Move to a bigger tank...need help

[ctniners]

Hello everybody,
I am having issues with my jbj nano cube, so I am going to drill it and add sump to it, but to do this I will need to move everything to my 40 gal breeder tank, this is my question, I will need to add about 30-35 gal of new salt water (because I am planing on adding a 20 gal sump)and about 10 to 20 lbs of new sand...will this be ok for the livestock, I have some sps, a rose bta, 2 o.clowns and a cleaner shrimp.....I just dont know if I will crash the tank because of all the new fresh water and new sand.......by the way, I will have about 22 gal of established water and about 20-30 lbs of established sand coming from the nano cube......

Please let me know your inputs.

Thanks

[JeF4y]

I did the same thing here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1674149

The new salt water won't be a big difference so long as the salinity, temp & pH match. If there is any difference, you need to do some acclimating of the livestock.

I would also be VERY careful of reusing the sand. It will have detritus trapped in it which could easily cause a nitrate spike.

[wetWolger]

From what I know, water really does not hold much of the bacteria needed during the cycle. So the large quantity of new water should be okay as long as your moving all your rock.

As for the sand, how deep is your sandbed? The biggest risk I see is if you have a semi-deep to deep sand bed and then to agitate it all and mix all the crap up, as well as killing all the anaerobic bacteria, as well as releasing possible nasties that live in a deeper sand bed (ie hydrogen sulfide).

If you do have a DSB, and If it were me, I would only move the top layer of sand that is fresh and clean...then take the remaining sand and wash it good, clean it up....meaning you will kill the bacteria on it, but you will also be sure not to release phosphates, or possibly deadly gases, as well as all the other crap that can soak up into the sand. Then after it is all washed/rinsed you can place it in the new tank.

[ctniners]

My sand bed right now is about 3" but I know it must have nasty stuff in it, when I first started I bought this nasty mud looking thing from GARF that was suppose to cycle things better and spread coralline algae, instead it messed up my nice white sand...after a while I removed some and put new sand but bunch of it stayed under the rocks so I know that stuff is going to just come right up......my issue is, if I do that and wash the sand and put it back I will be doing the same as putting new sand out of the bag right?, in which case I will need to cycle the tank....correct?

[wetWolger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15721500#post15721500 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ctniners
my issue is, if I do that and wash the sand and put it back I will be doing the same as putting new sand out of the bag right?, in which case I will need to cycle the tank....correct?

Your probably going to have a mini-cycle anyways...just mixing the sand up is going to kill the anaerobic bacteria. But IME when I have done it in the past the cycle is usually mild, and as long as you are careful not to add any new livestock, or feed too much, etc, the tank will be fine. As I suggested before, taking some of the top layer of sand is a good idea, that will give you some bacteria. But most of your bacteria should be on your rocks anyways...if you have enough rock I would not worry too much about it.

[JeF4y]

The tank will go through a smaller cycle as it adjusts, just like any time you add anything new... If you have a good share of liverock you should do fine.

[ctniners]

I have about 30lbs of rocks right now...some of the rock was base rock from one year ago and the newest live rock i put in there was put in the aquarium about 8 months ago