recommends based on all prior tank transfers for that unique setup above:
recommend do not move over a handful of unrinsed sand as a seed, like what the masses do. only harm can come from that not benefit. anthias plus aged sps plus great polyp coverage and extension on all corals --- thats just an amazing degree of time and money into the system. only the steps involved with the most careful tank transfers should apply there in my opinion.
we moved reefs that delicate before, it is not very hard but the sand moved over simply must be power rinsed clean, roughly rinsed till perfection with tap water until the sand is totally cloudless like snowglobe sand. then a final rinse in saltwater for verified cloudlessness. even if you use new bagged sand, it's rinsed just the same so that zero clouding happens in the final install.
tank transfer thread
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the rocks, as you are taking the tank apart be setting the rocks with corals attached into holding containers of saltwater if possible, tubs of some type. it's ideal to pick off algae, score it firmly and with knife precision to get the rocks ready like reef teeth going back into a new mouth. work around attached corals. some contact air time won't hurt them if you can't submerge every rock for holding/detail cleaning/you can spritz the corals with sw just the same to easily buy time. live rocks aged in place like that almost always have detritus attached/stuck to the bottom we want that all cleaned off before the move: let no clouding come from the rocks either.
these holding tubs allow you to clean the rocks to precision using saltwater, knives, not brushes but like a dentist: precision rasping. we keep that bacteria on the rocks and that's what carries the entire tank as a skip cycle, even though we've blasted the sand to smithereens clean in the sand rinse step.
cover all held fish, likely to jump during the tank move/ we've seen that before.
it is ok to xfer over a good portion of your current water, there's nothing wrong with it. don't take up the last 1/3/dirty portions.
place the rinsed and verified rinsed sand on the clean new tank, set the rocks into place and fill up/ it will be cloudless
install the pumps. clean all filters you may have had in place. only the rock bacteria matter, they're enough for the whole setup.
no ammonia testing, no bottle bac, just a perfect clean xfer is the right way
**in the new tank, the lighting must not be full strength like it is adapted now this is important bleach prevention
the light should be dropped probably 50% in overall power, same spectrum, but a massive strength cut and then ramp it back up over ten days time and still don't wind up at the original strength, be lower, for sure.
then after two months you can set your upper limits
slow light acclimation in the new tank, cloudless transfer, that's a skip cycle for this $ system at hand.
the thing you have to trust is that the cleanest, no waste move is the safest way, it doesn't make sense but that's the truth. with waste clouding comes the crash, where there is no waste cloud: no crash. not dosing the tank with preemptive things like Prime or bottle bac is important, a smooth transfer happens if the system is moved exactly as shown in the sand rinse thread.
even your new sand you buy: same pre rinse, same degree of verification. don't install unrinsed sand in this $ setup
it will take hours to prep the new sand, in small sections in a bucket one section at a time until the rinsed lump grows and grows to the volume that new tank needs. install perfectly clean zero cloud rinsed sand.
