Tank swap - advice please.
 

Ok, so my new tank has arrived (and it's freakin' awesome!), so it's time to start official planning for the swap. I have a 55 gal that has been running for about a year and a half... in that time though, the tank has been moved from Edmonton to Fort Mac. I had no major complications with the move, but did lose a few things (3 fish and a small handfull of SPS). The new tank is a 160. I have about 80 pounds of rock in the tank... most of which has been in the tank for the life of the tank. I've added a couple pieces of dry rock over the last little while. Knowing that I'd be upgrading soon, I put it in there to pre seed it before the swap. I have about a 5 gal pail of sand that has also been in for the duration.

On top of this, I have about 25 lbs of rock that was in a 28 that I shut down. This rock has been circulating in a pitch black rubbermaid, at an elevated temp for 2.5 months now. I haven't tested the water, or really looked at the rock since it's gone in there. This rock was COVERED in bubble algae... hence the cooking session. From the same tank, I have about 15-20 lbs of sand that has been sitting out in the shed for 2.5 months (dry).

Essentially, I would like to know what I should use, and what I should not, and how I should do this. I was talking to one of our members from Fort Mac (chris88), and he was saying that he had a full on tank crash which he blamed on disrupting the sand bed. Before he had mentioned that, I wasn't all too worried about this, but since, I'm a little paranoid. So, I'm going to use all of the rock that is in the running 55, and I think I'm going to add about 40 lbs of dry rock. I don't really trust the stuff I'm cooking, as it was covered in bubbles... and a little aiptasia. I'm more concerned with the sand. Should I just take the sand from the 55 and transfer it straight over to the 160? Should I wash it? Should I add it slowly without disturbing it all too much? Should Idisturb it a little at a time over the next couple of weeks while I wait for the tank to be fully cured? Or should I just scoop and dump?

What about the sand that's been in the shed? To me, it makes sense to rinse that sand, and use it, but I'm not all too sure.

Sorry for the long winded question!
Thanks a bunch for any help you may offer.

Every tank swap I have done I took all the sand out and washed it in a large fish net under very hot water. When I put the sand back into the tank and filled with water you would think that it was new out of the bag and have never had any problems. I would not disturb the sand until you have everything out of the tank and as much water out as possible. Then scoop out the sand and wash it.

Agreed, move everything then I even went one step further and boiled water to kill everything in the sand let the sand sit for 5 min while stirring, then I dumped it in my new tank. With 40lbs of LR you have plenty of bacteria to start spreading in your new tank.....keep in mind you may i say may have a small spike but with a few water changes it will settle down. That's how i did it and only my opinion though.

I went from a 55 to a 180 and swapped everything all at once except the sand, I bought brand new sand.

No spikes and my dry rock seeded very quickly

Thanks for the input guys. What about the rock that's cooking? Is 2.5 months long enough?

You have added water to the rock bucket in the last 2 1/2 months right. I only ask because the last time I had some rock cooking in a tub I kind of forgot about it and when I remembered about it the tub was 1/2 empty. If you have kept the water level up I think it should be good to use but I am in no way an expert on cooking rock :lol:

I haven't had to.... I've taken a peak a few times to see if all the algae had died off... water level is still up.