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Tank transfer and need some help

My new tank arrived at the store and I plan to swap this new tank with my current tank this week. I currently have a 125g (48"x30"x20"H) and the new tank is 150g (48"x30"x24"H).

Since my current tank is about three months old so I decide to keep the sand. What I plan to do is:

1/ Prepare container/bucket...I currently have two 44gal Brute bin, a 40 bin, a 45gal white bin and 5ea of the 7gal empty salt buckets.

2/ move the old water into ONE of the 44g brute bin. Set up heater to keep the temp at 77F for reused later.

3/ Move old tank water into a the 45gal white bin then move coral and fish into this bin. This bin also have heater, air pump and circulation pump. Old water only fill half of this bin

4/ drain the remaining water into the 40gal bin and move rock into that bucket with circulation pump.

5/ Move sand into those 7gal bucket.

6/ remove all the pump, lights and empty the 125gal. Then cut all the pipes.

7/ I need help to remove the tank and out of the current stand then move the new tank back to that stand. I also need to cut the stand hole so it can fit the new overflow pipes.

8/ Re-pipe and plum everything back together and HOPE for no leak on the new tank. New tank from Crystal Dynamic order through BAR sponsor Neptune Aquatic.

9/ move old sand, then rock then Old water, then of course to top off with new salt water. After that I want to let it sit for an hour or two for water to clear up.

10/ Then move all the coral to new tank first then fish after that.


I really I don't want to kill any coral or fish so all comments or suggestions are welcome.
By the way,
a/ Do I miss anything?
b/ Do I need to add stress guard before I move those fishes?
c/ I understand I may have another mini cycle but if it happens will the mini tank cycle kill any coral or fish.

This is the list of what I currently have:
Fishes: Chevorn tang, purple tang, yellow tang, powder blue tang, coral beauty, three clown, a pair of leopard wrasse, pink wrasse, bicolor belnny.
Corals: Three Acantho, three frag of multiple coral mix, Tyree Elegance, few Chalices, one bubble coral, one few mushroom, some jawbreaker, couple WWC bounce, and some rock flower nem.
 
I can hold onto the bounce for ya! :D

Just kidding. I think you will be okay if you can transfer everything in one day. If you cant transfer everything, make sure you have heater and airstone for fish and corals. Enough buckets or extra tanks?

Dont let your liverock expose to air for too long. If the sand has detritus that may be a problem.

How long do you think it will take you to transfer?
 
1. Pre-mix some saltwater NOW (if you are doing it this weekend) Make about 100 gallon just in case anything is wrong when you transfer the livestock back into the new tank you will have some left over water to do water change.
2. Borrow a 100-150 brute tub.
3. Move all of the livestock into the brute tub the night before (make sure you have heater and circulation pumps running)-- I like the the brute tub more is because it is accessible if you can't do the switch all in one day then you can keep it in the living room for a day or two... in my case 1.5 weeks :)
4. Next morning. Empty tank water from your old tank into brute containers
5. Do what you need to do to switch tank. Put sand in the old tank. Do your rock work. (plumbing the new tank might take awhile).
6. You can either put the livestock back 3 to 4 hours later or wait until the next day.
 
When I moved my latest tank into the same spot the the old tank was at I used a kiddie pool with heater and pumps for circulation (no lights ) and kept them there for about three days . gave me time to take down old set up and install upgraded tank. I probably could have do it in two days but did not account for mixture of new and old tank water taking a while to heat up once display was filled. I did not lose any live stock and after a few weeks I would add appx a third of new sand in display , wait a week and add another third and so on.

every one does it slightly different but this is what worked for me. hope that helps
 
1. Pre-mix some saltwater NOW (if you are doing it this weekend) Make about 100 gallon just in case anything is wrong when you transfer the livestock back into the new tank you will have some left over water to do water change.
2. Borrow a 100-150 brute tub.
3. Move all of the livestock into the brute tub the night before (make sure you have heater and circulation pumps running)-- I like the the brute tub more is because it is accessible if you can't do the switch all in one day then you can keep it in the living room for a day or two... in my case 1.5 weeks :)
Should I use new mix water or old water from tank?

4. Next morning. Empty tank water from your old tank into brute containers
5. Do what you need to do to switch tank. Put sand in the old tank. Do your rock work. (plumbing the new tank might take awhile).
6. You can either put the livestock back 3 to 4 hours later or wait until the next day.
 
I can hold onto the bounce for ya! :D

Just kidding. I think you will be okay if you can transfer everything in one day. If you cant transfer everything, make sure you have heater and airstone for fish and corals. Enough buckets or extra tanks?
Dont let your liverock expose to air for too long. If the sand has detritus that may be a problem.
How long do you think it will take you to transfer?

The key is acclimate the fish and coral, second is have enough man power to move the tank. The rest is minor since I have everything at home and dont need to run to fLFS or hardware store. It will take me around 4 hrs. lol
 
Don't know how much un-broken waste is in the live sand but when you break the tank down and as you manipulate and agitate that sand it cause a die off, release detritus/nutrients and even a cycle in the new tank. Had that happen in my 100 gal when I moved it from 2nd floor to 1st floor. Created full cycle next day all corals were white (SPS), Z's and P's melted and LPS skins slotting off.

If you are going to use old tank water make sure its water before you start agitating or touching the live sand in current tank.

For me when I broke my 37 gal down to move it and restart the same day. I bought a bunch of new live sand and took some old live sand to help seed the new live sand. Also used less than 1/4 of my old water.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f...cycled-tank-to-new-same-size-tank-177730.html
 
So when 60% of the old water will stay in the big bin with fish, coral and rock. Can I resue these water or make a new batch of water to fill up the new tank? My current tank is 120 gal, with sand and rock so abour 100g in the DT. I will need another 100g to fill up the new tank if I dont reuse the old water in the big bin.
 
I wouldn't use old water out of the bin. I'd personally make more. If you wanted to "reuse" old tank water, I'd mix a bunch of water the day before, plumb the mixing container into the system for a day and have extra water that your tank is acclimated to.

You are likely going to want to shake the rocks off in the Rubbermaid, and they will slough off a lot of detritus. Once that happens you'll have murky water in the Rubbermaid.
 
True and if you wait a couple minutes, the detritus will sink to the bottom.

I personally would use some old water because if you use all new water its the same thing as doing a 100% water change. Which is no good.

Also I think another main point of this thread is to get nly04 some physical help with moving his tank. If I lived closer I would come help. Make @rygh do all the work :)
 
I would help but just finished Physical Therapy for work man's comp, can't really lift anything too heavy at this point. So only help I could do is advice. Sorry.
 
True and if you wait a couple minutes, the detritus will sink to the bottom.

I personally would use some old water because if you use all new water its the same thing as doing a 100% water change. Which is no good.

Also I think another main point of this thread is to get nly04 some physical help with moving his tank. If I lived closer I would come help. Make @rygh do all the work :)

Mark already help me a few time.
 
I would help too but I am scheduled to work until 4pm on Saturday. If you move to the following weekend. I should be able to help :)
 
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