Upgrading / Move Entire Tank to New

[Zaxh]

Helloooooo!


The time has come where I just got my email from waterbox that my BlueDay order of the Marine X 60.2 has shipped. I have been thinking a lot recently the past two months of thinking how I should go about cycling.

I’m split between two options after I nitrate cycle the tank:


Move everything from my current Waterbox 10 to the new 60.2 (Sand, Rocks, Filter, Corals, Fish, and water to instantly cycle)

Or

Keep the tank fresh / New Sand, Rock (CaribSea “Live” Rock), New Filter Media Ect) which will go through a more dreaded uglier phase.


What is everyone’s thoughts ? I have no pest in my tank, the only issue I have is a slight GHA algae issue I’ve been dealing with, which I’ve been dosing reef flux.

 

[Stevorino]

When I upgraded my tank in the spring, I started fresh. New everything other than some tech and equipment.

It's been nice to restart the hobby with all my accumulated knowledge.

But it has been a challenge.
Ex: I just karate chopped Dino.... something I may not have had to deal with if I had brought over a mature system.

In my case, I had aiptasia, clunky rockwork, and a 10 year history I was ready to get rid of. If I had kept it, it certainly would have made the first year more seamless.

I don't think there's a right or wrong here. It depends on your goals for the new system and what you're willing to deal with for a fresh palette.

 

[Zaxh]

When I upgraded my tank in the spring, I started fresh. New everything other than some tech and equipment.

It's been nice to restart the hobby with all my accumulated knowledge.

But it has been a challenge.
Ex: I just karate chopped Dino.... something I may not have had to deal with if I had brought over a mature system.

In my case, I had aiptasia, clunky rockwork, and a 10 year history I was ready to get rid of. If I had kept it, it certainly would have made the first year more seamless.

I don't think there's a right or wrong here. It depends on your goals for the new system and what you're willing to deal with for a fresh palette.

See that’s what I’m nervous about. I’m most nervous about the first year of this new tank, as my cubed tank is just out of the ugly phase. I battled two strains of Dinos and GHA with the 10. I’ve been running my UV sterilizer 24/7 to remove the Dino’s but honestly I feel like I’d rather have pest than Dino’s. (Except Aptasia, **** aptasia)

 

[saltcats]

I'm in the process of upgrading my 14 gallon to a 50 gallon - I'm planning to transfer over everything. I'm hoping that way I can skip any kind of cycle and jumpstart the maturity, although I know the additional new rocks will probably cause a new ugly phase.

I am washing the sand very thoroughly first - I pulled it all from my 14 when I had to move that tank and only added just enough clean sand for the snails to bury in. The rest is being washed till the water runs off clear before I re-use that.

 

[Zaxh]

I'm in the process of upgrading my 14 gallon to a 50 gallon - I'm planning to transfer over everything. I'm hoping that way I can skip any kind of cycle and jumpstart the maturity, although I know the additional new rocks will probably cause a new ugly phase.

I am washing the sand very thoroughly first - I pulled it all from my 14 when I had to move that tank and only added just enough clean sand for the snails to bury in. The rest is being washed till the water runs off clear before I re-use that.

Are you washing with salt or RODI?

 

[saltcats]

Are you washing with salt or RODI?

Tap! But my tapwater has low TDS here anyway. I washed the sand in tap when I first started the 14 and didn't have any issues that I'm aware of.

 

[Zaxh]

Tap! But my tapwater has low TDS here anyway. I washed the sand in tap when I first started the 14 and didn't have any issues that I'm aware of.

So you wanted your sand to be clean of all bacteria ?

 

[brandon429]

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

all jobs there= take apart the tank and rinse the sand in tap water for hours

final rinse in saltwater

then set everything back up in the new tank as a skip cycle

don’t use new rock.

 

[piranhaman00]

All you should do is keep the ROCK, never re use sand, I’ve tried not worth it.

New sand, keep the ROCK. No cycle

 

[mrpontiac80]

I went from a 65.4 waterbox to a 180 gallon in march of 2023. Here is what I personally did with zero loses including acropora.

-New tank with mostly new equipment due to size differences.
- new sand rinsed till clean and dust free.. I used Caribsea arag alive but rinsed anyway with tap water. It took a long time but worth it.
- I added new Caribsea life rock (the dry purple stuff) and left room for my existing aqua scape to fit.
- I took a par reading of the 65 gallon tank since all corals were doing great.
-I filled the tank with saltwater and matched salinity, cal, mag, alk. And temp.
-Day of transfer I added Fritz turbo start 900
- on the day of transfer, I removed most of the water in the 65 gallon and quickly but carefully moved the aquascape and corals over to the new tank.
- next I drained more water in order to catch the fish easier… and moved them to the new tank.
- next o drained the water down to the sand and combed through it to find as many inverts as possible and moved them.
- lastly I adjusted my lights so the the majority of the corals were in the same par area as they came from and then I decreased the lights by 50%. I then acclimated the tank by increasing the lights 3% every 2 days until I was where I wanted to be.

Good luck!! It’s stressful!

 

[saltcats]

So you wanted your sand to be clean of all bacteria ?

The sand I pulled out was in the tank for 2 years and very nasty; I'm not so concerned about bacteria as I am all the gunk that was in it. My goal with washing it is to make it basically the same as new sand from a bag; I've heard it's risky to reuse sand that isn't completely clean.

