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Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat
Can you do frequent water changes on the Old tank to eliminate waste buildup?
And the Sand, I've heard/read that it's better to take a whole section of sand out, not skim a layer off all the sand. So, take 1/3 of the sand, or whatever your wanting, but where you take it from, take all the sand all the way down to the bottom. That way you'll be not disturbing the remaining sand and releasing alot of bad crap. Will most likely get a little cycle in old tank, but not nothing major.
Also, can you put sump under new tank, but keep it plumbed to Old tank after placement, or is it the re plumbing that will take the week? Shouldnt need the sump hooked to new tank for cycle. Just have new tank running with powerheads for a while. No Bioload, shouldnt need a sump.
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Yeah that makes sense about the sand. I will take whole sections out then but only use the top layer for the new tank. Actually the top inch or so of this sand bed is only a month old...maybe not even. I will try to use just that I think. Or maybe just new sand.
Can't plumb the sump back to the old tank once its under the new stand. Not close enough and not worth it I don't think since it would be only for a week tops.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrfish55
When I upgraded from the 180 to the 300 I mixed up 150gals in the new tank (getting temp and salinity the same), then did water changes back and forth between the two over a few hours then moved everything at once. Only lost a couple corals (they were questionable to begin with) and was carefull with feeding for a couple weeks. Total time to do the changeover was 6 hours (moving from one house to another)
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I think this is basically what I will do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fishoholic
When we set up my new fowlr 230g we had our skimmer off line from our old reef 230g tank which has a high bio-load for a week and we didn't have any problems.
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Good to know. But I don't know if I want to risk it with SPS...
So I think I have it figured out now...hopefully it will go smoothly. Seems like doing this a bit quicker than I was going to may be best for all the livestock rather than dragging it out over a week or two.
I think I will make all the new water in the new tank, add the sand and some LR from the existing tank. Wait a day or two and see if it starts a cycle or not. If it does, then wait that out, if not, then transfer everything else over all at once. Keeps things simple and quick.