Upgrading to bigger tank, a few questions!

[alfieh0]

Hey everyone,
I currently have a 15 gallon Waterbox Peninsula Mini aquarium, I upgraded from a 10 gallon in February, but i am looking to upgrade again. I started the tank around 3 years ago, i have a range of soft and LPS corals in there with 2 clown fish. I am currently looking into upgrading to red sea reefer, either 250 or 350. Which would be either 54-73 gallons.

I just wanted to know, would i need to cycle the new aquarium before i add the fish? When i upgraded from my 10 to a 15 gallon in February the water difference wasn't a lot, so i just added the water and everything to the new tank, then topped it off with some new water. It didn't need cycling as i already had the cycled water and rock.

Now this new upgrade will be a lot bigger, if i was to add all the water and the live rock, would the fish and corals be okay in the larger tank with all the 'new' water. I would suspect they would be fine, as there is the same amount of bacteria in the tank, just less compact (there is the right amount of bacteria to handle the system, just in a bigger space).

I wanted to ask, if i just add everything over from the old tank: water, rocks, biomedia (and sand?). It would be suitable for the fish and coral straight away, no need for cycling?

 

[WVNed]

Yes It will. I generally use new sand for a tank upgrade and only add about 1/4th of the old sand over it to seed it.
Drain as much water from the old system as you can before you tear it apart and stir everything up. Then use it and add new to fill it up.

 

[JReef3]

I think you're correct on this. You have adequate beneficial bacterial established to handle the current bioload. Nothing will change except that the inhabitants will be in a larger space if you move everything directly over. If you're adding more sand and rock it's possible you will see some changes in chemistry for a while to keep an eye on but as long as you don't add more livestock until the new sand/rock have had time to get bacterial colonized, I'd think you would be perfectly fine. I would think the larger volume of water would only dilute any issues in your current tank if anything . I'm sure others who have done exactly what you're planning will chime in shortly with more closely related personal experience as the closest I've come was moving from a 55 to a 90 but you're making a proportionally larger jump. Good luck!

 

[1ocean]

I think you will be fine. It will be like doing a water change, only this time your adding more new water to the old tanks water volume..for the new tank

 

[reefer_87]

Just watch out for lighting, skimmer, flow and other aspects that are not chemistry related specifically for the corals.

 

[paradizecityz]

I went from a 20 gallon to 65 gallons and then upgraded again to 120 gallon. Each time, I got new water from lfs to fill up some of the new tank and used my old water to fill up the rest. Moved fish, corals, rocks and filter media from old tank over and used new sand. Added in some live bacteria and was good to go. I did all that in one day as well.