Tank upgrade time: 350 liters to 560 litres in a day…

[Heisenberg 78]

Just wondering what you all think is the best way of doing this! when upgrading the size of a dominant sps tank.
Iam faced with potentially increasing the volume of fresh water into mature water at around 60% increase..

would you use progressive mixing to blend the new and old water to avoid shocking the system

say for example: 3weeks before the change over:
take a 100 litre drum of fresh salted, take 25% tank water out and add this to the fresh salted mix.
mix the tank water with new fresh salted water and then do the same again so that the 100liter fresh is being recycled through the tank gradually= an increase in overall water volume. (From350 to 450…)

 

[blaxsun]

I'd just add the difference in new saltwater and essentially treat it as a larger water change.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

You dont think that 210 liters added to my 350 would not dilute my chemistry too much?

 

[blaxsun]

You dont think that 210 liters added to my 350 would not dilute my chemistry too much?

Sure, it will dilute the water overall - but if you mix to the same salinity your parameters should remain fairly close. Most of the beneficial bacteria is in the rock - not the water column.

When I went from 50 to 200 gallons I went with all new saltwater, new sand, my existing rock and some Bio-Spira. Voila. Instant cycle.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

I was thinking more to do with available nitrate phosphate/organics.
surely they would be diluted which I think the corals would react to..
just thought it sounds a little much to change in one day.?

 

[slogan315]

Not sure about the effect of nutrient swings from something like this. But you could dose nutrients in the new water to match existing

 

[blaxsun]

I was thinking more to do with available nitrate phosphate/organics.
surely they would be diluted which I think the corals would react to..
just thought it sounds a little much to change in one day.?

It's entirely up to you how long you want to phase-in an upgrade. I'm not sure you'd necessarily retain all the organics in your original proposal, but you could certainly do it that way. I'd probably add a heater and powerhead to keep everything circulating, though.

 

[Heisenberg 78]

It’s not an everyday situation I’m in and feel that I want to be ahead of the curve before undertaking it.
I know people do waterchanges each week and so rather than ditching the water I thought it would be less stress to recycle it meaning I’m maturing the new water weekly. This would be less of a blow than completely skewing the water properties in one go.

It's entirely up to you how long you want to phase-in an upgrade. I'm not sure you'd necessarily retain all the organics in your original proposal, but you could certainly do it that way. I'd probably add a heater and powerhead to keep everything circulating, though.

yes agreed, I was thinking of creating an expansion vessel to completely link one to the other.

 

[ssster2020]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question, doing an upgrade in terms of tank size this fall. Using basically all the same equipment in terms of lights, return pump etc. I recently broke down an Eco 13.5. I am going to reuse the rock from that tank but it will be dry by then. I guess long question short is, "will the rock which is presently in my display tank be enough to prevent a large cycle being required??" I guess to be simpler if the bio load doesn't change will a cycle occur? There will be new sand.