Tank swap

FishyThings

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Im planning on upgrading tanks from a 29g to a 40g breeder, and I was wondering how I should move my current live stock from one tank to another. Should I reuse sand?, should I go out and by some bacteria in a bottle. Heres my current stock list:

1 O Clown
1 SixLine Wrasse
1 Lawn mower blenny
2 Turbo snails
4 nassarius
1 blue legged hermit
1 alveopora
5 small torches
5 gorgonian colonies
1 Green leather
1 seasons greetings monti
1 small patch of unknown zoas.


Thanks for the help!
 

KrisReef

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I'm on a break, How long has the 29 gallon been running?

You might want to rinse sand if it is very old. GL
 

CMMorgan

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Wow. Waretown. I spent many years hanging out in Waretown. You don't know a lady named Christine Importico by chance? Her son and I were close before he passed away. That is a small town. Do you still have to drive all the way through Lacey to get to the parkway?
Re the tank swap... I'm in the middle of that process, so this is my take on it.
Look at your parameters, how is your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, etc? Chances are that once you start stirring up that sand, you will release some nasties. If you reuse any of it to jump start the biologicals, give it a rinse. If it is not too old, it may not be too gross. Otherwise, just save yourself the hassle and get a 40# back of Caribsea and call it good. I'm not reusing my sand. My nitrates are holding at 20, so I'm looking into live sand from Salty Bottom or Gulf Live Rock. Still holding out hope for TBS.
I will be doing the swap in stages.
Set up new tank, new sand...
I'll move the sump to the new tank and run a closed loop out of a rubbermaid on the old tank temporarily. The sump will be thoroughly cleaned before it goes on the new build. If I can afford it, I'll cut out the socks and replace with a fleece roller.
Fill with Synbiotic Salt by Tropic Marin - this has the biologicals in it already.
I'll run that a few days and test parameters.
If all is well, I'll move rock from the old tank (and any attached corals to the new and put some PVC pipes in the old for hiding places.
While this is happening, I will be putting any new or sensitive fish into a separate QT.
Once I am confident that all is stable in the new, I'll transfer fish, taking the least aggressive species first. The territorials will go last.
I think the most important thing is to keep your salinity balanced between the two tanks... as well as temp. Keep an eye on the parameters, as you may cycle.
I'm sure there are wiser folks on here than I am but in general, take it slow and move one step (or fin) at a time.
 
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FishyThings

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No ive never met that person and yeah I still have to drive that far to get to the parkway. So keep the 40# in my shopping cart. So sand, then rock n corals, then fish from peaceful to aggro. Would it be ok to reuse tank water?
 

CMMorgan

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No ive never met that person and yeah I still have to drive that far to get to the parkway. So keep the 40# in my shopping cart. So sand, then rock n corals, then fish from peaceful to aggro. Would it be ok to reuse tank water?
That is a good question. When I swapped from my 45 to my 90, I was advised to use the water for biological reasons. The reefer that helped me felt it was less stressful to the fish. I had planned to follow suit with this swap but I have had my hand slapped on the forum. Logically, if you are going to run two tanks while swapping over, you should just as well start fresh. The water won't impact the cycle.
Are you going to keep the 29G going as a QT?
 
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FishyThings

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That is a good question. When I swapped from my 45 to my 90, I was advised to use the water for biological reasons. The reefer that helped me felt it was less stressful to the fish. I had planned to follow suit with this swap but I have had my hand slapped on the forum. Logically, if you are going to run two tanks while swapping over, you should just as well start fresh. The water won't impact the cycle.
Are you going to keep the 29G going as a QT?
I think I'll reuse the water since I cant really go to my lfs that much to buy 3o something more gallons worth of salt
 
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FishyThings

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yeah that makes sense, but I feel like instead of having 20 buckets of water it would be easier to have 4-6
 

CMMorgan

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Yes, but you need water in the OG tank to hold the fish while the rock and sand in the NB stabilize. Don't try to do this all in one day. Make sure that the NB does not spike into a cycle before you add anything sensitive.
If your sand isn't live or you don't have enough rock, etc.... you need to be sure that there is enough biological filtration to handle the bioload first. You don't want to rush it and lose the corals and fish.
So, you'll need enough water to keep both tanks alive until all the numbers are good.
 
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Oh yeah
Yes, but you need water in the OG tank to hold the fish while the rock and sand in the NB stabilize. Don't try to do this all in one day. Make sure that the NB does not spike into a cycle before you add anything sensitive.
If your sand isn't live or you don't have enough rock, etc.... you need to be sure that there is enough biological filtration to handle the bioload first. You don't want to rush it and lose the corals and fish.
So, you'll need enough water to keep both tanks alive until all the numbers are good.
Oh yeah Ik I was just meant to not fill the tank up all the way and then add some leftover water from the og tank
 
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FishyThings

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Yes, but you need water in the OG tank to hold the fish while the rock and sand in the NB stabilize. Don't try to do this all in one day. Make sure that the NB does not spike into a cycle before you add anything sensitive.
If your sand isn't live or you don't have enough rock, etc.... you need to be sure that there is enough biological filtration to handle the bioload first. You don't want to rush it and lose the corals and fish.
So, you'll need enough water to keep both tanks alive until all the numbers all the numbers are good.
I was going to have everything sit in a 10-15 gallon tub for a week or however more time is needed then slowly introduce going from softies to sps and peaceful to aggro.
 

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