24gallon Aquapod - upgrade to 34 gallon Solana - need some help

[JonnyJ]

hey all!

ok! well, as some of you know i picked up a 34 gallon solana for an amazing price and im planning on upgrading from my 2 1/2 month old 24g aquapod.

I know it isnt much of an upgrade but its perfect for me. Approximately 10 more gallons, a better setup all around and more swim space for the fish.

I plan on tackling it next wednesday the 6th.

Should i be using everything from my 24 pod? I hear that the sand can release toxins if heavily disturbed and re-used but people are telling me that its only 2 months old and i should be fine using this sand. what do you guys think?

how would i do this process?

Is this how i would do this w/ USING NEW SAND:


let 10 gallons of new water sit in buckets with a power head until they become the same temp as main tank

Add 10gallons in new tank..Add sand - let it settle

Then start the breakdown of the ap24?

syphon out water from Aquapod 24 into buckets and remove LR at the same time into those buckets.

then remove livestock into a separate bucket


then proceed to add everything to the new tank leaving the livestock [fish and shrimp] last?




How bout if i use the original sand?



I've never done this and not going to attempt it until i get a good solid plan...


my livestock

2 ora naked clowns
1 Sixline wrasse

and 2 glass shrimps ?? lol i dont know what they are

[believe it or not they were laying on the middle grate in the solana without water for around 5-6 hours and it was like 30 degrees out..strange how they lived.... i thought they were dead...when i went to remove them they were moving ! so i tossed them in my tank and they both survived lol


as for corals...

i have 3 different colonys of zoas
and like 4 different frags of kenya trees



if anyone has time to talk on the phone and explain it that would be great also....any help would be appreciated. thanks everyone in advance.



JONNY

 

[gimincorp]

Jonny,
I had been in a situation like above when I upped my 12G to 14G biocube.
This is how I did it:
1. Got a big buckets and a heater.
2. Set them up by an old tank's location.
2. Syphoned out top water from the tank into buckets (like 1/3 or 1/2 bucket height). (make sure the heater is set to maintain main tank's temp.
3. Transferred live rock into the buckets and then swimming crawling live stock.
4. Topped the buckets with the remaining water.
5. Scooped out (use any convenient plastic container to do that) live sand into the new tank.
6. TANK SWAP: Take old tank out and put new tank in its place.
7. Cover the livesand with remaining water immediately.
8. Put live rock into the new tank.
9. Re-add the saved water from the buckets into the newly setup tank
10. Re-add the livestock.
11. Top-off as much as you need with "new" water.

P.S. If you use the new water first, it might shock and harm your live sand, live rock and live stock more than using my method!

Next day after everything settles, use a turkey baster (large syringe looking thing) to gently blow off live sand from rocks and corals with water from the tank.
Also check your water parameters the next day to ensure no bad stuff had spike up. If it did do a minor water change (5-10%) no more than that.
You should be fine.

 

[jackson6745]

Your sand is not going to release toxins and there shouldn't be much waste in a 2 1/2 month old tank. I would reuse the sand, use half newly made saltwater and half old tank water. Transfer all rock and corals and you're done.
I did the same transfer over the summer. Here's my thread if it helps at all.
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/63249-jacksons-34gal-sps-solana.html