question about moving to a bigger tank 10g to 20g

[jonathanws]

currently have a 10g and i'm planning on moving everything into a 20g long. i will be adding additional sand and rock, but my question was how should i do the move?

do i start cycling the 20 g on its own and just move the rock and corals over when it's cycled? (would take a long time)

or

do i just transfer the sand, water, rocks, corals, fish, and WATER into the 20g and add 10 more gallons of saltwater?

my saltwater always comes from the same lfs

[corbett_n]

I would just move it over, and then slowly add your new live rock little pieces at a time.

[lordofthereef]

I personally wouldn't transfer the sand, depending on how long the 10g has been going only because this tends to cause algal blooms for people. You sound like you are on the right track with everything else, but I would acclimate all of your livestock slowly to a 50/50 ratio of your tank water to "new" water before just plopping them in. You could also put everything into the 10g and then super slowly add another 10g of water to make a total of 20. The point is dont just fill the 20g tank and drop all your livestock in.

[jonathanws]

I personally wouldn't transfer the sand, depending on how long the 10g has been going only because this tends to cause algal blooms for people. You sound like you are on the right track with everything else, but I would acclimate all of your livestock slowly to a 50/50 ratio of your tank water to "new" water before just plopping them in. You could also put everything into the 10g and then super slowly add another 10g of water to make a total of 20. The point is dont just fill the 20g tank and drop all your livestock in.


well it's the same water! always comes from the same lfs and i do water changes every 2 weeks. so new sand eh?

[lowman31]

I don't know about all new sand. Maybe half old and half new. As for the livestock transfer...What I do is fill the new tank with as much water from the old tank as possible and then fill the rest with new water. It is almost like doing a water change. I would still acclimate your livestock to the new water. The most important thing is that your new water resemble the old tank water in Temp, salinity, and pH as close as possible. Using as much water from the old tank as possible will give the best chance of this happening. Of course, testing both waters to see if they are close is always a good practice.

[eb8919]

I actually did this excact same transfer...Had a 10 gallon nano and upgraded to a 20 gallon long. I put a new bag of live sand in...then added all the rock from my 10 +additional cured rock. Scaped the rock and added the coral and fish. Everything went smooth and i never had any negative effects.

[jonathanws]

I actually did this excact same transfer...Had a 10 gallon nano and upgraded to a 20 gallon long. I put a new bag of live sand in...then added all the rock from my 10 +additional cured rock. Scaped the rock and added the coral and fish. Everything went smooth and i never had any negative effects.


did you fill the 20 with all the water from the 10 and then 10 more? or all new water?