Moving to a larger tank. need help with cycle

[wrenchhead]

I am upgrading from a 30g mixed reef tank to an 80g mixed reef tank and I need some help. I will be putting the new tank where the old tank is and I don't have enough equipment to run 2 tanks so I will be moving everything from the 30g to the 80g. I am looking for advice on how to make the transition as smooth as possible. The new tank will not be cycled when I put everything in it from the old tank. I will be transfering over about 40lbs of sand and 40lbs of live rock. Is there anything I can do to help things along and minimize the risk of loosing fish and corals to the cycle. Would adding microbacter7 help. Any help would be great.

Thanks

[Slystone]

Are you adding additional rock? What kind?

[fyrfytr]

May be in the same boat moving from a 36bowfront to a standard 55gal Following along to get the good advise

[amutti]

I would recommend against moving a lot of the sand, at least right away. I'd be afraid you'd do more harm then good getting all the junk in the sandbed into your water column and then starting a Nasty cycle. If you go this route thoroughly rinse the sand before moving it.

There is definitely risk here. I'm in a similar situation and just opted to "upgrade" what I needed to in the new tank to get it running and will move over "optional" equipment as I transition.

I'd put in a new sandbed in the new tank and seed it with sand from the old tank (maybe 20%). Then I'd move the rest if the stuff over doing the best I could to rinse them in the old tank water (trying to limit the amount of waste I'd be moving to the new tank). Just to CYA I'd probably dose with Stability or something similar to take the edge off whatever cycle I have. Then test for ammonia and nitrite regularly. I'd guess you'll have a bunch of mini cycles (small spikes) before it stabilizes. Be ready to do a bunch of water changes...

[Phishguy]

I have personally done 2 moves like this.. from a 55 to 75 and then to 120. since I needed more sand anyway, I started with fresh sand and mixed in some of my old sand to "seed" the new sand. I used all existing tank water and mixed in fresh water.. I didnt do anything special for the rocks.. Just moved it over.. I havent had any bad side effects from my upgrades.

[Handil]

Like phish said, keep as much of the water as you can. I'd also recommend filters and skimmer be running non-stop. Be careful with the sand, you'll probably get some crazy algae blooms in addition to what was already mentioned. Do you have any friends who can hold your livestock until you get setup? This may avert some losses.

[daisy002]

I'm about to do a 90 gal transfer from a 36 bowfront, and I was thinking it wouldn't be that badly affected if you add everything from one tank to the other, the bioload would be the same. Since nothing new is being introduced, you should be ok, right? Stirring up the sand might be an issue, but I only have enough to cover the bottom of my tank. Not an issue for me, not sure how this will pan out for you.

I also don't think putting the extra bacteria in there would hurt anything as long as you don't put a full dose in the tank. Some bacteria will starve and die off, while the bacteria for your bioload on the tank will flourish. I'd predict you'd have about 2 weeks or so of unstable levels, and things should level right out. Good luck to you!

[wrenchhead]

Thanks for all the advise. I will be adding some additional rock (dry rock). The rock is curing now. I guess I could put the new stuff in a little at a time. I could do a few water changes in the first couple weeks to keep the spikes from being too bad or would this make things worse or prolong the cycle?

[Bruno3047]

Take all of your corals and put them in a plastic container. Take all of you live rock and put it in a separate container, covered with tank water. Suck all of the sand out of the existing tank with a a ½ - ¾ inch hose siphoned into third container. Doing one quarter of the sand at a time, you then rinse the sand well in tank water, discarding the dirty water three times before adding the sand to the new tank. If additional sand is needed, add it incrementally to the washed sand as you add it to the new tank.

Once you’ve re-aquascaped the new tank, I would pump in a dose of Nitrobacter live bacteria if you feel like it. You should have no problem with NH4 spikes, especially if you have some kind of external bio-media, like bio-balls, etc.