Tank transfer to a 215gallon tank

[pochaxoo]

I have had a 105 gallon tank running successfully for over 3 years and I have finally completed the setup of my new 215 gallon aquarium. I have a lot of coral in my 105 and I want to move it to the larger tank. My question is would you try the insta tank method and move everything at once or would you take a slower approach. I feel like my other aquarium didn’t support acros for a year so I am hesitant to wait that long but nervous about killing lots of coral. Anyone with good experiences and advice?

 

[muggle0981]

I moved my 120g over to my 180g-was tear down and move to new tank in same day.

Lps/soft coral-lost nothing except for 2 small toadstool 3 month later that never opened back up-

That was my experience

 

[UMALUM]

Think of it as a 50% water change. Just make sure your alk is where you want it before the transfer.

 

[muggle0981]

Thats what i was told, really bug water change-use as much old water as possible

 

[pochaxoo]

It has been 14 days while I have been doing a fishless cycle with Dr. Tims on the new tank. Ammonia dosed, ammonia fell, ammonia redosed, etc.... now amonia is at .2 If I am transferring all my liverock and coral from my 105 Gallon aquarium does it need to be zero or will my bacteria on existing live rock process it quickly when they are in the tank? I would like to move everything this weekend but also have a very healthy amount of fear I am going to kill lots of things. I can move one largish part of my aquascape today and wait a day to move rest of tank and fish? Any help appreciated.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

If you have the opportunity to slowly move across then use that method, just slowly move across.

Your new tank will need time to mature.

as your removing from an established aquarium to a new environment,
Treat each coral/fish as a new purchase and accumulate slowly into your 'new' aquarium, bag them up and drip acclimate.

Treat them like a new purchase
Just my thoughts

 

[nursingcoral]

It has been 14 days while I have been doing a fishless cycle with Dr. Tims on the new tank. Ammonia dosed, ammonia fell, ammonia redosed, etc.... now amonia is at .2 If I am transferring all my liverock and coral from my 105 Gallon aquarium does it need to be zero or will my bacteria on existing live rock process it quickly when they are in the tank? I would like to move everything this weekend but also have a very healthy amount of fear I am going to kill lots of things. I can move one largish part of my aquascape today and wait a day to move rest of tank and fish? Any help appreciated.

I'm on my 4th reef tank through the years, and each experience has been unique in different ways. That being said, my experience has shown me that a little patience/extra time can be very beneficial. I understand we have time constraints and schedules, however if there is time to wait to feel more safe and ready, then its good to take that time. But as the other post said, if the water tests/levels are within acceptable parameters, then the transfer can happen.
Good luck with the transfer.

 

[brandon429]

why are you not moving the existing live rock over, that's a skip cycle instant transfer.

starting will all dry rock barely cycled to the exclusion of your current live rock is the problem in the approach/all the current corals are part of a food web that will be instantly missing in the new tank, plus you'll be battling it's uglies while nursing stressed corals/

if you did a correct skip cycle transfer of your current live rock and corals into the new tank, and had extra pounds of new rock awaiting in the new tank but no loss of old tank live rock, the cycle status of the new rock wouldnt matter at all it would be inert/neutral in the safe transfer equation.

one thing is for sure, you'd better re ramp your lighting from lower levels on the new system to avoid bleaching. running the same light power on the new + old system is the top coral killer in tank transfers.

see this thread where for sixty pages we transfer reef tanks without losses, all the jobs were done all at once. some of those are thirty thousand dollar reef tanks:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

if ur tank was added to that thread in prep what I would have done is stack your new rocks to one side of the tank to be curing/getting helped by you by external cleaning outside the tank as needed for a year or so to decent maturity/not glued together just yet but able to be removed as needed for guidance, and, on the other side of the bigger tank your current rocks and corals would be a stack that will be much more stable after the move. then we'd do the lighting ramp trick all jobs do there and it would skip cycle over all at once.