[Davers]

Hi !! i am currently awaiting delivery of a new tank i am very excited and scared !!

I have atm a 55 gall (uk) and am upgrading to a 131 (uk) gallon with halides,how do i transfer all filters (eheim) and stock ? without losing any stock?

I can move a lot of the rock and maybe half the water,but that won't fill half the new tank

Current stock are :

1 Anenome bubble tip, with 2 percula clowns, and resident anenome crab,

5 Green chromis

1 copperband

1 Arrowhead crab

Various critters

Any help will be very much appreciated

TIA Sue

[Bughead]

Hi
This is something I've done a couple of times. It's a lot of work, but everything should survive the transition without difficulty.

First, I hope you are putting the new tank in a different location. I had to put my new 180 in the same space the 100 was. Now that was a real case of logistics.

When you get the new tank set up, put your new sand in the bottom and then gently take several cupfulls of top sand from the old tank and put in on top of the new sand to inoculate it with the good bacteria and sand critters. Then put as much of the live rock as you can into the new tank. Are you using the same filter in the new tank? If so, you'll need to use an extra powerhead or bubbler in the old tank for a day. If not, transfer some of the unwashed filter material and/or bioballs to your new filter. When you fill the tank, use as much of the old water as you can, but that's not really that important. Both times I made the switch I used only about 1/4 tank of old water. And neither time did I even have a mini-cycle. The important thing is to get the live rock, sand and filter material to the new tank to keep the biological cycle going.

I like to leave the new tank set up and running over night before I transfer the livestock. I didn't acclimate my stock to the new tank, just captured them and plopped them in and nobody suffered any ill effects. But in retrospect I don't think this was a very good practice. I'd take a little more time and acclimate stuff a little better. Have a bucket ready with old water, put several fish or critters in and do the old water/new water replacement thing. The important thing is to make sure the temperature and salinity of both tanks match as closely as possible. This is especially important for the inverts. So the fish can get by with being plopped in, but the anemone and crabs, snails, etc. will need acclimation.

You might want to do all this without lights in either tank. Don't start the lights until the next morning. And of course, don't feed until morning either.

Like I said, a lot of work, but I'm sure everything will make it just fine.

[Davers]

Thanks mate

Yes sadly the tank is going into the same spot as i have no room anywhere else

But as i have 2 external filters was planning on just using one ? one bag live sand, and most of the rock, as i only have the anenome and he will be the last to move.

Have a lovely Tunze stream power head for the new tank so will leave the small ones untill last,

Have to get most of the rock out because we won't be able to move the old tank to get new one in ?

Will pop back to see if you have any more tips

Thanks again

Sue

[Bughead]

Sorry to hear you need to put the tank in the same spot. This indeed presents an uphill battle. So I'm assuming you and a couple of strong buddies are going to move the old tank once it has the rock and most of the water out. My suggestion is to get a large Rubbermaid tub or 2 and put all the rock, critters and anemone in it with the old tank water. Put the fish in the other one, or a large bucket with as much of the old tank water as you can. You can supplement these with new clean water. That way you'll be able to move the old tank out and place the new one in its spot. Then you can use as much of the old sand as you wish. If you're concerned about putting "dirty" sand in the new system, just rinse it with the several inches of water that will be left in the tank.

Then go ahead and set up the new tank, starting with the sand. Then place the rocks. Now you can use some of the water from that tub to gently start filling the new tank. Leave enough in the bottom of the tub to cover the critters and anemone, of course. Like I said before, using old water isn't that important. But you might want a product such as AmQuel on hand to counteract the ammonia on the off chance you get a mini-cycle.

By evening you should be able to transfer the livestock as long as the temperature and salinity is the same. Otherwise, as long as you have a powerhead the stuff should be OK till morning. You could put the fish plus their water into the tub with the anemone. Don't be afraid to add some clean water for them too.

When I did my big change from 100 to 180, I wrote a list in the order of things that needed to be done and crossed them off as I went. Sounds a little elementary, but it goes a lot smoother with a little planning.