EpisodeMnH
Community Member
So I’ve been considering moving to a new tank. It’s not much of a size upgrade, as I would be going from a Fluval Flex 32.5 Gallon to an Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 40 Gallon Long, but I primarily want the change due to the fact that A: My tank is on a dresser currently and not a dedicated aquarium stand. It works, but due to not having the cutouts in the back for wiring and whatnot, it’s obviously not ideal, aesthetically AND intuitively. And B: Over time, I’ve grown to dislike the location I have the tank in and really want to move it to a more open area.
So either way, I would need to buy a stand, so I figure if I’m already doing that and putting in the effort, I might as well spend the little extra and also upgrade the tank a bit while I’m at it.
The good thing about this is that, as far as transfers and moving goes, I have about the easiest possible scenario. The new tank would be staying in the same room lol, just across the room against a different wall. So we’re talking everything only needs to be moved about 10 feet away. On top of that, other than the glass tank and stand themselves, no new equipment would need to be purchased, I would just be switching everything over.
So I just want to get a rundown of the dos and don’ts of all this before I move full steam ahead.
As far as I’m aware, I would need to fully replace the sand, correct? I’ve read from multiple sources on R2R and elsewhere that something biologically happens to the sand when you drain a tank and try to move it, and the bacterial bloom of it can completely crash a new tank. So if I need to start new on that, that’s completely fine, but then does the new tank need any kind of cycle beforehand? Transferring and reusing all the same live rock is fine, correct? I was planning on new sand but same rock. I would need to add about 5 pounds of Marco dry rock. I currently have about 35 pounds of rock in the tank, so due to the slightly bigger tank size, to follow the pound per gallon rule, I would need to add 5 more pounds. So the 5 lbs of new rock would need a mini cycle themselves I suppose, but it’s minuscule in the big picture.
So how I wanted to do this to make it as little of a headache as possible, remove the need to put rock in buckets, etc., is drain the old tank about halfway and put the water in buckets or a tote, then syphon it into the new tank with new sand set up in there, add about 5 gallons of fresh new saltwater due to the size difference, then piece by piece simply transfer the rock straight to the new tank, in roughly the same layout, arrange the 5 pounds of new dry rock, then at that point since the old tank would be empty, I would then capture each fish and invert one by one and immediately drop them into the new tank, then syphon out the remaining half of water and move it straight to the new tank, then simply dispose of the old sand.
Any issues with this method or would this work without a hitch? Any issues I may run into with the new sand?
So either way, I would need to buy a stand, so I figure if I’m already doing that and putting in the effort, I might as well spend the little extra and also upgrade the tank a bit while I’m at it.
The good thing about this is that, as far as transfers and moving goes, I have about the easiest possible scenario. The new tank would be staying in the same room lol, just across the room against a different wall. So we’re talking everything only needs to be moved about 10 feet away. On top of that, other than the glass tank and stand themselves, no new equipment would need to be purchased, I would just be switching everything over.
So I just want to get a rundown of the dos and don’ts of all this before I move full steam ahead.
As far as I’m aware, I would need to fully replace the sand, correct? I’ve read from multiple sources on R2R and elsewhere that something biologically happens to the sand when you drain a tank and try to move it, and the bacterial bloom of it can completely crash a new tank. So if I need to start new on that, that’s completely fine, but then does the new tank need any kind of cycle beforehand? Transferring and reusing all the same live rock is fine, correct? I was planning on new sand but same rock. I would need to add about 5 pounds of Marco dry rock. I currently have about 35 pounds of rock in the tank, so due to the slightly bigger tank size, to follow the pound per gallon rule, I would need to add 5 more pounds. So the 5 lbs of new rock would need a mini cycle themselves I suppose, but it’s minuscule in the big picture.
So how I wanted to do this to make it as little of a headache as possible, remove the need to put rock in buckets, etc., is drain the old tank about halfway and put the water in buckets or a tote, then syphon it into the new tank with new sand set up in there, add about 5 gallons of fresh new saltwater due to the size difference, then piece by piece simply transfer the rock straight to the new tank, in roughly the same layout, arrange the 5 pounds of new dry rock, then at that point since the old tank would be empty, I would then capture each fish and invert one by one and immediately drop them into the new tank, then syphon out the remaining half of water and move it straight to the new tank, then simply dispose of the old sand.
Any issues with this method or would this work without a hitch? Any issues I may run into with the new sand?
