Upgrading from 20 to 29 gallon

[bigwavereef]

Hey all so next week I'm going to be scooping up a much needed skimmer and I wanna upgrade from a 20 to a 29 gallon tank. I know it's not that much of a leap size-wise but I wanna give my tomato clown some extra room for when it gets bigger:) Anyway, I've looked around everywhere and couldn't find much info on doing this. Do I have to cycle the new tank with the additional 9 gallons (or whatever's left after all the rock and sand are put in) or can I get away with just transferring over the whole shebang and adding a gallon of water ever couple of days or so? My 20 has been running since october last year I have 20 pounds give or take of nice rock and 20 pounds of sand.

I was gonna get another 10 pound bag of bioactive sand put it on the bottom of the tank, then add the 20 pounds of sand already in my tank....then rock...then water.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated as I wanna do things right to avoid any casualites from either corals or fish.

THANKS

[bigwavereef]

Basically what's the easiest way to go about this?

[danderso]

The live rock should keep you from having a cycle. I think there are some dangers with re-using the sand if its a deep sand bed. I'm not 100% sure but I think you will need to rinse it in salt water ------ hopefully others with more experience will chime in here for you.

[bigwavereef]

Hm I have about an even inch and a 1/4 sandbed nothing too deep but yeah others please chime in

[jinks]

you might have a spike in some levels from whats kicked up in the sand but not much you can do about that. Put the fish in a bucket with something to keep the water moving and a heater. Transfer the rock. Transfer the sand. Then add NEW water to your new tank. The old water doesn't really have anything in it you need and its going to be dirty from moving everything. Let the new tank settle (going to be cloudy from sand) and come up to temp. Acclimate the fish and you're up and running again.

It always sounds so easy on paper.....

[bigwavereef]

you might have a spike in some levels from whats kicked up in the sand but not much you can do about that. Put the fish in a bucket with something to keep the water moving and a heater. Transfer the rock. Transfer the sand. Then add NEW water to your new tank. The old water doesn't really have anything in it you need and its going to be dirty from moving everything. Let the new tank settle (going to be cloudy from sand) and come up to temp. Acclimate the fish and you're up and running again.

It always sounds so easy on paper.....

Woah backup, so you're saying not to use any of my old tank water? I'm not too sure about doing that:hmm3:

[jinks]

What is in it that you are worried about losing? Bacteria grows on surfaces(rock sand bio balls ect...) so no loss there. Moving your rocks and sand will kick up all kinds of junk so the water is going to be dirty and need to be changed anyways. Most of the Microfauna lives in the sand and rock too so no big loss there either. Some people do 100% water changes on their tanks from time to time. Its not a bad thing. If you want to take some water out before you start moving things so you dont have to make as much thats fine. The only real reason to save water is so you have less to make up later. If you do save some be sure to take it out before you move things around.

[bigwavereef]

Well thanks jinks had no idea that was completely safe

[bigwavereef]

BUMP. I've moved everything and got her running all my fish a few corals are in a 5 gal bucket, I've been waiting for an hour & half for the sand to finish settling and for the tank to get up to temp.

Thus far, I've only had one causality.... a cheap 2 dollar thermometer. How can I go about acclimating my fish in the bucket? Drip?

[sporto0]

+1 on jink's recommendation, new water is better & just make sure your temp,salinity & ph are compatible before adding your fish. 20g to a 29g? Not much of an upgrade really, why didn't you go a little bigger if you don't mind my asking?

[bigwavereef]

I went with a 30 gallon long. It's all about the Benjamin$ really. I'm a college student and a musician...basically I wanted a bigger tank for my tomato to grow into. Also if I went any bigger I'd have to buy new lights and blah blah blah...didn't want to go that route.

I'll add some pic's of the new setup. I did 25-26 gallons new water and I've been dripping the guy's for about an hour.

[bigwavereef]

oh and the dollar a gallon tank sale didn't hurt either :celeb2: