the sponges since they have to stay in water? :roll: BTW TIA
 
Once you get water in your tank get a big bowl and put the rock and water in there and drop it below the water line and then pull the rock out. Not all sponges will die if exposed to air but since we dont know what type you have then better safe than sorry. Another suggestion I have is that I would not transfer all the sand. IMO I would buy new sand and transfer a few cups of the old sand over to the new tank. Too much of the nasties in the old sand to transfer over IMO.
 
I had thought about that as well, not to use all of the sand from the old tank. Again thanks for the advice, and once it is up and running hopefuly in a month since I have to buy a new light system for this tank, it will take about 2 -3 weeks for me to get that and then it will be up and running.
 
I agree with Melosu Get some new sand. I have read a lot about sand and its "shelf life" in our systems. It is a contreversy of sorts some say that they have had the same sand for 5+ years where others have had their systems crash at the 3 year mark and a lot of the crashes are attributed to the sand being saturated with "yuck". One article I read said it is a good idea to remove some sand and replace it over the course of several months with water changes. I'm still up in the air here and since my tank is just over a year old I'm not going to worry too much about it yet.
 
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