upgrading my tank... help

[reeferhabit]

I will be upgrading from a 54 gallon to a 120 gallon and I have questions to the maturation process for the new tank. I purchased a used 125g that is curretnly running and has 150lbs of live rock, sand, but no livestock. My 54g has 60lbs of live rock, corals, and fish.

So my question is, can I just transfer the water, livestock, and live rock to the 120g or do I need to cycle the tank first?

[lordofthereef]

You will probably be fine assuming that you are just wanting to transfer the life in your tank and not add a whole lot new to begin with. The thing with the rock you bought from the 120 is that depending on how long it has been devoid of livestock, the bacterial levels may be drastically less than what you have going due to not having been supplied a food source.

[rayn]

You should be fine if you wait to add any livestock. The rock from your 54 should have enough bacteria to handle your fish stock, while giving the rock from the 120 time to grow again. Give it a month or so and start adding slowly. Maybe one a month, till you get where you want to be.

oh and pics when you get it

[reeferhabit]

If the water quality of the 120g is no good and I have to replace the water, will I need to cycle or is the live rock and water that will be coming from my 54g be sufficient?

[DeepSeaBeauti]

I transferd to my 125 without issues. i used all the water from my 55, put the live rock in waited for the sediment to settle, and put eveyone back in there new large home. Id say the only hard part is if you have a sand bed. Stirring up the sand could force you to go through a cycle.

[rayn]

Agree with deepseabeauti. Your bacteria live on your rock, not your water. As long as the rock doesn't dry out and have die off it should be good to go without cycle. Your rock coming out of the 54 should be loaded with beneficial bacteria and there should be some off the other rock, I would think. As long as there is no major die off you should be okay.

[DFWBill]

I have a similar situation about to happen, so if I could jump in here.. I am moving from a 46 to a 70. The 46 has softies, zoa's and SPS, a pair of saddlebacks (5" and 4"), tang, gobie, pair haliquins, pair cleaners, various and assorited snails - 50# lr, 40# sand. I have a 15 gal sump/fuge, which i plan on using on the 70. It's a proflex mod1 so I'm going to convert the current fuge part to a berlin and I'm adding a 10 gal fuge as a separate part.

Oh my question.. I want to add another 20 or so lbs of sand and probably another 50#'s lr...can I add these, then move all of my current sand/rock over/coral/fish over or should I let the 70 cycle?

The current 46 is 2.5 years old and healthy.

thanks
bill

[duncantse]

Just transfer everything over. Your LR are probably loaded with bacteria.

[DFWBill]

Sweet. If I pull out my current sanded and move it should I worry about a spike?

[steelhead77]

Originally Posted by DFWBill

Sweet. If I pull out my current sanded and move it should I worry about a spike?

Smell the sand! Take a couple scoops in your hand, if it smells like the beach, you're good to go. Just transfer it from one tank to the next. If it smells like rotten eggs, toss it and get new stuff. I've done this twice in my upgrades and never lost a single piece of livestock by re-using old sand.

[DFWBill]

WOW, you guys are a wealth of knowledge.. I've been lurking here for a couple of years and have learned so much!

I was hoping for something like this since the new setup is going to be bulit-in right next to the current stand alone. Now i can recover the space fairly quickly.

Thanks gents!