the big transfer , how would you do it?

[darkreef]

Say you had a 33 gallon reef.
You bought a 100 with a 50 gallon sump
Your ro di system sucks and can only fill the tank 10-15 gallons a day.

How would you tank transfer ?

Filled the tank slowly then cycle it with some live rock and skimmate?

Add the 30 gallons of tank water from the other tank and fill it .

Store 150 gallons of water first then transfer it to a fresh set up ?


Thanks guies !!

[Madreefer]

Get new sand, rinse it well.
Make all your water and have it ready, temp etc.
Pretty simple, just be quick.
I just transferred a 144G to a 233G, started at 11am and had everything in my new tank at 4am. All went smooth. I only lost a pistol shrimp just cuz I couldn't find it when I took the old tank apart. People worry way too much in this hobby and make a big deal out of nothing. You'll be fine. No skim mate that's plain silly IMO. It's just like a huge water change. Use all your old water.
Good luck

[Coralgurl]

When I went from my 55 to 180 plus 87 gl sump, I ran the RO directly into the tank. I didn't have any water storage at the time. I just let the RO unit run for the 2-3 days it needed to fill, then added salt to the tank. I didn't use any live sand and most of my rock was purchased in advance of setting up so was dry and dead. Once the salinity & temp were good, I added some rock and sand from my 55 and let the tank cycle before transferring the livestock.

OR go get some Brute cans for the water and premix the salt before adding to the tank. Really depends on what you have available, what you are adding to the new tank (new sand, new rock) etc which I believe will determine when you transfer the old system. I found after the transfer, my tank acted like a new set up for the first 6-9 months and went through the typical algae, cyano blooms.

Some however can set up a tank in a day and not see any difference from old to new....so do what you think works best for you!

And of course you should start a build thread!!!

[ddarkz]

keep doing water changes at your old tank and transfer part of the "good" water into the new tank, also mix new water & salt to the new tank, have power head in the new tank running.

[Werbo]

First - Fix your RO unit... 15gpd is silly especially if your upgrading to 150 G tank

[darkreef]

I live in a apartment and can't upgrade my RO . Not even aloud to have one. Lol

I'm thinking on filling it with water changes and fresh water .
Then add a couple of pounds of live rock a day and my GFO , skimmer , corals , fish when I'm don't playing with the rock (dwarf lions)

Old cured rock will be going in it I have 50 lbs in my 33 ATM .

New sand though . Was going to go black decided on pink

[gqlmao]

When I do a transfer, I usually have enough room to keep both tanks running at once. If you have this opinion it would be nice. Then I would fill the new tank with all new water, you can leech some of your old water but I never do. Then I would get the temperature, salinity, and if you have sensitive corals try to match hardness and calcium and magnesium if it is feasible. Once everything is running correctly, then I would move all the existing live rock and inhabitants at once, the rock doesn't stay in the air for longer than a minute to reduce die off. If everything goes well, you might not even have a noticeable cycle. Like Madreefer says its not as bad as some people make it out to be if you are quick and able to provide consistency.

For your case it might be different, if you have new uncured rock to cure I would not move anything yet. I would dump the new rocks into the tank and let them do their thing and cycle. Once the cycle is completed and you have stable parameters, you can slowly move your rock over in a course of a week or two and then live stock.