Upsizing tank and transferring livestock/sand/liverock

[Wings317]

Current situation- I started my current 220Gal tank in February this year. I have since been dealing with diatom bloom and now hair algae and it only grows where my lights, Kessil A360we blues, hit. The top layer of my sand gets that brownish red dust. I clean the tank and within a couple of days it is all back and I constantly have to replace my sock filter and clean out my skimmer.

Coming up- I just aquired a 250Gal tank and am going to build a new stand and start setting it up. I would like to transfer sand and rock over after scrubbing the hair algae off and using peroxide if necessary to eliminate it. If it is feasable, I would like to transfer about 50% of my existing tank water over and fill the rest with newly mixed saltwater(RO with new salt), then transfer over my fish and crabs. By doing all of this will this allow me to keep the algae from taking over and prevent the new tank syndrome since I will already have plenty of bacteria transferring over?

I have only been in the hobby since November and am all about learning as much as possible and am open to suggestions. I do read a lot on here and other boards.

Side note- after I make this transition, I will be selling the current 220gal tank.

 

[LIreefguy]

why are you buying a tank 30 gallons bigger. if your going to do the leap and all that work i would go bigger.

the simple answer is the rock and sand and old water can all be used yes.

the sand shouldn't be that filthy since its only 6 months old, and if it is you have bigger problems that reusing the sand.
first i will ask what corals and fish do you have

also you just scoop the sand the old fashion way with a shovel or anything similar and just put it in new tank.

i dont like peroxide for green hair algae. i prefer good water and clean up crew. if you get your water better and slow the growth of the algae then your cuc can keep up.

treat that rock like a fish, you want to keep it alive and all that good stuff on it, drying it out putting bleach on it kills all the bad and good, and guess what the bad grows too

how many fish do you have in this tank

what kind of skimmer, do you have a refugium,
how many water changes a month and how big
lets start there

 

[Wings317]

I bought the tank for nearly nothing and I like the way lays out being 5ft long vs 6ft long and i like the rectangle more than the bow that i currently have.

I dont have a lot of my original clean up crew left. I have about 6 or 7 hermit crabs, 2 or 3 emerald crabs, 1 decorator crab, i believe there is one snail left, i have a huge sea hare.

For fish, i have 2- large clowns, 1 medium clown, 1 small clown, 1 large blue hippo tang, 3 fire gobies, 1 green chromis, and possibly 3 engineer gobies, but i never see them, 1 medium coral beauty angel. i lost a large racoon butterfly a few weeks ago and my green chromis tend to disappear.

i only have one coral left, though i would like to do more in the new tank and do a neat layout, but i may end up doing an artificial insert. considering a diy as to buy a new one is super high dollar.

im currently running bubble magus 7 skimmer in my skimz 39 sump. i have a cor20 return pump also feeding rox carbon .8 and ecobak plus reactors. i have neptune apex xl, ato, dos for water changes.

phosphates tend to be very low according to tests and nitrates stay at 0.

in the refugium compartment are some live rock i seeded with plankton. i also have my heaters in there as well.

i was doing about 10 gallons a week and then about 40% every 6 weeks.

i am wanting to add a couple more tangs, foxface rabbitfish, small humu trigger, emporer angel and eventually a harlequin tusk. a puffer would be nice as well, but not right now.

ultimately I would love to have a nice coral tank that i have seen all over the place and they always seem so pristine. I know its a lot of work, i just cant seem to figure it out.