Andy,
Just did THREE tank switches over the last few weeks
Pointers:
- cure live rock in a separate rubbermaid container with heater, powerhead and small light. I also added extra calcium during the curing process to help keep coraline alive and maybe even growing.
Make sure new LR is fully cured by the time the tank switch is made so there will be minimal algae blooms in the main tank once it is set up.
- have enough NSW made for the volume of the new main tank. This way, you can keep the two tubs with enough water while doing the sometimes long task of properly aquascaping the new tank with new and old LR.
- have two rubbermaid tubs in operation the day of the switch. One for corals, fish, inverts with a heater, poweryhead and small light. The other is for all the rock. Use a heater and powerhead in this tub too. Use water from the established tank for these two tubs.
- by the time you have filled the above two tubs, you will only have a few inches of water in the original tank. Get some kind of sturdy utensil (I used a large plastic serving fork) to thoroughly mix the sandbed to off-gas the toxic anaerobic (rotten egg smell). Once the sandbed has been stirred up, the water will be the filthiest water you have ever seen
Push the sand to one side of the tank, then quickly siphon out the cruddy water. I got rid of my sandbed, but if I were to have kept it, I would have had extra NSW made to rinse the sandbed a few times.
- I also had a half pail of water from the original tank to swish the rock in before it went into the new tank. Lots of crud comes off the rock during swishing. Make sure to check the bottom of the pail for snails, hermits or hitchhikers when most of the water has been poured out.
- once the sandbed has been cleaned, put it back into the new tank, slowly add the NSW so as not to stir the sandbed too much to cloud up the tank, then begin aquascaping. Take your time with this step to get the look of the rock the way you want it. Have heater(s) and powerhead(s) in the new tank and turn them on while you are taking a break from placing rock. Also, leave them on all night if the job is too big for one day. It's okay to leave the two tubs of old rock and fish, corals and inverts overnight if you partially cover the tubs so you can get the aquascaping the way you want it.
- once the rock is where you want it, you can take some NSW water from the main tank and put it into the coral/fish/invert tub, then fill the tank back up. Repeating this step is like acclimatizing the animals to the new tank's pH, temp, etc. When you are satisfied the animials will not suffer too much shock, add them to the new tank.
Whew! It's certainly easier writing about the process than actually doing it - THREE freaking times
