Moving to a larger tank

P

Pneumatic

I am in the process of buying a larger tank and planning the move. The goals are to put the new tank where the current tank resides, add 40 pounds of new live sand, and add 40 pounds of new live rock to the system.

I am trying to work out in my mind how the move will go. These are the steps I think I will take but I would like to get some veteran eyes on the list to tell me where it's going to be a problem.

1) drain old tank into holding tank.

2) move live rock and livestock to holding tank

3) move old tank out of the way

4) setup new tank

5) move old Live Sand to new tank

6) add new live sand (or should the old sand be on top?)

7) put remaining water from old tank into new tank

8 ) Fill remainder of tank with fresh salt water

9) put in new live rock

10) let tank run through the cycle process (two weeks?)

11) move old live rock and live stock to new tank

Does this sound right? If not, what needs to change?

How would (or DID) you upgrade tanks and introduce new live rock and live sand? Am I making this more difficult than it needs to be?

Thanks!
 
Step 6 is ok, sprinkle the new sand on top of the old, no more than .5" deep.

Step 9. Put all the rock, old and new in at the same time unless you need the old rock to remain as a filter for the holding tank.

Everything else is cool in my eyes.

My thoughts only... please correct at will folks.
 
I cycled my sand and rocks a few weeks before I upgraded in seperate tanks. Then I just did a fast move over same day using a transfer tank and tub. I have done this twice now with no ill effects when going from a 55 to a 75 to my 125 as they all had to sit in the same place.
 
I followed all your steps when I upgraded from my 55g to the 140g but I did not wait two weeks before putting my fish, live rock and corals into the new tank.

I waited about 24 hours and then did the standard acklimation process to return the fish to the new tanks. I did a full chemical test on the 140g before i started the process of putting the fish back into the new tank.

I only lost two star fish :( and I lost them in the holding tub. I may have over airated the water. My red/brown plate got a little bleached but only after I added the air stone to the holding tub. It is now getting its color back and I expect it will be fine in about another week.

The fish and corals were back to normal the next day. I think I caused more stress by arranging the rocks over and over then moving them from tank, to holding tub, to new tank. I guess I was lucky.

Good luck!
 
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