Yer gonna need buckets lots.
Drain the tank, keep the water. get the fish out. put the rock(cleanest) from the top into a bucket with the water. keep draining till you reach the bottom. the funkyest water & the funkyest rock into the same bucket.(youll clean that later.)
Have your new 30 with new live sand waiting, Live sand is cycled is cycled. add the fish add some old tank water add the rinsed cleanest rock. watch ammonia
should be a 2 to 3 day process.
So in the new 30 gallon have half new and half old water?
yup the clean stuff off the top. and dont worry much about the coral. easy compaired to fish.
the rock and sand all contain massive amounts of bacteria. this is your cycle. people are nuts a tank dont cycle the rock does.
youl want to clean the organics and SPOO gunk off the old rock its gonna be gross and real bad for a tank.
I use hydrogen peroxide 10 p water to one par peroxide in the gross water, itll blow up the organics and gunk likks algae. rinse welll good water salt water etc a fresh ro or distilled is best
it wont stop the cycle.
following me?
f you just dumped it from one tank to the other youll stir up algae organics ich bactera etc and make a swamp.
thus the term deep clean..and tank transfer as your new search terms.
Top/clean stuff in 30 gallon with fish and good rock.
Icky dirty stuff cleaned with part water and peroxide in gross water and rinse.
Think I got it.
The fish and coral should actually be fine assuming they are already in good health in the new tank. just watch them.
dont hurry. once you have the new tank set add new live sand and the now clean rock and let the system run. its gonna take longer than we always think.
if you need to leave rock in buckets, add a powerhead in the bottom, the bacteria need to breathe. weird right?
