Moving to larger aquarium

gpetersfan · 10/20/2009, 01:38 PM

I am going to be moving from a 37g saltwater/fish only aquarium with crushed coral substrate that has been up and running for several years to a 55g aquarium and want to use live sand. I have a small blue tang, a wrasse, and a clown.

What is the best/quickest way to acclimate the live sand in the new aquarium so I can move my fish back over?

Any suggestions on moving water from old to new? All at one time or 10g at a time (constantly mixing the water)?

Any other tips or warnings would be greatly appreciated.

thegrun · 10/20/2009, 01:50 PM

Do you have live rock in the old tank? If so, just move the rock, fish and as much water as possible into the new tank. The new sand bed will take a couple of weeks to become fully functional but your live rock should handle your bio-load, just don't add anything else to the tank for two weeks. If you are adding additional live rock, it will need to be fully cured (cycled) or your tank will go through a mini-cycle and you could lose some fish. If your new LR is not cured, you need to cure it before you add it to the tank, or add the new rock and sand to the new tank and cure it in that tank before you move over your livestock and LR.

gpetersfan · 10/20/2009, 03:29 PM

I do have live rock in my existing tank. Thanks for the advice.

JStraz4991 · 10/20/2009, 04:39 PM

mtisc323 · 10/20/2009, 05:02 PM

easy as pie then ... if you mix in a few pieces of the crushed coral into the sand bed, you can help seed the new sand as well

10/20/2009, 01:38 PM	#1
gpetersfan Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Lithia Springs Posts: 7	Moving to larger aquarium I am going to be moving from a 37g saltwater/fish only aquarium with crushed coral substrate that has been up and running for several years to a 55g aquarium and want to use live sand. I have a small blue tang, a wrasse, and a clown. What is the best/quickest way to acclimate the live sand in the new aquarium so I can move my fish back over? Any suggestions on moving water from old to new? All at one time or 10g at a time (constantly mixing the water)? Any other tips or warnings would be greatly appreciated.

10/20/2009, 01:50 PM	#2
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	Do you have live rock in the old tank? If so, just move the rock, fish and as much water as possible into the new tank. The new sand bed will take a couple of weeks to become fully functional but your live rock should handle your bio-load, just don't add anything else to the tank for two weeks. If you are adding additional live rock, it will need to be fully cured (cycled) or your tank will go through a mini-cycle and you could lose some fish. If your new LR is not cured, you need to cure it before you add it to the tank, or add the new rock and sand to the new tank and cure it in that tank before you move over your livestock and LR.

10/20/2009, 03:29 PM	#3
gpetersfan Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Lithia Springs Posts: 7	I do have live rock in my existing tank. Thanks for the advice.

10/20/2009, 04:39 PM	#4
JStraz4991 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 435

10/20/2009, 05:02 PM	#5
mtisc323 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 53	easy as pie then ... if you mix in a few pieces of the crushed coral into the sand bed, you can help seed the new sand as well