Upgrading to a new bigger reef tank question

[ttnguyen98]

I am in the process of upgrading my 8 year old 90 gal reef tank to a brand new 100 gal rimless tank. I will transfer all existing live rocks and the sand bed in the refugium to the new tank and new sump. I don’t want to reuse the existing live sand in the old tank since it has some crumbs of dead algea and will replace with the new 80 lbs of live sand. To make up for the loss of existing beneficial bacteria in the old live sand, I will add Dr Tim’s One and Only nitrifying bacteria. Do I need to cycle the new tank or it is ready and safe to transfer all corals and fish. I wonder if there are any negative impacts on the corals and fish. I appreciate all of your inputs. Enclosed is a picture of my existing reef tank.

 

[1WildBill]

Take 1 cup of the old sand, strain it to remove my unwanted matter and put it in with your new system. It will help jump start the new system.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I agree with 1wildbill.

You can also rinse the sand with tap water to remove the detritus and organics and re-use the same sand if you like. Especially if you are somewhere where the weather permits it!

Dr Tims One-and-Only can be dosed into a tank with livestock, no worries there if you decide to go that route.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's easy to reuse the old sand. I put it all in a 5 or 7 gallon bucket and take the garden hose (no nozzle) and stuff it down into the sand. The water starts to overflow the bucket and all the detritus will flush out. While running the hose and moving it up & down and around in the bucket, I'll wave my other hand around and I find the dead snail shells, bits of rubble, frag plugs, dead coral bits and more. I put all of it in a small tray with some tank water in it. Occasionally I'll find something that is still alive in the sand.

And as 'ihavecrabs' said, this is much easier when it's warm outside. I rarely think of that after living for 20 years in SW Florida!

Heck, we have a cold front coming thru on Sun/Mon and I'll be out on Tues walking the beach looking for sponges and clumps of macroalgae that have live porcelain crabs, pistol shrimp, peppermint shrimp, tiny serpent and brittle stars and more. Vacationing beachcombers looking for cool shells always ask about what I'm doing with a bucket and a bubbler and tearing apart sponges. I'd say 99.99% of them are shocked that there is anything alive on the beach!

As for whether or not you will have a cycle or algae bloom, that's really hard to say. I've done what you are doing and I've had varied results from a very mild/quick cycle to a minor algae bloom to a pretty serious algae bloom. But even the serious bloom was just diatoms and didn't cause any harm to the corals or anemones.

Good luck with the change. You'll like the look of a rimless tank!