That said I'm also planning to set the new tank up and let it cycle a bit before I move my current rocks and livestock over; I don't know if that makes a difference re reusing the sand vs if I was planning to fill it with water and move livestock over immediately.

Sounds like my plan is pretty much the same as what mrpontiac80 did!

 

[mrpontiac80]

I edited my previous post to say that on the day of transfer I also added Fritz turbo start 900.

 

[Zaxh]

I edited my previous post to say that on the day of transfer I also added Fritz turbo start 900.

Good to hear! My plan is to reuse all the water in my waterbox 10 and into the 60.2 along with turbo start and a large dose of phyto and copepod dose.

I’m going to do exactly what you did!

 

[mrpontiac80]

Good to hear! My plan is to reuse all the water in my waterbox 10 and into the 60.2 along with turbo start and a large dose of phyto and copepod dose.

I’m going to do exactly what you did!

Awesome. Never reuse sand unless thoroughly rinsed!!! I also reused about 30-40 gallons of water but it was a drop in the bucket of 200 gallons my thought was that it would at least carry over a little nitrate or something since the new stuff was zero.

 

[Dburr1014]

I have a 75g and just ordered a planet 150g. I'm moving mid-march/end march.
My plans(I've done this before)
Move half of 75 gallons over. (I'm currently saving awc 1 gpd to put in new tank) move rock with coral over.
Move fish in.
Top off with new salt water.
Completly rinse sand in tap, final in rodi. Use pvc to dump sand in new tank.

I'm not swapping tanks in place but actually changing the location in the same room so it will be easier.

I'm going to try to take a bunch of pics and details for a thread. We'll see, I'm bad at details, lol.

 

[Stevorino]

See that’s what I’m nervous about. I’m most nervous about the first year of this new tank, as my cubed tank is just out of the ugly phase. I battled two strains of Dinos and GHA with the 10. I’ve been running my UV sterilizer 24/7 to remove the Dino’s but honestly I feel like I’d rather have pest than Dino’s. (Except Aptasia, **** aptasia)

Aiptasia was honestly the #1 reason I started fresh.... #2 reason is I wanted more elaborate rock work.

FWIW, I donated my rock to great guy at LFS and he took essentially put it in a tub with a bunch of peppermint shrimp that cleaned it all up over the course of a month or two. It may be worth looking at dropping shrimp some in your current tank to see if they can put a dent in it before you move over rock to new tank.

I've had bad experiences with peppermint shrimp in the past, so I personally don't normally recommend putting them in the display with corals.

 

[drblank1]

Helloooooo!


The time has come where I just got my email from waterbox that my BlueDay order of the Marine X 60.2 has shipped. I have been thinking a lot recently the past two months of thinking how I should go about cycling.

I’m split between two options after I nitrate cycle the tank:


Move everything from my current Waterbox 10 to the new 60.2 (Sand, Rocks, Filter, Corals, Fish, and water to instantly cycle)

Or

Keep the tank fresh / New Sand, Rock (CaribSea “Live” Rock), New Filter Media Ect) which will go through a more dreaded uglier phase.


What is everyone’s thoughts ? I have no pest in my tank, the only issue I have is a slight GHA algae issue I’ve been dealing with, which I’ve been dosing reef flux.

If you do not have any pests, I would keep all the rock and animals. Maybe get new Ocean Direct sand.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

Don't fear the rinsing of sand and reusing. I've done it multiple times and have not lost any livestock. One time I spread it out on a tarp to dry, that was a bit much, but it was my first time reusing sand. I also like to rinse new sand as well and have used old and new dry sand on my last build.

If you transfer your current rock, there is no need to add bottled bacteria. What is on the current rock already supports the livestock.

 

[Zaxh]

Aiptasia was honestly the #1 reason I started fresh.... #2 reason is I wanted more elaborate rock work.

FWIW, I donated my rock to great guy at LFS and he took essentially put it in a tub with a bunch of peppermint shrimp that cleaned it all up over the course of a month or two. It may be worth looking at dropping shrimp some in your current tank to see if they can put a dent in it before you move over rock to new tank.

I've had bad experiences with peppermint shrimp in the past, so I personally don't normally recommend putting them in the display with corals.

Since my tank is so small compared to the new, what do you think about putting a bunch of new filter floss into one of the media chambers so it can become backfilled with bacteria ? Almost like a live rock? Or am I being stupid. Worried that the tank won’t fully cycle properly with the amount of media, rocks, fish and coral I own already.


Since it’s been a while it’s a waterbox 10 with roughly 8 pounds or so of live rock. Charcoal, GFO, random plugs I’ve thrown to “cook”, media balls, shells and coral. Do you think that will be enough to jump to instantly cycle as long as I throw in my two clowns? I will will be implementing Carib seas life rock (not live rock) for an add on to the new scape.

 

[JonoH]

I would transfer as Brandon noted, there are heaps of examples of it in that thread.
I followed that to a tee on mine, and so far i have had very little uglies (some slight diatoms on the sand that is all).

You can go over all the rock and clean any pests/algea off it as you go.

The only difference is that to make up the extra rock i needed, i had it in a seperate tank in my garage for close to 6 months before I did the transfer, and it was mixed with the rock from the existing tank during this so it was established already also.