BioCube Upgrade

[NETSECPRO]

Hey everyone, I finally got the OK to upgrade from my BioCube 14 to a BiCube 29. I am keeping all rock, sand, fish, coral, etc from the 14 to go into the 29. I am just wondering what would be the best/easiest process to transfer everything over to the 29. I have pleny of buckets and water, but I guess I need to know if there is anything special I need to do when moving the sand, or should I just add new sand? The 14 has been running for 3 years so there is plenty of bacteria, I just don't want to mess anything up with the sand.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Mudbeaver]

Well like it or not you'll have to add new sand and rock and they have to cycle no matter what. So you can transfer SOME of your rock not all you have to keep your present reef intack as well as your sand that you have now. Your sand is not just sand, it has layers you see. layers of bacteria.

Question is it a deep sand bed or just a 2-3 inch.

If you have a deep 4-6 inch you need to proceed carefull wih the transfer or you'll just destroy your bacteria layers and you'll endup doing a new cycle in your tank no matter what. We need more info on the lay out of the tank, whats your bioload, fish, corals, sand bed layout etc.

PS; this is not just a few days operation by the way.....

[NETSECPRO]

The sandbed is only about 3/4 to 1 inch. I have about 15 lbs of live rock and a few small zoa colonies. The only fish are a picasso clown and a red band high fin goby, along with 3 mexican turbos snails and 6 or seven hermit crabs. Please let me know if you need to know anything else. Thanks!

[Mudbeaver]

Before getting your responce i'm just painting the process to you so you understand how it will be done. First you'l need another 15Lb of rock, dryrock or live rock no matter, plus the sand to cover your new tank, you need more than what you have now anyway. That new tank has to cycle no matter what with its new rocks and sand. You can help the process by transfering Some of your sand a few large cups , thats called seeding your tank it will initiate the cycle in your new tank and will speed up the process as well. You wont need to transfer one of your rock after all , leave them in your present tank for now. When all the parameters are correct you'll start transfering your sand first as if you where going BB( bare bottom) nothing wrong with that. The reason is if by any chance your new tank goes into a new cycle none of your bioload( fish and such wont be affected or killed by it) then when your tank is safe you can put your rocks and then your critters , corals, and last your fishes. Your basically starting a new tank so it will take time. Good luck

[Esage]

Originally Posted by NETSECPRO

Hey everyone, I finally got the OK to upgrade from my BioCube 14 to a BiCube 29. I am keeping all rock, sand, fish, coral, etc from the 14 to go into the 29. I am just wondering what would be the best/easiest process to transfer everything over to the 29. I have pleny of buckets and water, but I guess I need to know if there is anything special I need to do when moving the sand, or should I just add new sand? The 14 has been running for 3 years so there is plenty of bacteria, I just don't want to mess anything up with the sand.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I would just put new sand in the 29gal and move everything over at the same time. I have done this twice in the past two years with no problems or cycle and will do it again in five months. The rock you are already using is enough to support the bio load you currently have.

[NETSECPRO]

Originally Posted by Esage

I would just put new sand in the 29gal and move everything over at the same time. I have done this twice in the past two years with no problems or cycle and will do it again in five months. The rock you are already using is enough to support the bio load you currently have.

So should I leave the old sand in the 14, or move it over as well?

[Esage]

Originally Posted by NETSECPRO

So should I leave the old sand in the 14, or move it over as well?

You can seed the new sand with couple of cups of the sand out the 14gal tank. You will also want to use as much water out of the 14gal tank as you can.

The way I did it both times was, put live rock in five gallon bucket(s) and fill buckets with tank water to cover live rock. After the rock was out, I would catch all the fish and put them in a five gallon bucket of tank water, I would then drain the remaining tank water into buckets. Make sure you have enough new saltwater to go along with your old tank water when filling the new tank. After the tank is drained, move old tank and stand out of the way and put new stand and tank in its place. I then add the new sand, take a couple scoops of the old sand and mix that in. Place some sort of bowl on top of the sand and start pouring your saltwater into the bowl to help with the tank getting all cloudy. Fill the tank halfway and add live rock, once rock is in fill the tank the rest of the way up. After tank is filled with water, get all the equipment hooked up and turned on. Last, add the fish an coral back into the tank. I then do a 10% water change a couple of days later.

[Esage]

[NETSECPRO]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll let you know how it goes.