Upgrading to 30g long AIO. Planning on taking everything from 13g and then adding 20 to 30 lbs of live sand and then rock from downstairs.
How should I convert everything over and when? Will I have to go thru a cycle again?[/QUOTE
That'll be a really nice upgrade!
As for the transfer, I have some thoughts to share since the rock, livestock and water in my 25gal AIO Innovative Marine Lagoon are transferred between my Wisconsin aquarium and my Florida aquarium twice each year. That amounts to essentially the same thing you are planning to do - move existing stuff from one nano tank to another nano tank (minus the three day road trip with buckets, heaters and aerators).
After giving it some thought, I decided to submit the following process for your careful, cautious and critical consideration:
1) Don't rush anything! Bad things happen when you hurry!
2) Write down every step of your planned transfer process to make sure you've considered every aspect of the transfer. Review and revise it repeatedly until you're satisfied that you haven't missed anything. The plan should also include a list of every piece of equipment and materials you'll need to execute the process. When finished, the skeleton of your plan may look something like what follows:
3) Beg, borrow or purchase any equipment and materials on your list that you don't already own. You want to minimize delays once you launch. Buckets, lids, extra heaters, air pump, air stones, RODI water, salt mix and thermometers are almost always involved.
4) Fill new aquarium with fresh tap water, not saltwater, and get all the new equipment up and running just to make sure it's all working like it should. Run it for 24 hours minimum just to make sure the tank doesn't leak and some critical piece of new equipment doesn't go-belly-up 6 hours after you turned it on. Once everything passes that test go on to the next step.
3) Drain tap water from the aquarium and dry it out with a towel.
4) Fill enough buckets (to approximately the 1/2 mark) with fresh saltwater to temporarily house all of your live rock, fish, corals and inverts. Make sure you use the same brand of salt mix you usually use and mix it to the same salinity as your current tank.
5) Place a heater and thermometer in each bucket. Heat to the same temperature as your existing tank.
6) Get aeration going in each bucket using old fashioned air pump, airline and air stones. This generates adequate flow for up to a few days duration if necessary. It also keeps the temperature uniform throughout the water column and provides... well, aeration. Inexpensive air pumps are available at PetSmart or any similar outlet. Just make sure the pump has enough output to activate one air stone for each bucket you anticipate using.
7) Once all of that is set up and stabilized, siphon some of the water from the existing tank into each bucket just to make the water in the buckets match the aquarium water a bit more closely. You don't want to throw any of the old tank water away if possible.
8) Transfer your live stock and live rock into the buckets. In performing my own transfers I've not found it necessary to do any acclimation process as long as the salinity and temperature of the water in the buckets closely match those parameters in existing tank. But then I do not have ANY super sensitive corals like Acropora because of all this repeated stressful activity. That's been my experience but you need to do acclimation if that what makes you comfortable. Now the critters have a safe place to hang out while you do the next steps. I also place a lid loosely on top of each bucket to keep fish from jumping out. Monitor bucket temperatures just make sure they are remaining relatively stable at the temperature to which you set them.
9) Syphon as much of the water as you can from you existing tank into buckets for later use in the new tank; but try to avoid sucking up any more detritus than absolutely necessary.
10) Promptly transfer any biological filtration you might have like bio-balls, ceramic spheres, etc. into the bucket with the syphoned water from the existing tank. You want to keep it wet at all times to preserve the beneficial bacteria that exist there so it can go to work immediately upon placement in the new tank.
11) Transfer sand from the existing tank to the new tank and add any additional sand required for the new larger tank.
12) Take the extra water that you syphoned from the existing tank into buckets and very very gently add it to the new tank. I say gently because the more you stir up the sand when adding water the longer the new tank will remain cloudy.
13) Mix enough fresh salt water, again matching the salinity of water from the existing tank, and add enough to the new tank to allow return pump, filtration, etc to operate.
14) Check again to make sure that the water temperature and salinity in the new tank match the temperature and salinity of the water in buckets. Also wait long enough, whatever that turns out to be, for the tank water to clear enough so you are comfortable it is safe for your livestock to be transferred.
15) This would be a good time to consider pouring a bottle of live 'bacteria in a bottle' into the tank just to give the biological filtration a little extra boost.
16) Take a deep breath and transfer your live rock from buckets to the new tank. You will probably need to remove some water from the tank as you add rock to keep tank from overflowing.
17) Transfer your inverts from buckets to the new tank.
18) Take another deep breath and transfer your fish to the new tank; taking into consideration any territorial issues that might be involved with the species you keep.
19) Clean up.
20) Fine-tune everything.
21) Test at least once a day for ammonia and nitrite just to make sure your tank isn't cycling again. If either ammonia or nitrite appear make water changes large enough and frequently enough to keep them at or very close to zero for as long as you need to do it. The biological filtration you transferred in the sand, live rock, any extra filtration media you had, plus the added 'bacteria in a bottle' should minimize the risk of a re-cycle. But be prepared just in case.
The foregoing approach can cost a few $ but a safe transfer for your livestock is worth it. Think the whole thing through for yourself very critically and change anything that needs to be changed. Perhaps some other reefers might chime in here and correct any errors, oversights or poor practices mentioned. The forgoing is pretty much what I've done with my tank over time without losing fish or corals. A few hermit crabs have died but chalk-that-up to the hazards of shifting live rock as my car bounces down the interstate.
Good luck with the upgrade and try to enjoy even this potentially miserable part of the journey!
Cheers!
