29 to 110...New cycle??

[DidYouSayReefer]

I currently have 4 fish in my 29gal w/ 29 gal sump. I have about 40 lbs of LR total. Can I transfer everything at once and avoid a cycle all over again or should I treat it like a new tank, add some LR and one fish and let it cycle? I have about 2 inches of sand and 40 lbs of base rock in the 110.

My thoughts are if I transfer all the live stock with the LR and LS, there will be enough bacteria on the existing LR and LS to avoid the cycle process. Anyone have any experience? What did you do?

[Henry Parsons]

I would assume that if you don't have any thing other than live rock and fish you should be alright, depending on the fish. Corals probably wouldn't adjust well, as some invertebrates wouldn't either.
Also you need a plan for taking everything out of the 29g then moving the sand int the new aquarium and adding more and then getting the live rock and fish back in.

More specs about the current and new tank would be helpful

[redfishsc]

Agreed with Henry. I've done this exact thing recently going from a 10g nano to a 25g nano.

Other tips:

Clean the live rock and sand with some tank water to remove any detritus, but save as much tank water as you can to go into the new tank.

Don't change any filter pads or other filter media--- transfer it all, as it will all have bacteria colonizing it.


The goal would be to protect your bacterial filtration in the live rock and filter media as much as possible.


You should be fine with the fish in that big of a tank, however, if the fish are sensitive or expensive, you'll want to really monitor your water quality CAREFULLY and have something to detoxify ammonia if it shows up (this is a very short term fix until you can get the sensitive fish OUT and somewhere safe).


Also, DO NOT feed the fish for a couple days. Then start feeding very lightly. If you have a refugium with algae, keep it running 24/7 (lights) to help.


Thus far in my upgrade I have had no problems with anything other than one ugly brown monti digitata that is dying for reasons I can't figure out. All other corals are doing great (acro millepora, hydnophora, orange digi, orange monti cap, purple cap, several other SPS, torch, frogspawn, duncans, and various soft corals, all of which are doing great).

[DidYouSayReefer]

I have some soft corals and LPS, nothing too major. I think I will throw some LS and LR to help establish the new tank over the next week while I finish everything up. Thank you fo your input.