tank upgrade???

[brewski4u1]

so how do you go about doing this i'm sure its not as easy as just filling adding exsisting rock and sand and bam your done!

i need some help b/c i plan on getting a bunch of base rock to add cause i'm sure i'm not gonna have enough. so all and any help would be great!

[greech]

What size tank do you have now and what size are you upgrading to? How long has the esiting tank been running? How much base rock are you adding and will it be live or dry?

But to answer your question, yes it can be that simple. Consider that you are moving the same bioload to a larger volume of water. Your sand is the concern since the new sand will take time to mature. You will not want to increase the amount of livestock until you are sure the tank is stable again and you will want to be careful about overfeeding. You will go through some of the tyipcal stages of a new tank (diatoms, etc) but as along as you stay on top of things you should not have losses.

Of course it would be better to completely cycle the larger tank but IMO that is not necessary in every case.

[Swimwiththefish]

i moved from my 55 to 75, just added my current live rock, and new water, and new sand and it was fine, but i didn't add anything for a few months and monitored it pretty close.

[brewski4u1]

looking at going from a 30 to a 54 corner! tank has been running for about 4 years and has about 50lbs of rock

and dry base rock and how much not sure
and can you get sand that is not live?? cause i'm sure i'm gonna need sand

[greech]

Not necessary but if you're not in a hurry seed it a little while in a rubbermaid and a couple pounds of current rock. If not give it a good cleaning. Yes, you can get dry sand at Petsmart and Petco or online. Just google Caribsea and you'll find many grades of dry aragonite. Make sure you rinse it good. After 4 years you should be able to swap over no problem. If you have sensitive animals like nems try and get your water in both tanks as close as you can.

If you can get the new tank going with just the new sand and at least some water that would be a plus so your LR doesn't need to move into a sandstorm from the new sand.

Also, make extra water before you make the move (lesson learned) and this is a good time to shake out scrub your rocks.
Also if you can set the new tank up

[brewski4u1]

well i plan on getting the tank for a awsome deal and then i'm gonna work on getting all the supplies i need ! i was thinking of putting the base rock in a rubber maid container and putting the old filter off my HOB in there for a few weeks while i get everything fine tuned !

so as for rinsing the dry how do i go about doing that??

the rocks wont go in till the sand storm has settled i was gonna ad a few cups of the old sand to seed it!

and i do have a NEM. so i guess i'm gonna have to keep a close eye on the perimeters and lots of extra water for mini cycles!

[brewski4u1]

bump

and is $180 a good price for a 54g corner tank and stand and it is drilled???

[greech]

Not sure about the price as I have never priced new corner tanks. If the stand is nice I would proably say yes but if it's particle borad, I would negotiate a bit more.

Your plan sounds good. I put new sand in a bucket and let a water hose run in it and the water spil over for a couple of hours and stir the sand up a few times while it's going. You will see the water start to run clear. I have read of a few folks using only RO/DI water to rinse new sand but I have never had an issue with using tap. I do allow the sand to dry out before I put it in the tank but not sure if that helps. I have also seen one person use a bed sheet pulled tight over a bucket so that the sheet acts like a screen. Using a few cups of your old sand is a good idea and seems to have helped speed things up in my experience.

[loneracer05]

my current plan is to re use all the sand and rock from my 55 gallon tank and reuse it in my new 220 gallon tank.my current plan is to get a large garbage can put the lr in it with water from the tankput the fish in the garbage can with the rock remove old sand into a rubbermade tub with salt water in it and agitate drain the water repeat. do this afew times and then add it to the new tank with new sand an live rock currently curing in a tub. then bring in all the old tanks live rock and then lastly the fish :)

[greech]

Consider keeping your fish in something other than the garbage can with your LR. You stand a good chance of squishing a fish in a dark container filled with sharp rocks. Chances are you will be moving rocks in and out of there quite a bit and that very least you will stress the fish out even more.