150 to 8' 360g swap questions

spit.fire · #1 01-12-2012, 07:42 PM

So on Saturday I will finally be picking up my 8' tank
My question is do I have to fill the 360 and allow it to cycle or can I swap everything over and just top up the water? Both tanks have no substrate and the 150 has an approx total volume of 200g and about 180 lbs of liverock.

Livestock:
Naso tang
2x bamboo sharks
Hawkfish
4 small clowns
Hippo tang
2x sailfin tangs
Some sort of goby
Dwarf angel

spit.fire · #2 01-12-2012, 07:46 PM

All the clowns, the goby, dwarf angel, and hawkfish are being transferred to different tanks when I do the swap

The Grizz · #3 01-12-2012, 07:48 PM

All my tank swaps I have used all the water, rock and sand ( after cleaning ) from the old tanks and then just topped them off with new SW without and issue.

gregzz4 · #4 01-12-2012, 07:51 PM

IMO, as long as you transfer your rock as fast as possible, in essence you're just doing a 50% WC. Now if you were transferring sand, that would be another issue. Should go very smoothly. Just don't keep the rock out of the water. Do your scaping in the tank when it's full. And I hope you have all the water made up ahead of time, or you may have salinity issues that you have probably already thought of.
Have fun with the new 8er

tony_3a · #5 01-12-2012, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Grizz

All my tank swaps I have used all the water, rock and sand ( after cleaning ) from the old tanks and then just topped them off with new SW without and issue.

I agree as well, I have done lots of tank transfers this way and it works fine. Just make sure you have the top off water temperature right because you do not want to be worrying about that in the middle of the transfer.

spit.fire · #6 01-12-2012, 07:56 PM

I've got 200 gallons of mixed water in my garage with heaters and pumps in it

Reefer Rob · #7 01-12-2012, 08:09 PM

You just have the fish? If you have any SPS I would do some water swaps between you old tank and your mixed water in the garage over a couple of days.

lastlight · #8 01-12-2012, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

You just have the fish? If you have any SPS I would do some water swaps between you old tank and your mixed water in the garage over a couple of days.

I did daily swaps for a week before my transfer. This was after my new rock hd cycled in the new tank but you're not adding any so the swaps are all I'd do too.