Upgrade to Red Sea Reefer 300XL

[crispyreef]

Hello all first thread here.
I have been running a 35 gallon reef tank for around 7 years so far. I am beginning to worry about the integrity of the stand and the glass at this point, and have decided to upgrade to a bigger tank. I have my sights set on the Reefer 300XL and plan to cycle the new tank while keeping the existing 35 gallon running and slowly moving over the corals and rocks. I plan to keep the existing live rock as the corals have grown onto the rocks and are no longer easily removable.

Some of my questions around moving to the larger tank:

• Does it make more sense to ditch the old live rock and remove the existing corals as best as possible?
• Does it make sense to move over some of the sand to the new tank?
• Can I clean the existing live rock by cleaning it in some clean saltwater?

Also here is my build so far, please let me know if anything seems off or if I am missing something:

• Red Sea Reefer 300 XL
• Red Sea RSK 300 Skimmer
• Sicce Syncra 3.0 Return Pump
• 2x Aqua Medic Smart Drift 7.1 Powerheads (up to 10,500 l/h)
• 2x Red Sea ReefLED 50
  • I already have one from the 35 gallon, not sure if the upgrade to two ReefLed 90s is necessary, as I keep mostly soft corals and LPS
• 2x Eheim 100 watt heater
• 40lb CaribSea Live Sand
• 20-30lb live rock

Thanks for the help!

 

[blaxsun]

I'd cure the rocks for the new tank, use fresh sand and saltwater and then insta-cycle the sucker - moving the old rocks, corals, fish and inverts over in one fell swoop.

The only additional equipment I'd suggest is a UV system.

 

[crispyreef]

Wanted to give an update on the tank build so far. The tank has been running for 1 month now, and the old tank is shut down. I decided to start off the 300XL with dry rock and live sand and cycled it with live bottled bacteria. After 1.5 weeks my cycle was finished and I began moving over corals and fish one by one whilst monitoring ammonia and nitrite levels. All of the fish and corals from the old tank have survived 1 week ago I ordered some more corals, and yesterday I added some new fish.

Currently just having some minor issues with getting the skimmer to run properly (most times it is just not producing any decent foam and just bubbling) and with a lot of small particles still suspended in the water column.

Fish and Inverts:

• 2 x Amphiprion ocellaris
• 3 x Neopomacentrus azysron
• 1 x Centropyge bispinosa
• 2 x Valenciennea sexguttata
• 2 x Pseudochromis fridmani
• A few hermit crabs and snails of various types, and a cleaner shrimp
• Planning to add:
  • 1 x bristletooth tang (not sure which species exactly yet)
  • 1 x Centropyge bispinosa
  • 1 x Midas blenny
  • 1 x Foxface rabbitfish

Changes/additions to initial build:

• Royal Exclusiv Red Dragon X 40 swapped in for the Sicce Syncra which was just way too loud
• Red Sea ReefWave 25 swapped in for the Aqua Medic Smart Drift 7.1 Powerheads (one of these stopped working after a week, wanted to take the chance to upgrade to something better)
• Added a UV system directly into the return line
• Added a dosing pump to dose All-for-Reef (currently dosing around 5ml per day, keeping Alk at 8.5)
• Added a Tunze LED for a small refugium with chaeto
• Added an ATO and Skimmer auto shut-off (currently placed in the sump to stop the skimmer when I shut off the return pump) from D-D

Some pictures of the tank and the sump:

 

[crispyreef]

I wanted to give another update since it has been a while. The tank has been running for 8 months now.

The largest change I have made since the last update, was changing out the two Red Sea ReefLEDs 25 to two Radion Xr15s G5s. The connectivity of the Red Sea lights was really bad for me. The Radions provide a much nicer look to the tank and I like the customization they provide.

In terms of livestock, I have added a lot of corals and introduced a bristletooth tang (Ctenochaetus truncatus).

Coral growth has picked up noticeably in the last few months, especially the SPS corals.