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Help with going from 90 gallon to 1XX gallon - new water?

Gonzo

Gonzo

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Ok, so I normally just start a brand new tank and don't really upgrade. However, living in SF, there's no d@mn room for two tanks, so I am going to upgrade.

The new tank is going to be at least 120, maybe 150 w/30 gallon sump. I'm currently running a 90 gallon w/30 gallon sump. Worst case scenario, I'm going to be need an addition of 60 gallons of water.

So the question is, do I make a brand new batch of 60 gallons salt water and dump it in when I upgrade? Or will that be too much "new" water, which might cause some sort of issue?

Thanks for the help on this!
 
The amount of beneficial bacteria in aquarium water is vastly outweighed by the beneficial bacteris found in microfilms, you should have no problems adding that much new water to a system, just make sure you temp and salinity are the same and you're good to go.
 
I guess it just seems counterintuitive since the reverse (Subtracting 50% of established water and replacing it with newly made salt water) will pose problems...
 
rgonzalez said:
I guess it just seems counterintuitive since the reverse (Subtracting 50% of established water and replacing it with newly made salt water) will pose problems...
Click to expand...

Not exactly true. It depends on the age of the ASW, salt brand and what levels the tank had prior:what levels that salt have.
 
rgonzalez said:
I guess it just seems counterintuitive since the reverse (Subtracting 50% of established water and replacing it with newly made salt water) will pose problems...
Click to expand...


IME that is not true, I've changed out over 50% many, many times without issue. As Gresham points out, the water needs to be aged a little (overnight at least) and it needs to be the same temperature and gravity.
 
I moved my tank recently and I used more then 50% of new water for it...

Not to mention I have now seen several people do 99.99% WC using ESV's salt.
 
I would be confident with IO yes, you may need to tweak the Cal and Mag, but otherwise you'll be fine. Get the water going early enough that you can really focus on your move, that way you're not stressing on it and are nice and focused, it's a long day :)
 
I've done 50% or more as well. No probs as well as you plan it out right like others have said. When I use old water from a tank going into a new one I pull out all the water I can before stuff gets shaken up, then change out what's left after pulling out the ricks and or sand. Sand beds can be fun, not too hard really but gotta do it right, there are other post on here about how. I also usually use a bucket of the old tank water to do some shaking and or cleaning of rocks.
 
Good ideas Mike, thanks!

How about adding a new sand bed? Can I just take a scoop of sand from my current tank and add it to the new sand bed?
 
Holy cow some people think completely opposite of how I do.

In my nano tanks, which may be a completely different game, I've done 100% (or as close as I could get to it) water changes. The biggest problem I ever had was figuring out how to put the new water in without spraying the sandbed all over.

In my larger reefs, which is admittedly about 75 gallons max, I've changed 50% many many times and never had an issue that I felt I could blame on the wc. Every time I've done a large wc like that everything has looked "happier", to use an obscure scientific term. However, I use HMB water, so I always look at it as a reset button that gets things closer to conditions in the ocean. I've definitely had negative experiences using salt mix, or even premixed salt water from the store. I could see how it would be possible to have problems if you switched salt mix brands and did a massive wc, but other than that big wc's are really really really good for your tank. IMO.

I'm scared to ask how long it's been since you did your last WC in your current tank?
 
Wanted to see if you had sand Before bothering with that. So sounds like new sand with a couple cups or so of old sand is your plan, I say do it. Old sand can be nasty and I would clean the he'll out of it in order to reuse, but it's cheap enough to buy new as long as you keep it pretty shallow.
 
Also, on the sandbed, will you have both tanks running side by side for a time, or are you planning to do the swap all in one day with the animals in rubbermaids etc?
 
I'm planning to do it all in one day. I won't have room for both tanks, so I'll have to have everything prepared. The good news is the move is about 5 minutes away, so it should go pretty smoothly...or so I hope :)
 
I agree with Mike on that, new sand will simplify your move a lot. A few cupfulls on top should seed it, but I'm the type that chases critters around in buckets with a turkey baster instead of throwing them away.
 
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