moving 30 gallon to 55gal

[i_luv_dory]

hi

how would i go about moving everything in my 29-30 into a 55?

i have an establiched 60 that i could put the two fish into while moving stuff. can i use the same sand?

if its as simple as plopping it all in, how long before i can put my the fish back in? when the sand is settled or longer than that?

[WaterKeeper]

There is no cycle when switching tanks so go ahead and move everything at once. You can use the present sand. If it is a DSB it will take a few weeks to readjust to the disturbance.

[i_luv_dory]

thank you. your reply is much appreciated.

[kernyboy]

I just switched my 30 to a 55 gallon. You can move the same sand over, but be careful as in the sand (at the bottom) is usually fish poop and gunk that in your old tank wasnt a problem because...well, it was at the bottom (slowly breaking down). When you move that over that gets in your new water...and if there isn't enough good bacteria, you may get a slight spike but i will clear up.

This is my 2nd tank move, what i did was added some new sand, and took only a few pounds of my old sand into the new tank to help seed it. I moved over my live rock, added some new live rock to make up the extra 20 lbs or so. Then i took some of the water from the old tank ...put that in, and mixed in some new tank water. As long as your arnt adding a bunch of new fish right away, you should be fine.


you should get a MILD spike, but i think thats par for the course.

[noboddi]

Any major changes to a system can trigger a "cycle". A cycle is not ust the nitrate process, it is also the succession of algaes.

I recently redid my sump and added in a bigger refugium along with upgrading my lights. It shocked my system enough that I had a diatom outbreak, helped by the new sand in the refugium. After diatoms came cyanobacteria, then hair algae, and now the coraline is growing again. All in about two weeks. Just a mini cycle.

I changed out my GAC for chemi pure, added a polyfilter, and kept my water change schedule, which is 5 gallons twice a week.