moving old to new

[wkada]

I'm setting up a new tank (65g) and will be moving the contents of my 29g biocube into it once my new skimmer and lighting arrives this week. The old tank has +/- 40lbs of rock and 40lbs sand , all well established. I have set up the new tank and sump (30g) and it is running with an additional 35lbs of live rock which I got from B and B (was in one his old tanks for over a year) as well as 40 lbs more of "new" live sand. Question: once I get lights and skimmer running, will it be OK just to move everything into the new system. I'd post pics, put not really sure how at this point.

[Joshua]

Yep, just use as much of the clean existing water as you can and try to stabilize the temp and salinity between the two. If there's a LOT more new water to old water you may want to bag up the fish and acclimate them as you would a new arrival but I never had and it's always been fine. They only thing that worries me is that old sand, that's gonna be a big mess.

[wkada]

agree on the sand, little bit worried about releasing a toxic waste dump by stirring it up. Plan is to move everything into buckets, scoop sand into new tank, then move in the rest. Tried to attach some pics...don't know if it will work.

[Joshua]

Looking good! Pouring that old sand in through the water column will make a mess, ideally the new tank would be empty and you could scoop all the sand in and then add the water slowly. Another alternative would be to just skim the top layer off the sand with a cup and add it slowly to the new tank and discard the lower layer.

[ErikH]

You could start with new DRY sand, and just introduce your liverock. That is what I am going to do when I move...