Hawain_Rob
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Can I transfer everything from my old tank to a new tank without problems?
quick question ?
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I would not re use your sand, get new sand. Provided the Rock is only out of the water for a few seconds you'll be fine. Have some prime or stability on hand in case you have a mini cycle. Test the water for a few weeks to be sure.
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Ive had plenty of times but 2 times ran into little bit of problems, do you have a sand bed?
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Hawain_Rob
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I do have a sand bed. Sand is relatively new. Few months old. Switched it for Coarser sand cause I had the very fine sand...I hated. You think I should keep it. So it would be OK to transfer everything and not get a cycle?
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Hawain_Rob
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What kind of problems?
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Nothing that bad . first time i took the bed with it and it was like dumbing a garbage dump into my new tank. Couple water changes did the trick but i lost alot of snails, it acually took a while before things were back to normal . My adviced to you (because ur obviously going bigger) drain the tank down to about 4 inches thoroughly wash the sand out discard that water and fill ur tank with the existing water as well as fresh saltwater then add everything. Just try to do it quick, you could add the sand to the display after you added everything else as long as its rinsed
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Personally i would ditch half the sand but still i dont kno what your situation is
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Hawain_Rob
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Situation?
Diesel
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Depends on from what size to what size tank you upgrade.
You can just save a few cups of sand and release that over the new sand.
Your rocks should be fine but still need to rinse them a few times in a large bucket of old tank water to get most of the detritus out.
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You can just save a few cups of sand and release that over the new sand.
Your rocks should be fine but still need to rinse them a few times in a large bucket of old tank water to get most of the detritus out.
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Hawain_Rob
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How about the water from my old tank?
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Hawain_Rob
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From a 20g to a 40g
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Yea what size tank do you have and currently tranfering too. Sand bed nd how deep. The water tranfer yes just not the bottom couple inches because your likely to cause a little stirup that might foul it
Diesel
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dangros
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Going from 20-40 should be quite easy. I've done larger tank transfers several times, including a 75g in Virginia to 90g in Jersey. There were no issues other than a super cloudy tank which only lasted for a couple of hrs. I would do several things:
1) plan how you're going to aquascape your new tank. That way you know where everything goes when you move it w/o having to back out and risk rock collapse, etc. Also make sure not to leave things out of water and their normal temps too long.
2) I would use 50-75% of the water of the old tank and have extra ready for water change in case you need it.
3) Have the tanks at the same temperature as to not shock any livestock going from one to the other. One thing I did was bring up the house temps just a hair over the water temps in order to make sure anything in a bucket would be ok... although I was moving FAR away so things had to be in buckets for a LONG time. This may be a non-issue in your case.
4) When transferring substrate, try to rinse it in salt water so that it doesnt cloud up the new tank too much. The first time I did it, my tank got so cloudy, I couldnt see where I was placing things in the new tank. However, it worked out in the end and nothing was lost.
5) Keep an eye out on your params for the first couple weeks to let things settle.
1) plan how you're going to aquascape your new tank. That way you know where everything goes when you move it w/o having to back out and risk rock collapse, etc. Also make sure not to leave things out of water and their normal temps too long.
2) I would use 50-75% of the water of the old tank and have extra ready for water change in case you need it.
3) Have the tanks at the same temperature as to not shock any livestock going from one to the other. One thing I did was bring up the house temps just a hair over the water temps in order to make sure anything in a bucket would be ok... although I was moving FAR away so things had to be in buckets for a LONG time. This may be a non-issue in your case.
4) When transferring substrate, try to rinse it in salt water so that it doesnt cloud up the new tank too much. The first time I did it, my tank got so cloudy, I couldnt see where I was placing things in the new tank. However, it worked out in the end and nothing was lost.
5) Keep an eye out on your params for the first couple weeks to let things settle.
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Here's the deal.....
No problem with everything except the sand. You can take as much water as you can get out without disturbing the sandbed.
With the sand, either use new sand or rinse the old sand until the water runs clear. This really needs to be done outside, with a hose, and about a ten fold rinse of the sand. What I mean by that is using a five gallon bucket, fill about 1/3 full with sand, and now rinse it with at least ten bucket fills of clean water.....or more, if it's necessary to get the water running clear. Stick the hose right down into the sand the let all that nastiness run out.
You stil could potentially get a mini cycle doing this.....so be prepared.
No problem with everything except the sand. You can take as much water as you can get out without disturbing the sandbed.
With the sand, either use new sand or rinse the old sand until the water runs clear. This really needs to be done outside, with a hose, and about a ten fold rinse of the sand. What I mean by that is using a five gallon bucket, fill about 1/3 full with sand, and now rinse it with at least ten bucket fills of clean water.....or more, if it's necessary to get the water running clear. Stick the hose right down into the sand the let all that nastiness run out.
You stil could potentially get a mini cycle doing this.....so be prepared.
Mark3
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I just did a transfer from one tank to another just 6 months ago, changed from a 120 to a 125. I started off with putting the new tank in place, filled with fresh water and ran for a day to see that all was well...then drained the fresh water and filled with 30 gallons of fresh salt mix...took protein skimmer from old tank and placed into the new sump, then siphoned about half the old tank water into the new tank.
Filled a barrel with the rest of the water down to about 4 inches above the sand. Filled a bucket with old tank water and removed the rocks with a quick rinse in that bucket and then into the new tank...Now with only a few inches of water left, catch fish and put them into a bucket of old tank water.
Then the sand....filled a 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 full with sand, took it outside for a rinse with the hose....rinse and rinse and rinse till water runs clear, dump into new tank, and do it over again about 10 times until all the sand is rinsed and moved into the new.
Now just top off the new tank with the old water from the barrel, add fish and Done....
Tank only got 30 gallons of fresh salt mix and was cleared up in just a few hours....no loss of livestock and no mini cycle. 125 gallon tank and 60 gallon sump....all rock and sand from old tank moved to new.
Mark
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Hawain_Rob
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Why wouldn't there be a cycle? ..if it's a new tank I'm only useing a portion of my old water and rinsing my sand with the hose...I guess killing any good bacteria on it.
Most of the bacteria is within your rock. This is why you don't want to expose the rock to air for too long a period. Pre make new saltwater (probably 25-30g) to match your 20g add that to the 40g then transfer the rock, while transferring the rock rinse of the detritus in a bucket. A 20g only holds about 18g of actual water, less with rock displacement so you'll end up using 10g of old water in the new tank. Again I wouldn't use your current sand. You can use a cup or two to seed the new sand like diesel said but it's not worth it to me to reuse it. Sand is pretty cheap so why take the risk
