Help wrap head around tank swap.

[BryanM]

Long story short I own a G1 redsea, no need to say any more about that. 425XL

Since I'm "forced" to upgrade, aslo going up in size, almost certainly going to place an order for a WB 230.6, 180 gallon tank.

It has to go in the same place.... So a fairly daunting task, at least for someone that's fairly new to the hobby.

There is a firm in town that would help, but at $240 / hr, I'm just not feeling like spending that kind of money.

So how do I go about this? Here's what I think I know...

1). I can use the water, but I need to ditch the sand.
2). New water, new sand will still need to be cycled. Just no shortcuts here I guess.
3). I guess I'm going to need totes to put the current live rock, fish, and corals in.

Or really, maybe its just better that I get a tote or two, to put everything in, drain the tank, move the tank, and put it all back together and let it run while the new tank cycles.

Like I said, I can't really wrap my head around this. And while the new tank is bigger, I have a reefmat 500, dcskimmer 600, and intend to use them in the new tank, arguably undersized, but I am also going to add a Santa monica ATS, which I think will offset the other two units being marginally undersized.

Grateful for thoughts and help. Thanks!

 

[ilyad]

What I would do is buy a shallower plastic tub that can fit all your rocks and coral in it. Set up the tub near by, drain down the main tank partially into the tub, move all rock, put heater, wave makers, and skimmer (on some sort of stand) in the tub, and put up a makeshift light holder over it.

Then drain the rest of the water (save it if its not too cloudy). Let the stuff in the tub settle in before moving to the next step. Then set up new tank, new sand, move all the rock and coral and fish back in, top off with new water that is close to the parameters of what you drained down (will basically be a large water change).

Most of the beneficial bacteria should be on the rocks and it would be enough to limit a cycle. If you have a very heavy fish stock, maybe leave the tub running for a bit as well and move the fish over slower. You may experience a mini cycle, and then be prepared to do water changes. After everything has settled in, add any new rock as needed slowly (assuming since its a larger tank, you would add more). Alternatively, you can precycle the extra rocks in some bins so you can add them as soon as you move the new ones over.

If you have some very hard to get coral or very sentimental ones, either house them in a tank you trust (friend, LFS, etc) or at least get some frags and heal them before the move. If you're unlucky enough that some die, at least you have a frag you can grow back.

 

[Uncle99]

If you keep that rock wet, your already cycled.

I moved stuff directly from my 65g to 180g without a great impact on the bio filter.

For safety, all corals moved first day,
Then the small fish daily over three days ending with 2 tangs and the other two the day after.

I could just move the 75g to the side of the upgrade, so moving stuff rather easy

 

[BryanM]

Stock is mostly corals, but we have a pair of clowns, one 6 line wrasse, and a blue hippo tang.

 

[ilyad]

If you keep that rock wet, your already cycled.

I moved stuff directly from my 65g to 180g without a great impact on the bio filter.

This is also true... since the rock and fish load will be the same, but only the water volume changes, you can just move it over to the new tank without much issue. My suggestion takes into account that you may take it slower to replace everything since its going in the same spot... but if you can keep the bins with coral at temp and breakd down the old tank and set up the new one all in one day, you may not even need the light over the coral and wait for them to adjust in the "tub"

 

[exnisstech]

Personally I would not try to move in a day. As inconvenient as it may be I would get a stock tank from tsc and move everything in add flow, heat and rig up a light for coral then get the old tank down and the new tank in and get it all set up. This way you are not rushed into making mistakes. It will give you time to clean new sand, get water mixed and up to temp along with getting your new gear setup up and make sure everything is working as it should. Once that's all done and everything operational then bring everything over. You could use totes but stock tanks are awesome and it's so much easier if you can have everything in one container. I keep a 40g and a 100g on hand. My fish lived in one for almost 3 months while I was running fallow after a velvet outbreak.

 

[BryanM]

So the new live sand doesn't pose an issue with cycling? I figured it would..... Or there's enough live rock already that's cycled that it can deal with that reasonably safely?

 

[BryanM]

well seems due to the hurricanes its not easy to buy new live sand right now, which kinda throws a wrench in the works for this tank swap.

 

[BryanM]

Pulled the trigger on the water box infinia reef 230.6 today.