Moving Established Reef tank to larger new tank

[camaro7019]

hey guys, just wondering if anyone has any advice on moving my 95 gallon with 20 gallon sump, to a 125 gallon with 30 gallon sump, the 125 is brand new, i am moving at the end of the month and dont want to setup my 95 gallon again id rather just transfer everything into the brand new 125 gallon, can i do this? my current has alot of coral lps and sps, a bunch of fish, an anemone, and a 4" sandbed, i will be going barebottom in the new tank, my thoughts were to transfer all my live rock and all the water i can save to new tank, topup with new saltwater and add my fish and coral right away, is this fine or will somehow i get a new cycle? maybe cause of no bacteria on the glass? any input will help thanks alot

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

First double check with just fw to make sure your new setup is properly plumbed with no leaks. If everything is fine then:

I would have the new tank set up with about 1/2 full of new water and heated & circulated.

Then I would transfer everything on a different day than moving day (last thing you want is to add a huge tank change on moving furniture day).

Siphon out your tank water before you start moving anything - or it'll get all dirty and murky.

Use wheeled coolers if you have them to hold the corals and fish. The live rock can go into totes if you don't have enough coolers. Get everything transferred as quickly as possible.

Basically you'd be doing a big water change. Maybe have an extra 10-20g of new water in case what you saved from your old system is not enough to fill the new tank & sump.

Good luck. I have to big wheeled coolers if you need to borrow them but I'm in S. Burnaby.

Anthony

[camaro7019]

thing that sucks is we have to be out of here nov 1st and we move in nov 1st its a 1 day event we are starting early moving everything then my wife and her mom are working on organizing, then ill be moving the new tank into spot plumbing it up adding new water then dismantling my tank and packing everything up and moving, everything to the 125 gallon... i dont want anything to die lol

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Ok. Dry plumb everything first at your old place to make sure you have all the plumbing pieces the right size & number. Just don't glue or silicone them. Use a permanent marker when the plumbing is done to mark the pvc pieces so everything will realign the same way when you get it to your new place after being dismantled. The last thing you want is to get there and have to quickly plumb the tank and not have all the pieces you need. Do this all ahead of time and it'll save you a lot of stress on moving day.

[camaro7019]

good idea would it be fine to run without a sump/skimmer for a day? im planning on plumbing thru the wall to the garage but if i can save that till the next day would help alot, i would just fill the 125 up as much as it can go without overflowing

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yes that would be fine. The problem is that you will have to make sure everything is perfectly aligned cause once you have 100+g of water in there, moving it even an inch will be a PITA.

Good luck. If you have any other questions, post here or pm me.

BTW, I bought my place here rather than have to deal with moving all my tanks. At one time I was up to just under 1000g of sw (210g with 75g sump; 210g with 90g sump; 120g with 90g sump/seahorse tank; and 60g "nemo" cube), as well as various fw tanks and koi pond outside. In total, I was just at 1000g of tank/pond volume when combined both fw & sw so buying this place was by far the best option.

Anthony

[camaro7019]

wow haha, yah ill be buying hopefully in a year, but as of now we are moving from an apartment to a house so im happy about that the next move will suck since ill have a 55 gal frag tank and a 125 gallon display :P