Upgrading a 55 to 75 or more. Input needed.

[pwj1286]

I have been thinking about upgrading to a larger tank.

Currently a 55 gallon reef, about 1.5 years old. Doing very well, but I have an external overflow (HATE IT) and I have a second hand scratched up tank.

I am thinking 75 or more. Ideally 120. DRILLED.


How do I do this? I have a good idea, but when I am thinking about it...I think "CHAOS"...

My proposed order of break down/setup (livestock placed in smaller tanks?):


1. Take out Coral
2. Take out Live Rock
3. Take out Fish/Inverts
4. Take out Sand
5. Drain Water (trash can)
6. Move old setup out of the way
7. Move new setup in place of old setup
8. Fill tank (new water or previous setup's water in trash can?)
9. Add old sand and new sand
10. Add Fish/Inverts
11. Add Live Rock
12. Add Coral

How will the corals, inverts, and fish do?
Is it possible that the tank will start new cycle? (New Tank Syndrom)
To Glass or to Acrylic? That is the question...I have seen some sweet acrylic tanks on eBay. I really like this tank. Has overflow and dual returns already plumped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-120-GALLON-ACRY ... dZViewItem

Any suggestions?
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[melas]

definitely go bigger. . . few people regret the bigger tank. . . but you will always regret not going big enough! I think your plan for swapping everything over sounds good. Move all of the water to a temporary storage conainer (you can siphon it out or use a pump), just be sure the container is where you want it during the whole process because you will not move 4-500 lbs of water very easily! Have the other tank plumbed and ready to go so all you have to do is slide the stand and tank in place. Placing your corals and fish in seperate containers during the process is also a good idea. Just keep them somewhere safe and away from cats! going from 55 gallons to 75 gallons or even 120 gallons shouldn't cause your tank to recycle. it will be more like a large water change. Going to a 75 it would be like a 30% water change and going to a 120 would be like a 55% water change. So its really not a huge deal. . . just make sure the new water has been heated and prepared several days in advance giving the raw salts time to fully dissolve. if you have everything prepared in advance you should have no problems and i see no need to make any special preparations for the corals and fish. they should easily survive in a large bucket of water without filtration for several hours.

when i moved my 90 gallon tank to a 125 gallon it took 8 hours because i bounced the water back and forth between the old tank and the new tank because of the large volume! it was a great way to spend a "sick" day though!

As far as accrylic tanks go. . . i'm not a real fan. . . i'm sure you've heard of all the horror stories regarding scratches and what not. . . i think you'd be better off with glass but it truly is a matter of preference. either way i think you'll love it! that looks nice and i don't think its a bad price. those guys sell a lot of those tanks on ebay so somebody loves'em! keep us informed and post lots of pics so that the rest of us can live vicariously through you!!

 

[Len]

The choice between glass and acrylic is going to be personal. I prefer glass myself. I've used both, and while acrylic has its advantages (lighter, easier to drill, more clear), I simply couldn't tolerate the excessive coralline growth and the impossbility to clean it without scratching it.

If you plan on reusing some of your old tankwater in the new, siphon it out before you remove sand or rock. You don't all that detritus suspension. Otherwise, your order of events looks good.

When reusing your old rock and some of the water, it will still experience a short cycle and not as dramatic. From the experiences I've gathered, your fish and corals will tolerate it.

It's actually not a terribly hard undertaking as one would presume. It sounds like a lot of work (and it is), but the work goes by quickly. You should be able to do this within a day (hopefully with the help of a friend or two), and I'm sure the efforts will be well worth it.

 

[pwj1286]

I really like that acrylic tank because of that over flow/return thing in the middle.

Just makes things soo simple. If it would not scratch, I would buy it in a heart beat.
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[mattstewart]

you've probably seen them, but you could do All-glass megaflows. the 120 has dual overflows and is much cheaper than the acrylic tank. I just got my 90 megaflow for like $260 or something like that.

http://www.all-glass.com/products/aquariums/index.html

 

[cjsrch]

stay away from acrylic if your affraid of scartches.

are you planning to add any extra rock when you upgrade. if so that will make it recycle.

 

[pwj1286]

All i know is I have to have an intank overflow/returns.

I hate my current 55 gallon because of external overflow.
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[melas]

you've probably seen them, but you could do All-glass megaflows. the 120 has dual overflows and is much cheaper than the acrylic tank. I just got my 90 megaflow for like $260 or something like that.

http://www.all-glass.com/products/aquariums/index.html

yeah i have the 125 mega overflow. . . wow! very nice!!! so very easy to work with and they are pretty quiet too!

 

[Anonymous]

I just want to reiterate that you do want to siphon out some of your water before you remove anything, so it will be clean. Set aside a good portion of your original water for refilling, but you don't have to save all of it.

I have a 120 drilled AGA with the megaflow overflows. I am very happy with it.

Laura

 

[Rikko]

I'm in the midst of completing my 120 AGA Mega Flow - for the extra cost it's really worth it to get the overflows and holes already done for you. I had also toyed with drilling holes in the back and doing a Calfo-style overflow, but it didn't seem worth the $40 or whatever the price jump was.

Only caveat I wanted to throw in is your sand - I assume you keep it well stirred and cleaned? If not, you might want to toss it or at least give the lower areas a good cleaning to wipe out any anaerobic pockets. My 65 has a 5" DSB that I just can't move to the 120 when it goes live - I ended up buying new sand and will seed it with some of the old. When moving time comes, I'm going to nuke the old sand bed with several rinses of tapwater over a few weeks and then add it into the 120.

I was actually thinking about moving to a 75/77 gallon (to get an extra foot), and then figured the jump to a 120 gave so much more depth to the tank which makes it more attractive to aquascape and for the fish. If money isn't extremely tight on this project (and the floor isn't exceptionally weak), I'd definitely say go bigger.

 

[MyMonkey]

I too am planning a larger tank. Out of curiosity, what is the approximate cost for a 90 gallon AGA? I would like to know so I can find a decent deal. I searched for prices on the net and nothing really.

 

[mattstewart]

i got my 90 aga megaflow for like $260 in the cleveland, oh area, this was the cheapest i could find in my area.

 

[Rikko]

I got my 120 reef ready for 500 CDN - I think the 90s were around 380 for me.

I'd probably ask around and see if there's a store in your area that does high volume tank sales. They're generally a low-margin seller to begin with and if you find a power seller they will often pass along the savings (that's how it worked for me, anyways).

I expect shipping from a cheaper online source would swallow up any savings you had hoped for, and you have the risk of a leaker that may not get handled very well.

It's totally your call, but I find it good insurance to just buy it at a place with a storefront and normal business hours and at least if it needs to go back on warranty you know where to find them.

 

[MyMonkey]

Thanks for the input. I have just now consulted a LFS for a Quote. I hope it works out to around the same as mentioned above. Thanks again.

 

[Rikko]

Good move.. Now call 3 others and get quotes too. You'd be surprised what kind of a profit loss stores will take on tanks. A lot of stores mark very large tanks up only 5% in the hopes you'll also buy all your other equipment there.