new tank

[blueboy]

in a couple of weeks i will be upgrading from my 55 to a 120. i am looking for opinions on how best transfer the life from the old tank to the new. it's a soft coral reef w/ hardy fishes. i also have a 20g fuge, both have tons of life in the substrate. so, do i need to treat this as a new tank, or can i just dump the old tank in the new and get on with it? or somewhere in between? i could set up the new tank for awhile and just heavily seed it off the old tank before adding the fish and corals, or add them slowly, but i would really like to get the old tank broke down as quickly as poss. at that point i will be listing some equipment.

[phage]

you can definitely just move it over to the new, if you're keepign same rock and sand. IF you are adding a lot of either, I'd be careful to avoid spikes. If you have time to do it slower, it can never hurt though.

[saltcreepette]

I had a 55 that I transferred over to a 120 too. I had sand in the 55 but was going bare bottom in the new tank. once I had the water mixed for 24 hrs in the new tank, I began trading 5 gallons at a time back and forth between the tanks for about 1/2 hour to 'acclimate' the animals to the new water (even though parameters were identical). Then I took all corals out and put in a bucket. then I began moving rock over to the new tank and aquascaped. then I placed the corals, then netted the fish and transferred them over to the new tank. that was it. no cycle, everything went fine and was happy, esp. the corals with nice fresh water (mostly) and more light. hope this helps.

[blueboy]

thanks for the advice. i kind of figured it would be ok to make the transfer in a single day, but just wanted some input from you guys. dare i ask if anyone has any horror stories

[GaryP]

If you have any anemones, don't be surprised if they split. Big water changes usually cause them to split.

Gary

[Reef69]

I had a 55 gal., then decided to upgrade to a 90, i finished it all in a day..it may be a very frustrating process because you may like the aquascape in your 55 and it wont be identical as the way it will look in your new tank, that was the problem for me..but you can do it in a day, in my case, i took all the water and sand out of the 55..added it to the 90 and then slowly added the fish through out the day..its going to take a couple of days for the new tank to look pretty again , since you will be moving stuff around, but dont worry, its not as bad as it sounds, good luck

[GaryP]

Be prepared for your water to be real cloudy for a couple of days. I use a Magnum and bag filters to help remove a lot of the fine particulates stirred up when moving the live sand. After it settles, you might need to use a turkey baster or small powerhead to blow it off the corals and LR so that it doesn't smother anything.

Also, a lot of nutrients trapped in the live sand is going to be released. Crank up your protein skimmer to help remove it. Don't be surprised if you have a nuisance algae outbreak. Running a phosphate removal product, as well as carbon, would be a good idea.

Gary