How to transfer your tank

[zigrat88]

All - Need a little advice. I currently have a 36G tank w/ 10G sump and I bought a nice 54G w/ 20G sump. I want to transfer everyone over but want to know what I should do about the 28G difference in the tanks. Can I just add new water w/o throwing off the balance? I have about 25lbs of LR that will be making the trip along w/ 25lbs of Live sand.

I was curious if I needed to slowly take 28G from the old tank or if I can just mix the new water, get it the right temp and transfer everything over.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Joshua1023]

You will here many opinions on this I'm sure. If it was me, I would do a 50%water change on your existing tank, taking the old water and transfering it to your new tank. I would then fill up the new tank the rest of the way w/ new salt water. The next day I would transfer all live rock to the new tank. I don't know how many fish you have, but I only have 5 in my 90. I would catch them in a container as opposed to a net, and put them in 5 gl bucket full of your original tank water w/ a heater in it. Finally I would transfer your sand carefully and do your aquascaping. Then add your fish.

[bertoni]

Usually, such transfers are fine. It's best to keep everything (including live rock) under water as much as possible. Sometimes, some organism on the live rock dies and causes trouble. Some Amquel and water for changes would be handy if that happens.

Be sure to check the SG and pH as well as the temperature, in my opinion.

[Ti]

I used 5g buckets

[zigrat88]

hmmmm... Any reason I shouldn't transfer all of my old water to the new tank? I was honestly thinking of doing a water change one night and taking the old water along with LR & LS and setting them up in the new tank w/ heater. Then the next day taking the rest of the water and fis to the new tank. Maybe wait till nighttime to keep the fish from being too stressed.

Oh and I have 3 fish, 3 hermit crabs and lots of snails if it matters.

[Joshua1023]

I don't know what you have for test kits. I would test your water parameters, and see how far off they are from new water. If there off more than a fraction, by all means transfer everything. Then do 15% water changes each week to get your water back on track. If your fish are doing well now, I don't think it would hurt anything to transfer all your water, and it may even help w/ the fish transitioning smoothly to their new home.

[Alaska_Phil]

I recently (2 weeks ago) upgraded a 40 gal to a 50 gal. Not much of an upgrade, but the 40 was a reptile tank with structural issues that I inherited care of. I managed to pull it off in one day with no livestock losses, but then I only have a few soft corals.

1. Filled my 10 gal quarantine tank with water from old tank and transfered my livestock to this tank.
2. Transfered my live rock to a rubbermaid tub as I filled it with the remaining tank water.
3. Removed old tank, placed new one on stand and installed the equipment.
4. Added my live rock and about 10lbs of the old crushed coral substrate. Then immediatly started filling with the old water from the tub. Powerhead and a hose made this a simple task.
5. added new live sand.
6. finished filling with new salt water.
7. Had dinner while the water cleared from the new sand.
8. acclimated livestock before transfering back into the tank. Used an airline to siphon down to the 10 gal tank on the floor. When it was in danger of overflowing I'd scoop a gallon back into the main tank. Did this about every 10 min for 2 hours. Then transfered the livestock back to the main tank.

I don't know if I'd transfer all your sand. Seems to me there'd be a high risk of exposing a lot of nutrients and causing a Nitrate spike.

Good luck!
Phil

[bertoni]

There's no reason not to use all the water in the original tank. That's what I'd do. The water change the day before sounds fine as well.

[zigrat88]

Thanks all. And good point about the sand transfer. I'll be a little more careful with that. The only good news about the sand is I've only had it in the tank for about 3 months, so hopefully it won't be too bad.