Upgrading From 10g to 36g

So I obtained my tank and stand. Tomorrow or Sunday I will be setting the tank up. I would also like to add more live rock or dry rock. Would it be best to do the tank swap first then add more rock later, or can I create my aquascape when I do the tank swap.

Or I could keep running my 10 gallon and cycle the new tank with new rock.

Or swap the tank and use the 10 gallon to cycle the rock and keep the 10 gallon running as a quarantine tank.

What is the best to do?

 

Now would be the best time to do your aquascaping if you can .If adding live rock it must be fully cured or it will start a cycle that would harm your fish.If adding dry rock your live rock will seed it and it will be way less costly.I recently did a tank swap(tank sprang a fatal leak) and also used bio spira with good results,but I also had a tankful of live rock to move to the new tank.In your case I think alot of your bacteria is in your sand,so what I think I would do is set the new tank up and let it cycle leaving your clowns happy and healthy in the 10gal till it's ready for them.Once you move them to the new tank you'll have to be patient about adding any new fish until the biosystem in the new tank has time to grow.

 

So I set up my new tank today. Layed new sand and topped with some sand from my 10 gallon tank. I also moved my 3.5 pound live rock from the 10 gallon to my new tank. I purchased about 15 pounds of "cured" live base rock from a LFS and placed this in my tank. Then used about half of a large bottle of bio spira. I checked my ammonia levels about 5-6 hours into running the tank finding a level of .25.

I'm running the aqueon QuietFlow 50 hob filter. This filter is quite loud, does anyone have a suggestion for a good simple filter that will worked well with my tank?

 

Returned the QuietFlow and picked up the Aquaclear filter. I like it alot better, much less noise. I also picked up a new T5 dual bulb light to replace the T8 I got with my set up. I tested my water and had the LFS test it as well and my water is good. I plan to test my water again tonight or tomorrow morning and swapping over my fish and hermits.