Upgrading to bigger tank, need transfer help

[ian09]

Hello again all :)
So, I have a new 50g SC aquarium cube tank set up that I'd like to transfer my about a month old JBJ 28g nano cube set up into. Well, I meant transfer the sand, rock, coral, inverts, and fish plus water into the new one. Anyone have any pointers? I want to minimize as much die off and cycles as possible. Hope this makes sense. I plan to add more "live sand" and rock and use some Dr. Tims or something similar. Would I be right in thinking this is a good plan? Any help would be appreciated, thanks :)

[soulpatch]

I have always hated the idea of moving sand. I always just get new sand for every new tank. I know your sand is only a month old so the chances of something nasty in it is minimal but sand is cheap and better to avoid an issue...

Not sure why you would want to save the water either. Outside of not having to make fresh water you aren't losing anything by starting completely fresh.

I have not yet moved my salt tanks but have done numerous fresh tanks and plan to keep same process for my salt tank move coming up:

Get a plastic tote and fill with water at same temp/salinity of tank being decommissioned.
Get new tank filled with water to same temp/salinity of old tank fill with sand as well
Move fish/rock/corals to tupperware container with airstone or powerhead agitating surface(Note if any diseases or algae then I would move next into a QT tank before infesting new DT...)
Move new DT tank into place if needed and ensure pumps and other equipment is fully working.
Move rock and livestock into new tank
Monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for next few days/week and do water changes as needed (seachem ammonia badges are awesome for this)

Basically treat the new tank like an uncycled QT tank watching your numbers. The bacteria in the rock should be enough to foster your current livestock but do NOT add more livestock till you are stable for a while...

Now I also typically seed a bunch of media before a change as well. In my next move I will be using media pure plates and will throw a few in my cube to get seeded before I start up the new tank to give myself a head start.

[ian09]

I have always hated the idea of moving sand. I always just get new sand for every new tank. I know your sand is only a month old so the chances of something nasty in it is minimal but sand is cheap and better to avoid an issue...

Not sure why you would want to save the water either. Outside of not having to make fresh water you aren't losing anything by starting completely fresh.

I have not yet moved my salt tanks but have done numerous fresh tanks and plan to keep same process for my salt tank move coming up:

Get a plastic tote and fill with water at same temp/salinity of tank being decommissioned.
Get new tank filled with water to same temp/salinity of old tank fill with sand as well
Move fish/rock/corals to tupperware container with airstone or powerhead agitating surface(Note if any diseases or algae then I would move next into a QT tank before infesting new DT...)
Move new DT tank into place if needed and ensure pumps and other equipment is fully working.
Move rock and livestock into new tank
Monitor ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for next few days/week and do water changes as needed (seachem ammonia badges are awesome for this)

Basically treat the new tank like an uncycled QT tank watching your numbers. The bacteria in the rock should be enough to foster your current livestock but do NOT add more livestock till you are stable for a while...

Now I also typically seed a bunch of media before a change as well. In my next move I will be using media pure plates and will throw a few in my cube to get seeded before I start up the new tank to give myself a head start.


Hello and again thanks for always sharing your experience and knowledge with me soulpatch. I'd agree with you and would ideally like to transfer my stuff as you would unfortunately I don't have a qt tank nor the extra equipment including extra water to do so. Al I have is my current tank running and my new tank. I wanted to use my water because I don't mix water myself and just purchase with my five gallon hush witch I have about 6 of. I planned to use the remaining of my water to fill the new tank the rest of the way. My sand is relatively young and I'm still thinking about reusing it or tossing it. I have a diamond goby that pretty much kept it super clean (it actually looks similar to the day I place the sand in the tank lol! Literally!!!). I'm more worried about my livestock as I now have several small fish which I clue: diamond goby, neon goby, a pair of yellow clown gobies, an orange oscellaris and black n white one, all of which are juvenile sized of course. I also have my green wall hammer and orange wall hammer, a bunch of zoos ranging from eagle eyes, Rastas, bam bams, gold mauls, utter chaos just to name a few. Oh and one acan with about four to five heads. All are doing pretty well I must say. Gonna head to my LFS to purchase about 30 gallons of salt water and more sand, maybe some live rock too to help with bio filtration and a whole bottle of dr Tims to help with any cycles. I was planning to purchase a marine pure block from BRS but they are out of stock at the moment :(
They only have the super big block one. Anyway, I'll y'all posted. Thanks

[soulpatch]

You spent money on a larger tank but have still yet to spend the money on equipment (rodi) to properly run said tanks? Not money well spent IMHO.

