Hypothetically switching tanks.

[NYC Joe]

I have a 60 cube now. its in the corner of my living room.

Lets say I was to get a larger tank, say a 120. same dimensions but wider.

I would want it in the same spot. So how would I go about switching it over.
I would love to do it, but just idea of it bugs me out.

- id have to move the 60 cube out.where would i put all the stuff. theres lots

-get new tank in there.

-Cycle it.

-put stuff back in.

what do I do with the animals, livestock, corals?
Id be afraid of losing, everything!

any one did this successfully?
if it were a different spot in the house OK,
but same spot, so the running tank needs to move over.

ideas, input.
been thinking about this for a while.

Thanx
-Joe

 

[THEDLO]

get rubbermade buckets and "brute" containers. i did a switch like this, it was from a 120 to a 220. took 7 hours. and the tank wont cycle, u already have LR already and live sand.

 

[NYC Joe]

Hmmm sounds interesting.
Even if the water volume is doubled?
I would guess the sand bed getting kicked up would kill everything.
im guessing it would be a little cloudy for a while....


7 hours eh? damn! was this with help?

 

[THEDLO]

no the sand bed wont do any harm. for a day it was cloudy, but we did the switch at night so by the next day it was ok.

lol just me and my uncle...i recorded the whole thing! it wasnt too bad it could have gon quicker. we ran in to issues with one of the bulk heads leaking.

 

[bigdog1428]

So scooping the sand our and stirring it won't cause a cycle ??? That is the only thing that worries me ,, I just got a 90 gallon ,, and i was thinking about transferring it ova but i decided not to bc of this exact reason ,, taggin along


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[THEDLO]

it may depend how deep the sand bed is...the san bed in the 120 was 3-4" max so there wasnt any issue, im not familiar with DSB so i could tell u how that would affect the new system

 

[Lenny718]

There is NO beneficial bacteria in the water column, all your good bacteria is on your rock and in the sand. I did a switch from a 90g to a 150g with zero issues and more recently did a switch from a 24g to a 45g and everything was fine. Think of it as a big water change, you have to work quick though cause you do not want to expose the live rock and sand to the air for long.

 

[tentacles]

If I'm not mistaken, LaurieC did something similar. You should check out her tank thread to get some ideas

 

[chinatown]

yo Joe. You'll be fine. i did the same thing. I reused 90% of my water but i tossed away the sandbed and got new sand. that's about it.

 

[NYC Joe]

nice, just need to find a huge tank now.
hmmm....