Can anyone give me some advice?

jess3

jess3

Member
Hello I'm new to this forum, currently I have a 36 gallon bow front , I'm trying to move to a bigger tank so I got a 90 gallon , I'm almost ready to set it up, maybe by next week, any recommendations or steps of how to do it safely, currently I have 40 lbs of live rock I'm my bow front tank , so I bought some base rock to add to the new bigger tank, also can I use the sand bed I have and mix it with new sand? My sand bed it's only a year old.
 
You can use the sand but I would rinse it multiple times really good. May be easier to buy all new.
When I moved from a 29 to 65, I added all of new saltwater, rock and sand to the new tank about 5 days before I moved everything( new tank was in a different location) I put a heater to bring it up to temp, powerhead in to circulate and let thing settle for the 5 days. On move day I put everything in buckets (bagged the fish) so I could wash the sand and build the rock scape. Then topped off with the water from my old tank and put the live stock in.
 
most people will tell you to just start over and replace the sand to avoid any toxic releases...but FWIW I required an emergency tank replacement earlier this year and I transferred all my sand as is (no rinsing) to the new tank without issue...
I'm sure I had a micro cycle at one point but nothing to speak of and I had no issues and no loss of life, which included fish, SPS, LPS, softies, CUC and BTAs....

FYI I do not keep a deep sand bed, generally about 1" to 1.5" deep at most, so I would not recommend this for deeper sand beds.
 
Oh okay perfect . So I'm clear about the sand rinse it up or replace, now the new fish tank it's gonna be set up in the same spot where currently have the bow front, I was thinking in moving everything into buckets and put a small power head and heater , now how long can I live my live rock out of the water , would I have any die off in the time that I aquascape? Or should I fill up the tank first with saltwater then aquascape with my live rock and base rock, and at last add the new sand?
 
In the past I did put a larger tank in the same place as my smaller one. What I did was remove the water rocks and corals into 5 gal buckets. Keep as much water as I could and then when I was able to I move the whole tank with sand in it. I moved the old tank to another room and refilled it with the rock water and corals. Had extra 25% water for a water change so I put that in as well to decrease the chance of a cycle. Got the tank moved and running in an hour and lost nothing. Set the new tank up and let it run for 2 weeks and slowly transferred everything over.
 
jess3 said:
Oh okay perfect . So I'm clear about the sand rinse it up or replace, now the new fish tank it's gonna be set up in the same spot where currently have the bow front, I was thinking in moving everything into buckets and put a small power head and heater , now how long can I live my live rock out of the water , would I have any die off in the time that I aquascape? Or should I fill up the tank first with saltwater then aquascape with my live rock and base rock, and at last add the new sand?
Click to expand...

Go buy a 32g brute trash can from home depot and transfer everything to it. Place your heater and power head in it. Then you are not in a rush. Take down old tank, set up new one and transfer with no rush. If something goes wrong with the new tank you are covered still for as long as needed. You could even put you light over it if need.

Then you will have something to make RO/DI or make salt water going forward when your done.
 
Okay thanks everyone for the advice. I'm exited, been planning on this for a while and been getting all my equipment little by little, now I can't wait ,just a little afraid of messing up something on the process.
 
Hey sorry didn't reply any sooner, the fish tank I'm setting up it in the basement so it's concrete floor really stable and I just set it up this weekend , just finished yesterday o will post a picture once I get a chance, thanks to everyone advice , now I just need to give it some time and start introducing some corals
 
Did you epoxy the rocks todether? The scape looks nice lots of nooks and caves I'd just hate to see a rockslide
 
Siebo said:
Go buy a 32g brute trash can from home depot and transfer everything to it. Place your heater and power head in it. Then you are not in a rush. Take down old tank, set up new one and transfer with no rush. If something goes wrong with the new tank you are covered still for as long as needed. You could even put you light over it if need.

Then you will have something to make RO/DI or make salt water going forward when your done.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice siebo, everything went smooth with the transfer .
 
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