Transferring 55 Gallon To 100 Gallon

[kniesh]

Hi, I am moving over my current basic reef system to a new Aqua Medic Percula Bow front, it's roughly 4x2x2. The old oner is 48"x15"x". My question is, can I fill the new tank half way with newly made water, then add all the water from the old tank, along with the rock and sand etc? Would this just be like doing a large water change or will I run into problems? I wont be moving any corals, just a few mushrooms and Zoa. There are also currently only 3 fish in there, a small Boxfish, small Procupine Puffer and a very small Regal Tang. This is not their tank in the long run dont worry, I am setting up a FOWLR bigger than #both these for the Porcupine and Boxfish to go in, possibly even the Tang.

If you dont think this is a good idea is it just a case of recycling a new tank and waiting until it's ok to add the fish?

 

[techen]

I mean so long as everythings being transferred I don't see a issue, Live rock is your main point of life support so keep it in water as long as possible.

 

[kniesh]

Thanks for the reply

 

[Donya]

You will likely get at least some small spikes probably just because you are disturbing things, particularly the sand bed. Moving rock is usually pretty easy, but if you have a deep sand bed or even just a fairly dirty thin bed then it could make a pretty big mess trying to move the sand over. In such a case, it would be best to wait and watch the ammonia/nitrite levels for a few days before moving animals over (if that is possible). Often sand is not reused from one tank to another for that reason. 

 

[kniesh]

Thanks Donya, I was going to rinse the sand out in a bucket in RO water, or even a bit of the tank water to hopefully release all the gases but not kill off all the good life in it. You think that would work?

 

[Donya]

Don't use RO to wash anything you don't want to kill off! A freshwater dunk will kill loads of things in the sand and make any nutrient spikes much worse afterwards. If you wash the sand, do as you would for rock and use tank water or freshly mixed saltwater. 

 

[kniesh]

Will do, thanks

 

[kniesh]

I have bought all my new LR for the tank now. I filled it up using some tank water from my old one, and newly made water. I added a few scoops of my sand from the old tank as I know this seeds it a bit. I have just been to pick up a bout 15-20kg's extra of live rock to put in now. Unfortunately it has a lot of Mushrooms on, even a Leather Mushroom Coral growing on one piece, it's around 3".
 
I have added this now, and I am going to add a little more seeded sand from the old tank tonight. Do you think it would be ok, to leave it a day, do a test, see what the stats are and if they're ok, move over most of the rock from the old tank, then again leave for 24 hrs and do another test. Again if not too bad move over the last of the rock, and then the 3 fish?
 
It seems to make sense in my head, but probably missing something

 

[Donya]

The brand new rock I'd leave just a tad longer, waiting a few days if you can spare the extra time. Aside from the possibility of die-off, if the new rock has loads of life on it, that can also mean an increased chance of undesirable hitchhikers. A few days would give a better chance to see if anything strange crawls out. After that, the 24hrs between moving bits should be fine. 

 

[kniesh]

Thanks Donya