Tank transfer to a bigger tank!

[um_fan5]

So I didn't want to post on the Questions of the day Insta Cycled or Insta Stocked or something else? thread.
I'm also upgrading from 90G DT + 30G sump to 180G'ish DT+ 40G sump.
Have new dry rock as I wanted to do a nice NSA aquascape and not have stacks of rock.
I did add a bunch of marinepure spheres and a couple of block in the sump as soon as I knew I was going to upgrade (3-4 months ago)

Skimming thru these post by @brandon429 here...my plan as follow!

I will pull some live rock from the current DT and maybe some marinepure spheres and place them in a bin to "seed/cycle" the new rock.
They will be in the bin for at least a month. (should have done this sooner)

Day of the move-
Since it's too much water to make...I am going to have natural seawater delivered to the house.
Use 50% new and 50% old water and have them fill up my mixing station reservoir....just incase I need more water.
Place rocks and add additional new sand along with cleaned old sand
Move all remaining biologicals and mechanical filtration over.

That same day and once everything is a bit settled add coral, inverts, and fishes in.

Does this make sense or suggestions!!!!
I really don't want to loss a fish!

 

[lapin]

As long as the the salinity, temp and Ph of the water matches or is close you should be fine. I would watch ammonia just in case.

 

[brandon429]

Nice plan. the live surfaces will transmit the cycling bacteria to the inert surfaces in twenty days or less, we tracked this timing in Tuffloud’s build. Don’t use bottle bac for this, show how free cycling is reliable it helps us get off the dependency on bottle bac for all reef actions

old water used is an additional source of bacteria, even though the crowds don’t think that’s the case it sure is. Reef water has millions of transmissible bac to offer.

 

[brandon429]

Connecting Established Reef To New Tank

EDIT: In conclusion, if using the method I did - connecting an established reef to a new system with dry rock (clean), I recommend the following: 1. Dose your new tank prior to connecting to your old tank with NO3 and PO4 enough to raise to your established tank levels. 2. Take your skimmer...

www.reef2reef.com

that thread makes pretty important cycling rule updates. it shows free/no charge bac transfer to all dry surfaces in twenty days, the resulting bioload that system wound up carrying, the expected uglies from dry rock starts, and then guidance back into a perfect new reef. If I'm not wrong he used zero bottle bac the entire time.

anytime we read about reef water not carrying free cycling bac that thread above shows different. if you didn't have a month to pre we could legit rely on any common cycling bottle bac, but since you do its important to show we dont need em

if we watch trends, sellers of bottle bac are flooding the market with perceived needs to help the buy impulse:

-when cleaning tanks, add the bac it says it on the brightwell site I read it last week. for the quick cycl kit.

-when changing filters is a common time people add bac, or doing home moves just as safety backup (but nothing ever goes wrong without the bac)

-to replace bac that reef water didn't supply (yet it does when folks bother to test it)


the only issue would be cloudy sand/uglies uneeded but if you prep rinse that won't happen.

 

[um_fan5]

I was planning on not using any old sand/water...but after reading your and others it only makes sense.
My concern are unwanted pest. I have notice aiptasia pop on the back of of weir but that could be managed.

 

[brandon429]

oh I see. its not a problem to exclude the new reef water that's just a boost like bottle bac/free if wanted.

when you sit dry rocks among any degree of cured rocks for a month, you can oxidize test the dry rocks alone then and they'll pass *if you do the calibrated testing approach.

getting a .5 on api uncalibrated certainly does not mean they didn't pass, it means that action is the bane of my online reefing persona lol.

unless you have seneye I wouldnt bother messing with testing, it'll work

 

[jmichaelh7]

Extra tubs and more hands !

 

[um_fan5]

So this weekend I pulled 2 pcs of rock from my DT and about 10 bio spheres along with water from my weekly water water change.
Dropped a cube of frozen mysis in the tube along with a spare powerhead?
Anything else I should over the next 30-40 days?

 

[brandon429]

no, and even the mysis feed was way beyond needs only the rocks sitting there alone would have cycled. now it will be uber cycled lol. merely wait for the submersion time and use all the rocks.

 

[um_fan5]

Thanks....Will post results!

 

[um_fan5]

Follow-up...I had a few set backs on the new tank!

Filled up the tank on 12/24 only to find a leak a few days later.
Remove all the water, rock and new sand...Clean and reseal

Refilled the tank on 1/22 and leaked on the external overflow.
Cracked during moving the tank outside to reseal and leak test...Ordered and install.
Topped off the tank with water on 2/1 and confirmed no additional leaks!

Since I was dealing with what I think was velvet, my "72" days was 1/19...so I was not in a hurry.

Fishes went in on 2/5, total of 10 at the same time...no traces of ammonia since day 1.
I checked twice a day (morning and night) and have an ammonia badge.