Tank Upgrade!

[Rory]

hey all
I am upgrading my 75 reef to a 93 cube this weekend. The 75 has been running for close to a year and will still be running as a FOWLR. So here is my dilemma... most of my LR has corals attached to them already. Can I move them to the 93 or should I start the cycle with new LR and then swap them with the ones with coral after things have balanced out? I have around 100lbs of LR now in the 75 so didn't want to go out and buy much more. Suggestions?

 

[jsker]

To be on the safe side I would suggest cycling to new system then transfer the old rock and not the sand, You could use the water from the old system to seed the new one. Moving to fast with stress everything. The old system looks great though.

 

[Rory]

Thank you! I was going use new live sand in the new tank so figured it will kick off a cycle. Don't want to lose any corals in doing the change.

 

[Rory]

My 75 has a HOB and a canister filter. The 93 will have a 20 gallon sump. I was going to rinse my hob filters in the new tank to seed it.

 

[mtraylor]

I would do the following. Buy new live sand and line the bottom of the aquarium. Take the top 1/2" or 1" of sand from your existing reef and spread over top of the new live sand. transfer corals and coral rock to temporary storage with pump when you first start with aquarium water. Place the rock and the water from the existing aquarium of whts left directly into the 90 and add new water to top it off as you add the other rock corals and corals. The aquarium will cycle a little bit but not much if you do it right. I have used that method several times. You do not want that deep sand, it is toxic. You will have to rinse that if you want to use it.

 

[Rory]

One snag on the sand... the new tank is going to be black sand. My 75 is white sand. And I was actually going to do a deep sand bed as I really like some of the burrowing fish. I was going to buy some new LR but not a lot as I have a ton now. I figured I would just swap it into the 75 as I start moving the corals over.