Questions about transferring a tank

[jjw2121]

I currently have a 120 gal reef tank which has been set up for 4 years. We are going to move the tank to the living room. I have bought a new tank and stand so I will be transferring all the "stuff" to the new tank. I have about 150# of live sand, 150# of LR and many corals and fish. Here are the questions:

1. Do I need to rinse the sand before I put it in the new tank? (I dont want a ammonia or nitrate spike).

2. Will my fish live in tubs for 24+ hours? I will have heater for temp.

3. My corals will be in a tub with heater and powerhead and light. Will this work?

4. I am hoping to use most of my established water(some will be for the tubs of fish and coral). I do have some (40 gal) of established water from the tank I bought. It tested good for all parameters.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[hk45]

I would like to know too. Planning to switch fro 135 to 240 next weekend. Someone should be able to help us both out.

[sharky's machin]

I recently upgraded from a 75 gallon to 110 gallon. I moved all of my rock, coral, fish into rubbermaid tubs and aerated the water. I didn't want to chance it with the sand so I added new Carribsea sand to my new tank. I added about 50 gallons of new saltwater to 70 gallons of water from my old tank. The fish, were only in the rubbermaid approx 8 hours as I changed things up. I wouldn't want to keep them out of the tank for 24+ hours.

I think I could have gotten away with using the old sand, but my nitrates were a little high so I wanted to start with new sand. It's been 2 weeks since the change-out and I only lost one fish- a lawnmower that committed suicide by jumping. All my water parameters are perfect and the new tank looks great.

[jjw2121]

Sounds good, I will keep you all posted on how things go.

[jjw2121]

The transfer went well. I put all my coral and fish into a hube tub with powerhead and a heater. They were only out of the tank for 6 hours. I did rinse my sand thoroughly. Everything made it thru with any casualties.

[JDL]

i am in the process of doing a transfer from 90 to 120. I bought new equipment and new sand. Will be transferring the rock/fish sometime this week. I have 100lbs of cycled rock in the new tank, and will add all the rock from my old tank. So not worried about losing any bacteria in my old sand.

[jjw2121]

I used 100% new water, and my LR was in my old tank for 4 years so it was seeded well. I only used about 30# of my old sand, all the other sand was new.

[nikon187]

new sand is def the way to go.