Switching stands... need advice

Be102 · Oct 8, 2017

I am finally about ready to switch my old stand with my newly built one. I was wondering what the best process would be for a 65 gallon tank. Fish aren’t really a problem just have 2 clown fish, yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp (although the last two should be interesting)
I was thinking about making about 40 gallons of extra salt water and having it in hand and then just replace all the water overall at the end of the process.. not sure if I should keep water or just treat it like a normal water change? I wanted to empty water; scoop out fish and put in a bucket with tank water, drain the rest of the tank, pull the rocks out and rinse them in a bucket of old tank water to get detritus off, move stand, life tank with my sand inside and possibly a rock or two onto the new stand, add rocks then water then fish... it’s quite overwhelming and seems like it’ll take a while. What’s the best way to plan for it and anything that could go wrong?

Crabs McJones · Oct 8, 2017

Be102 said:
I am finally about ready to switch my old stand with my newly built one. I was wondering what the best process would be for a 65 gallon tank. Fish aren’t really a problem just have 2 clown fish, yellow watchman goby and pistol shrimp (although the last two should be interesting)
I was thinking about making about 40 gallons of extra salt water and having it in hand and then just replace all the water overall at the end of the process.. not sure if I should keep water or just treat it like a normal water change? I wanted to empty water; scoop out fish and put in a bucket with tank water, drain the rest of the tank, pull the rocks out and rinse them in a bucket of old tank water to get detritus off, move stand, life tank with my sand inside and possibly a rock or two onto the new stand, add rocks then water then fish... it’s quite overwhelming and seems like it’ll take a while. What’s the best way to plan for it and anything that could go wrong?

I helped a friend of mine replace his stand a while back. He was going from canister filter to sump in the process as well. We emptied most if the water out if the tank into buckets, kept just enough water in the tank that we could scoop with a cup to wet the corals. Put the new stand in front of the old stand and slid the tank from one to the other, removed the old stand and slid the tank into place, filled it up with water and then installed the sump.