Moving to a bigger tank question

[Seachelle]

I'm planning on upgrading my coral QT from a 10 gallon to a 20 gallon. The primary reason is to have more space to spread out my frags, but I've been having some swings in parameters - mostly alk - due in part (I think) to the small tank. It was pretty stable for 8 months, but has been swinging lately. I'm thinking the larger tank will help keep things more stable.

I plan on taking most of the water from my 10 gallon and transferring it over. I was going to use some water from my DT as well, and make up the rest with new saltwater. Can I do this without having to cycle the tank? If I move over the frag racks, rock and filter media that I'm using in the 10 gallon, will this be an "instant cycle"? Since my tank has been having alk swings, would it be wise to do this now? Or should I wait to see if I can get the alk stablilized before I move everything over. My alk has been running pretty low - around 6.5-7. I just ordered some alk booster to begin dosing to see if I can bring it up slowly. I really don't have anywhere to keep another tank, so I was hoping to just move everything from the 10 gallon to the 20 without having to wait for a cycle.

Thanks for any help!

 

[stovenut]

You can absolutely do that. I'm assuming there is no sandbed to deal with. Just think of it like a 25% water change.

 

[Bph]

You should be fine , but you do need to find out why your alkalinity is fluctuating , coral uptake, calcium out of range , magnesium etc something is causing the alkalinity swings.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I'm planning on upgrading my coral QT from a 10 gallon to a 20 gallon. The primary reason is to have more space to spread out my frags, but I've been having some swings in parameters - mostly alk - due in part (I think) to the small tank. It was pretty stable for 8 months, but has been swinging lately. I'm thinking the larger tank will help keep things more stable.

I plan on taking most of the water from my 10 gallon and transferring it over. I was going to use some water from my DT as well, and make up the rest with new saltwater. Can I do this without having to cycle the tank? If I move over the frag racks, rock and filter media that I'm using in the 10 gallon, will this be an "instant cycle"? Since my tank has been having alk swings, would it be wise to do this now? Or should I wait to see if I can get the alk stablilized before I move everything over. My alk has been running pretty low - around 6.5-7. I just ordered some alk booster to begin dosing to see if I can bring it up slowly. I really don't have anywhere to keep another tank, so I was hoping to just move everything from the 10 gallon to the 20 without having to wait for a cycle.

Thanks for any help!

Most definitely!

 

[desertrat505]

If your upgrading go as big as you can, so you wont have to upgrade down the road again.

 

[PatW]

You don’t say what kind of corals you have. If you have stoney LPS corals, they will deplete some ALK. But if you have SPS corals, they will deplete ALK even faster. Even snails will remove ALK from the system when they grow their shells. Most marine invertebrates use calcium carbonate as their go to material for hard body parts and that means consuming ALK and Calcium.

One way to get ALK higher would be just to do a few large water changes. Another way would be dosing something to increase ALK. I dose ALK and I use a 2 part method. I use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part which uses Soda Ash for ALK.

If you want to know more, you can read about this in the reef chemistry forum stickies.

Going from a 10 gallon tank to a 20 gallon tank should not be a problem. You can transfer over all of your live rock. And you can add additional rock over time.

Right now your ALK is pretty low. I would advocate adding something to boost it. You can get a product from your LFS. Or as I said, you can do water changes.