Livestock transfer questions

[jgraz]

The cycle in my 90 is almost complete and I have to figure out the best way to transfer all livestock from my 44 to the 90. No rock or sand will be making the trip, only fish, coral, and inverts. From what I've read is that the usual way is to remove everything to holding tank/buckets, aclimate, then add. Right?
Now, i'm in no rush to do this so my plan was to bring water chemistry between the two tanks to the same lvl's by switching 1-2 gals water between them for a couple of weeks. Then I could, in theory I could just pull from the 44 then add right to the 90. Right? am I overthinking this. I figure less stress this way, since only one movement for each fish instead of multiple. Is this sound logic here? Thanks in advance for the assist.

 

[jdpiii3]

That can work, just make sure salinity, Ph and temp are the same.

Best way would be to acclimate them between tanks. When I upgraded to my 400 I used as much of the old water from my 150 that I could, and mixed it into the new system and then did about a 40 min acclimate for the fish I didn't loose any of them in the move.

 

[Soehl]

I like the idea of taking time and equalizing the water chemistry between the two. I am also a fan of using as much of the "old" water as I can. One thing about that I would like to add though is to use the water before you start moving out rock or sand. I am thinking there will be a big nitrate/phos spike when you start moving sand and rock.

I am going to upgrade from a 55 to a 180 in a couple weeks and am stressed about the move too. My process is going to be just like you explained but I was planning on a faster move.... 3 days or so. NOW I am thinking of taking more time. Maybe a week just to let it equalize. I keep worring about keeping my corals and fish in a plastic tub. I guess that can't be worse than days in a plastic bag...

 

[KSzegi]

Time and acclimating is probably the best method - but for what it's worth, when I upgraded from my 180 to my 300 ..... I was fortunate enough like you to have the upgrade tank already set up with new sand, new water and a small amount of new rock that I cycled first. When I transferred I simply made sure the parameters were matched .... moved all my rock and livestock directly over to the new tank. I didn't lose anything, in fact I was amazed at how well everything transferred and how non-stressed both corals and fish were.

 

[46gReef]

As long as your levels are the same in both tanks you don't gain anything from moving old water to a new tank...there is little if any beneficial bacteria in the water column(that's all in your live rock&sand) & all your important levels (salinity,calcium, alkalinity, mag,etc.) should be able to be mirrored by you without transferring water, so to anwer your question, I would put my livestock in buckets & drip acclimate.....HTH

 

[Cooterbrown]

I upgraded from a 56 to a 150 a few months ago and I wet with a similar approach but what I did was for a week prior I plumbed the new sump to the old tank and let it run. Never cycled the new tank at all. Ad then pumped the sump water into the new tank moved the sump then moved most of my old tank water into buckets with the fish and coral. Moved the rock over used new sand and then put about 2 scoops of old sand to seed. Filled the tank up with new water and then acclimated for about 30 minutes an didn't lose a single thing. But I think having the 55g sump of rock and sand as the "buffer" it worked out fine