Tank swap 24g to 34g ... Questions

I'm picking up a 34 gallon solana tomorrow and will be swapping my inhabitants of my nano cube into it ... Any tips or pointers? The shame of it is everyone needs to come out of the nano, tank needs to come down before I can move the stand to my living room where it will be displayed. I'm planning on transfering the water and livestock and rock but I'm not sure about the sand bed? Should I just buy new sand? The current sand is about 6 months old. I was gonna put the fish in a 10g tank I was using for a qt until the stand is moved and setup and scaped. Coral will be placed in my frag tank. Any tips or equipment I should pick up? Can I do this in a few hours and not have a cycle ... I also have half a bottle of dr Tims, I guess putting that in the Solana couldn't hurt?

 

You should have no problem with a cycle but it still may take a little more than a few hours especially if you decide on new sand.I recently did a similar switch after my tank sprang a bad leak.I was able to move my fish to a smaller tank that I had already running but most of my rock and some of my corals and rbt nem spent two days in buckets and all survived except for most of the xenia which I was happy to ffinally be rid of.

 

BTW,I did use new sand and added a bottle of Instant Ocean bio spira,the Dr.Tims would be a good idea.Also I used Caribe sea sugar sized sand which I hate,it is too fine and blows around much too easily.You can use your tank water if you wish but there's really not much benefit as pretty much all of your good bacteria is in your rock and sand,I would use mostly if not all new water.

 

+1

To add to Sailorguy's posts, if you have a DSB, I wouldn't touch it. However, if it's 2" or less, you should be fine using it in the new tank. As for the water, I guess that's mostly personal preference. While Sailorguy is correct, I still like to move all I can into the new tank unless it has nutrient issues; but with proper acclimation, it really won't matter... other than saving on salt.

 

Well the move went well. About 2 hours start to finish. Used new sand, all the water from the old tank. 10 gallons of fresh saltwater and stole about 2-3 gallons from my frag tank. my coral went into the frag tank last night and back in the DT tonight. No casualties. Here's a the current FTS.


Also added a royal gramma that had been living in my frag tank. Think I'm gonna get a pair of tomato clowns for the frag tank. Not that my tanks much larger (10 gallons) but man do I need some more frags ...

 

Cool, congrats on the upgrade!

My switch from 24g nano to 50g cube w/17g sump went nearly with no cycle. I lost a sixline though, I think thats what completed it.

 

My gramma looks pretty stressed but he looked that way when I got him, he was fine after a few hours so I'm hoping it's no biggy. He's my gf's fav.

 

I'd keep the sand. There's a ton of beneficial bacteria in it and you could start a new cycle if you get new sand. Theoretically if you take the water out and then move the sand, any pockets of bad gases would be released into the air before going into the new aquarium. I haven't heard of anyone having trouble after moving sand, and have moved several times and kept it almost every time (and the time I didn't and used new sand I then had ammonia pop up).

Edit: For some reason the last few posts didn't show before I posted this.

 

Thanks for the reply. Everyone looks great today. Royal Gramma is happy as a lark but a little skittish.

 

That's great to hear.

FWIW, RGs usually are a bit shy when first introduced into a new environment. He should be back to normal in a few days or so.