How would you switch (move over) a reef tank?

[Tangled Knot]

Hey Canreefers,
I would appreciate any thoughts on how to move my 80g reef to my inwall 230g. I have about 120lbs of existing healthy live rock plus 220lbs of new eco rock. Both tanks are within 10' of each other.

I want to move this reef



To this 230g inwall below.


Thanks in advance for your input.

Both tanks are barebottom. If the parameters are matching and the new rock in the new tank is already cured and cycled, you should be able to move it all over at once. If the rock is not cured yet then I would highly recommend you cycle it.

[Tangled Knot]

The eco rock has no organics to cure and should slowly seed from the existing live rock, shouldn't it?

[CM125]

Next time you do a water change, put all that water in the new tank, get the new tank to about 50/50 of water from the old tank and the new. continue testing for a week or so, but everything should be good to transfer over. Shouldnt need to re-cycle with 50/50 water. You will need to re-place every piece though as flow and lighting will be different then the other tank.

[cuz]

Make sure you cure the new base rock. I didn't and am thinking it may be the cause of my high phosphate battle!!

[Myka]

The Eco Rock is probably a phosphate sink right now, test the water and see what you have. There are some great products out there you can use to knock that phosphate out real fast like Lanthanum chloride which I think is best used during the curing process rather than after the tank is running.

I would hesitate to transfer your tank is one day to a tank with that much base rock. Personally, I would want the new tank running for at least 3 months using a fair amount of live rock to seed that base rock.

[e46er]

Originally Posted by CM125

Next time you do a water change, put all that water in the new tank, get the new tank to about 50/50 of water from the old tank and the new. continue testing for a week or so, but everything should be good to transfer over. Shouldnt need to re-cycle with 50/50 water. You will need to re-place every piece though as flow and lighting will be different then the other tank.

A cycle has little to nothing to do with the water itself the good bacteria isn't really in the water column

I used base rock without curing- took probably a $1000 in phosphate removers and MASSIVE hair algae problems to finally beat it I would never again not cure it first and make sure it's PO4 free

[Tangled Knot]

I don't understand some of these phosphate problems. Some say you should cure the eco rock for 3 to 4 months first. Those who didn't are fighting phosphate 6 months to a year later. Wouldn't the eco rock have cured in 3 to 4 months in either case? I'm starting to think some of these phosphate problems are unrelated.

On another note have been soaking my eco rock for week now with no rise in phosphate.
I'm going to watch it for a month or so to see what's what.