Established Tank Upgrade

[Ian Baxter]

I am looking to upgrade my established 65g to a 100-160g tank. If the new tank is established and currently running, how would you do the upgrade (rock, corals, fish)? Also, I want to put it in the same spot. Advice on that would be appreciated too.

I would obviously prefer an empty tank, but with it being much larger, I would need larger equipment and sometimes I find them cheaper when currently running.

 

[BryanM]

I don't quite follow.... I just went through this, and I couldn't move the existing tank, and the new tank needed to go in that spot.

if I could move it, I would set up the new tank with live rock and sand, let it cycle quickly, and then move things over.

In my case we saved most of the tank water, all of the live rock, and none of the sand. Used new crushed coral substrate. Added bacteria, added old live rock, dealt with some uglies, but not too bad... dealth with dinos which were bad. But ultimately all fish and corals were re-added within a day and a half. Had 2 casualities with corals.

 

[edsbeaker]

I just upgraded a 75 gallon to a 170 gallon 3 weeks ago and the new tank went exactly in that same spot. There are lots of ways to do this, but I didn’t want to stress too much, so did it over the course of a couple of days.

Here’s how I did it.

The first thing I did was use a bunch of cheap totes from Target and moved the water, rocks, coral and fish from the smaller tank into the totes. Then moved the smaller tank out of the way from where I was putting the new tank. Then I basically put everything back into the small tank and got it running again. I did it this way so that I could place the new tank where it was going and then just make new saltwater right in the new tank, heat it, and make sure parameters matched and install any equipment needed. This took a couple of days, but was truly stress free because there wasn’t any urgency to get it done fast.

When I was ready for the transfer, I just moved everything from the smaller tank directly into the larger one. You can do this without any kind of acclimating and just move it all into the 100% new saltwater. It is not at all necessary to use any of the old water…it’s fine if you do, just not necessary.

As long as you are transferring over all of your live rock and limiting transferring only the livestock that was in the smaller tank, no new fish or coral, your biological filtration will work fine. I would still monitor it, but the bioload and amount of rock is the same so the tank should not need to cycle.

Also regarding the sand. Take care not to disturb it as you are moving rocks and coral. If you do, you risk unleashing a bunch of nasties from the sand bed that could cause a bad spike in ammonia. You can reuse the sand for the new tank but it will need a really good rinsing to get all of those nasties out of there. I just used rinsed new sand.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions let me know.

 

[Ian Baxter]

I just upgraded a 75 gallon to a 170 gallon 3 weeks ago and the new tank went exactly in that same spot. There are lots of ways to do this, but I didn’t want to stress too much, so did it over the course of a couple of days.

Here’s how I did it.

The first thing I did was use a bunch of cheap totes from Target and moved the water, rocks, coral and fish from the smaller tank into the totes. Then moved the smaller tank out of the way from where I was putting the new tank. Then I basically put everything back into the small tank and got it running again. I did it this way so that I could place the new tank where it was going and then just make new saltwater right in the new tank, heat it, and make sure parameters matched and install any equipment needed. This took a couple of days, but was truly stress free because there wasn’t any urgency to get it done fast.

When I was ready for the transfer, I just moved everything from the smaller tank directly into the larger one. You can do this without any kind of acclimating and just move it all into the 100% new saltwater. It is not at all necessary to use any of the old water…it’s fine if you do, just not necessary.

As long as you are transferring over all of your live rock and limiting transferring only the livestock that was in the smaller tank, no new fish or coral, your biological filtration will work fine. I would still monitor it, but the bioload and amount of rock is the same so the tank should not need to cycle.

Also regarding the sand. Take care not to disturb it as you are moving rocks and coral. If you do, you risk unleashing a bunch of nasties from the sand bed that could cause a bad spike in ammonia. You can reuse the sand for the new tank but it will need a really good rinsing to get all of those nasties out of there. I just used rinsed new sand.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions let me know.

This helps a lot. I would use new sand for sure. Hope my wife would allow me to have two tanks running at the same time. LOL. I have a lot of Apex gear running my tank and I would want to use that with the new one, so I might have to do it the same day or over two days. Any suggestions on if it was a new fully stocked tank? The one I'm looking at has everything but no fish. I would add my rocks with coral and get rid on some of the coral that it comes with (3ft Leather).

 

[Ian Baxter]

I don't quite follow.... I just went through this, and I couldn't move the existing tank, and the new tank needed to go in that spot.

if I could move it, I would set up the new tank with live rock and sand, let it cycle quickly, and then move things over.

In my case we saved most of the tank water, all of the live rock, and none of the sand. Used new crushed coral substrate. Added bacteria, added old live rock, dealt with some uglies, but not too bad... dealth with dinos which were bad. But ultimately all fish and corals were re-added within a day and a half. Had 2 casualities with corals.

I'm looking at a tank that is fully stocked, but without fish. I want to add my rock, coral, and fish to it. Would there be any issues? I think I figured out how to replace the two systems in the same spot.

 

[edsbeaker]

This helps a lot. I would use new sand for sure. Hope my wife would allow me to have two tanks running at the same time. LOL. I have a lot of Apex gear running my tank and I would want to use that with the new one, so I might have to do it the same day or over two days. Any suggestions on if it was a new fully stocked tank? The one I'm looking at has everything but no fish. I would add my rocks with coral and get rid on some of the coral that it comes with (3ft Leather).

I didn’t catch that it was an established tank that you’d be upgrading to. That does complicate it a bit, but I think you can still follow a similar plan. The one challenge that you will have to work through is that chances are each of the tanks will have water with different parameters, so you will have to consider some sort of acclimation process for your livestock going into the bigger tank.

 

[Ian Baxter]

I didn’t catch that it was an established tank that you’d be upgrading to. That does complicate it a bit, but I think you can still follow a similar plan. The one challenge that you will have to work through is that chances are each of the tanks will have water with different parameters, so you will have to consider some sort of acclimation process for your livestock going into the bigger tank.

That's a great point. I have a mixed reef and his look like all softies, so they might be way off. This could complicate things.