Advice wanted: switching my 70 gal to 150 gal in one day...

[sean obergfell]

Hello Reef world,
I have a 70 gallon mixed reef (6 years mature) and the time has come to put my 150 together....

So, The 150 is going in the same place as the 70...I have to take down the 70 Fish, coral, sand, rock...ect... and put together the 150

I am doing a basement sump so i need to drill a hole in the floor and put the plumbing together....

any advice on a one day switch over with no losses.....?

What i have ready....

lots of saltwater, sand rinsed and ready, live rock just waiting to be used,

any one have experience with this?

Thank you,
Sean

[crichard6069]

Since your sump is in the basement can you setup the sump first? Get the 70g running off the new sump first that way that piece of the project is done and over with? That's probably the biggest headache you're going to have.

I also have a basement plumbed sump and just upgraded to a 55g homemade sump this past weekend. Ended up taking me two days to get it all done. I had the equipment running, etc, but by the time I finished wiring the new outlets and stuff my whole weekend was spent.

If you can do the sump first it seems like after that you can transfer lilvestock into buckets while you take down the 70 and set the 150 up. Save as much water as you can from the 70g as a 50% water change is pretty massive to your livestock.

[Gold Stripe]

Since your sump is in the basement can you setup the sump first? Get the 70g running off the new sump first that way that piece of the project is done and over with? That's probably the biggest headache you're going to have.

+1

Get the sump set up and ready to hook up. You should be able to plum it far enough that it can be filled with water before you mess with the 70. Leave the skimmer out and put your water and critical livestock from the 70 in the sump while you move the 70 and set up the 150. Then you will have time to aquascape the 150 while your livestock hangs out in the sump. Less critical livestock like rock and softies/Shrooms/Zoas can go in tubs with water and heat. When the 150 is filled, transfer your livestock upstairs and open up the valves to the sump.

[sean obergfell]

good stuff

thanks

[cr reef]

Like what you have been told on the sump aspect.

Here is what I did;

Removed everthing to plastic container (no heaters) the night before. My reasoning for doing this was, the temp will slowly fall and I wouldn't have to worry about making sure the temp in the new tank was the same as the plastic containers.
Once the new tank was setup and 3/4 filled started adding things and turning the heaters on, no worries about acclimating the corals as the water temps are the same, so there is no shock to the corals or the fish.

Just think about how cold the corals or fish get if you've ordered them online and had them shipped.

This worked great for me w/no losses, just my .02

[Skins]

My build process illistrates how I did the same thing. Post #38 starts where I moved the tank out of the way.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1769611&page=2