As for the sand your goby would have kept the top clean but all of the denitrifying bacteria and such you have lower int he sand would be explosed to air and could have a small die off causing a mini cycle. Just smarter to use new sand.

As for water. This goes back to spending money in right spot. You can reuse the water but that does not solve a bigger issue. Temp. You have will have roughly double the water and without extra equipment (really only thing needed from my post was a second heater....as you can use the powerhead in your tank now...) you wont be able to bring that up to temp for the livestock shocking them and leading to serious issues.

This is not a hobby to be cheap in. Spend the $25 on a heater then go to your local grocery store and pick up some water if you dont want to get an RODI and mix up the required water for the move. You should not be moving live stock with limited water levels as you attempt to make/move more and stabilize levels across the two.

[ian09]

You spent money on a larger tank but have still yet to spend the money on equipment (rodi) to properly run said tanks? Not money well spent IMHO.

As for the sand your goby would have kept the top clean but all of the denitrifying bacteria and such you have lower int he sand would be explosed to air and could have a small die off causing a mini cycle. Just smarter to use new sand.

As for water. This goes back to spending money in right spot. You can reuse the water but that does not solve a bigger issue. Temp. You have will have roughly double the water and without extra equipment (really only thing needed from my post was a second heater....as you can use the powerhead in your tank now...) you wont be able to bring that up to temp for the livestock shocking them and leading to serious issues.

This is not a hobby to be cheap in. Spend the $25 on a heater then go to your local grocery store and pick up some water if you dont want to get an RODI and mix up the required water for the move. You should not be moving live stock with limited water levels as you attempt to make/move more and stabilize levels across the two.


I here you soulpatch. Thanks again. I do have spare power heads and a couple heaters actually which I do plan to use. I have revised my plan and I will try to fill the tank up with salt water first. Then before transferring everything I will also match salinity and temp at the least. And you are right about the sand, I plan to purchase new sand sand for the tank as well. I'm going to somehow slide my existing tank over so I may start running the new tank in its spot. Then when the sand is pretty much settled along with temp and salinity matched I will transfer my existing rock (I'll add more new live rock in a few days) and pour a bottle of dr Tims. I'll then transfer my coral then fish. I hope this increases my chance of success with minimal die off of anything. Lastly, I am actually in the process of looking into an rodi set up. Just don't know which to purchase in the brs website yet. I think I'll contact my water company first and see what they got going on in the water first. Any suggestions for an rodi setup? Thanks again

[soulpatch]

I have and like the BRS value water saver. I will upgrade it to the 6 stage this winter when I upgrade to the larger tank merely for the benefit of completely exhausting DI resin instead of throwing it away early like one has to do with only one DI chamber.

[ian09]

I have and like the BRS value water saver. I will upgrade it to the 6 stage this winter when I upgrade to the larger tank merely for the benefit of completely exhausting DI resin instead of throwing it away early like one has to do with only one DI chamber.


I have no experience whatsoever with these units so I'll have to do some research as I'm sure it's way cheaper in the long run. I was calculating how many 5 gallon jugs of water I'll be purchasing and at over $1 per gallon it's really pricey! I have six 5 gallon jugs and 3 5 gallon drinking water jugs so total of 45 gallons holey moley and that's just the water. I still have to purchase the sand. I'm no baller like you are soulpatch but I'm sold on the fact that I should be mixing my own water from now on. Here's some pics just because. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/59d43da2c75ee45ac03a0cb2ca1a7a71.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/8c19bc417eb1c5e6d492f375579db69c.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/40d31440aa29b17c0a05aa5441e89a21.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/c6441db216fd1cd2ca79de33ad6910c4.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/12/235e0227be2ac1c36081cac2bde018be.jpg

[soulpatch]

Not saying to be a baller and have a gold plated RODI unit that goes into a custom automated mixing station. That said some things are basic needs in this hobby. Spend the funds and you will be ****ed you did not do it earlier.