Transferring from 20 gallon to 125 gallon

[Northlax16]

I currently have a 20 gallon long that has been setup/cycled for 6 months and am upgrading/starting a 125 in the next couple weeks and am trying to figure out the best plan of attack for cycling the new 125 while using components from the 20 gallon. I only have a dusky wrasse, cleaner shrimp, some snails and coral in the 20 gallon, which I plan to move over once the 125 is ready to go. I am going to put 80 lbs of caribsea live sand and 60 lbs of dry caribsea rock into the 125 as well as moving over 20ish lbs of cycled live rock from my current tank. I was planning on still using turbo start for the new aquarium unless you think differently? I am keeping the 20 gallon up and running after the fact, so i don't need to rush moving fish/corals over but the sooner the better as i'd like to start making the 125 the main tank. I am planning on using a new 29 gallon with the fiji cube sump baffle kit as the sump for the 125 and I have a few pieces of rubble in my current filter that I was thinking of putting in the sump of the 125. Should I move the dusky wrasse over when i start cycling the 125 or get some clownfish and put those in? I am planning on getting some clownfish for the new tank at some point regardless. Any help and tips is very greatly appreciated. I am quickly learning there is a bit more to a 125 with a sump vs a 20 with a HoB filter haha.

TL/DR

I am planning on cycling a 125 with turbo start, 80 lbs caribsea live sand, 60 lbs dry caribsea live rock and 20 lbs live rock from current cycled tank and possibly some rubble in the new sump. Looking for any tips/info on cycling a new (bigger) tank while using some items from a smaller cycled tank.

Thank you!

 

[brandon429]

In the general forum I just kicked up a 50 page transfer thread. If you want to use a guess method then change any of these steps below

If you want a guaranteed factual safe transfer without risk of cycle, copy that thread or this summary below. Any urge you have to change this method to save bacteria in any way doesn't fit the thread and will be an experimental method using all your investment

Following this without deviation gets you the exact results of the huge work thread, this summary saves you a giant read:

Take all your new live sand for the new tank, rinse it hours and hours in tap water by sections at a time in a bucket, until blasted-in tap water no longer causes the initial horrible cloud you see

That's what a wrasse will do in your new tank if unrinsed

When each section of your prepped sand is that rinsed in tap, cloudless rinse perfection, do final rinse each section using - saltwater- which evacuates all the tap water. You now have perfect cloudless huge amount of new sand, this will take about 6 hours of prep because they ship it in bags as filthy as you saw on initial rinse start. Step one is you ensuring the new tank is cloudless by following our rule, not the directions on the bag of sand. Nothing on sandbed directions assists in a tank transfer, so don't use those directions for your job


*this right here is where folks prefer to eschew what work threads show, customize their own process as a guess using no work threads, and I waste the next five typed paragraphs because they refuse step one.

Let me know if step one is acceptable then I'll finish the rest of your guaranteed skip cycle tank transfer. I only work with sand rinsers, or 2% of people will post back with a wrecked new tank and try and blame me for it


For folks willing to copy the results even if they fear losing bacteria, the results are on file and they're quite good per people's updates after the fact.

The number one thought to avoid: if i rinse my sand the bacteria will die and that has a consequence.


The truth in cycle control is opposite of that.