Help with upgrading tank

[jeanlee000]

I'm upgrading to a 90 gallon tank from a previous 40 gallon. How should I go about cycling this new tank. I have rock and sand from the previous tank and I have purchased and additional 50 lbs of each to add to the new tank. Should I cycle the new tank on its own or seed it with my existing tank. The only thing is that I have a lot of hair algae growing in my tank now and I don't want to introduce it to my new tank. Any recommendations on how to get rid of it. Have tried chaeto in the past but instead of growing the ball just fell apart in my sump eventually

Also, I have been using tap water in the past but have had on/off issues with niusiance algae so I want to purchase a ro/di unit as well. What would be a good recommendation?

 

[KathyC]

Any 5 stage ro/di unit would be fine. Tap water will cause you nothing but headaches in a reef tank

If you are having a big issue with nuisance aglae on your current rock, you might want to consider getting new rock so you are not introducing high levels of phosphates and nitrates into the new tank with the rock & old sand. If you chose to use the old rock, you need to scrub off the hair algae and be sure to run a GFO reactor and change the media in it often to combat the phosphates. A good clean up crew will also be helpful to partially keep the algae in check while you battle the phosphates that will be released from the rock.

You would use one cup of your old sand to seed the new sand bed.


If you have the space to run both tanks at once, by all means cycle the new one fully before moving your critters over. And don't forget a cover for the new tank!.