Moving fish and corals to new tank.... Need advice

mrbacony · Mar 11, 2021

I am currently cycling my 130.4 Waterbox. I have a 32 gallon Biocube with 4 fish and several corals. Currently the new tank is cycling with several rocks, but once it is done cycling, how quickly can I move the inhabitants to the new tank? Can I move everything at once? Should I move the corals first and then the fish at a later date? Or vice versa?

dvgyfresh · Mar 11, 2021

Are you moving the rocks from the 32 over?

mrbacony · Mar 11, 2021

Yes. The rocks in the 32 already have several corals encrusted on them so they will be moving as well. So basically the tank is cycling with several new rocks and sand while I plan to transfer everything from the 32 over to the Waterbox (minus the old sand).

dvgyfresh · Mar 11, 2021

mrbacony said:
Yes. The rocks in the 32 already have several corals encrusted on them so they will be moving as well. So basically the tank is cycling with several new rocks and sand while I plan to transfer everything from the 32 over to the Waterbox (minus the old sand).

You could transfer everything over day 1, the rock is the biggest source of filtration and sounds like it is already mature, unless you just set up the bio cube

mrbacony · Mar 11, 2021

The Biocube is 8 months old so it is definitely mature. Thanks for the help

dedragon · Mar 11, 2021

it depends on the amount of new rock added as well because it will cause a new cycle depending on the rock amount and if it was dry or live rock.

uhgster1 · Mar 11, 2021

I moved everything from a 28 gallon to a 65, didn’t even cycle. I literally put my old rock on top of the new dry rock. You couldn’t tell the difference in the rocks within a month. The rocks make the difference between starting from nothing to just transferring to a larger tank. As long as you don’t increase the bio load right away your rocks will be filtering what they were already doing while seeding the new rock at the same time.