Upgrade

[alisha0419]

Hey guys. So I have a 2 year old salt water 65gal tank. For the last two years we have solely ran just a HOB filter (Ik idk how we made it this far either) we just bought a 150 gal with sump and skimmer. My question is how do I do this upgrade? Can I move my fish over same day? Or do I need to “cycle” again. I do have a couple corals as well.

some things about the tank, we have a TON of brown allege on our rocks and on glass. Not sure if it’s from lights or from my eel who’s a messy eater which could be making my phosphates high and without proper sumo and skimmer it’s been a losing battle it feels. I don’t want to transfer this problem into the new tank or cause my new tank to crash and all my babies die.

 

[JC1977]

Hey guys. So I have a 2 year old salt water 65gal tank. For the last two years we have solely ran just a HOB filter (Ik idk how we made it this far either) we just bought a 150 gal with sump and skimmer. My question is how do I do this upgrade? Can I move my fish over same day? Or do I need to “cycle” again. I do have a couple corals as well.

some things about the tank, we have a TON of brown allege on our rocks and on glass. Not sure if it’s from lights or from my eel who’s a messy eater which could be making my phosphates high and without proper sumo and skimmer it’s been a losing battle it feels. I don’t want to transfer this problem into the new tank or cause my new tank to crash and all my babies die.

The eel in a 65 means more than likely your nitrates and or phosphate could be high but it’s to be expected especially with a HOB filter as your means of nutrient export. The bigger tank and more effective filtration should help immensely with that issue. As far as transferring everything over there’s still a possibility of the tank going through a mini cycle. As to why that happens I can’t give a detailed answer hopefully one of the smart guys can chime in on that lol. Best of luck with the new tank!

 

[ccaplinger]

I'd expect you to be able to transplant everything over provided that you include your live rock and any other form of biological filtration media as well as a fair amount of the water that was in your 65g. With the increased water volume you might turn the lights down or off to let everything recover from the stress of the move, but you have an established ecosystem it wouldn't be vastly different than doing a large water change and putting in new filters. You should plan to keep a close eye on your water chemistry though and as JC1977 mentioned, I wouldn't be surprised if you have a mini-cycle. If you're adding additional live rock, and I suspect you are, I'd probably add a dose of bacteria to the new tank as well to help kickstart growth in the new rockwork. I haven't made a move like this so this is all speculation btw....hopefully someone who has successfully done this type of move will chime in here with some sage advice.