New Tank Question

As some of you know I have a 90g tank that I got off craiglist for $40. Long story short, the scratches on the fornt of the glass are driving me crazy, and it leaks a little at the top where it joins the plastic. I'm not going to fix it, I'm going to replace it. Maybe in the next week, depending on how my questions get answered. Here's the deal.

1. I want to move up to a 180g from a 90g (don't care about lights, equipment)
2. In wall set up...I can't put the new one in place until the old one is out of the way.
3. I will need to do some carpentry work on the stand, (just reinforcement)
4. I need/want this to go smoothly and quickly. in 1 day if possible.
5. i've got a 30g frag tank that I could house my fish in temporarily while I'm moving everything.

Here are my questions.

1. I do roughly a 30g water change per week. If I save the water that I take out, keep it heated and moving can I place it in the new 180g without having to wait for a cycle?

2. If I rinse the new sand off extremely well, so that it doesn't stir up dust do you think I could make a quick move of my fish from the 90g to the 180g in 1 day. I think it's possible, but I also think that I'm missing something. Will the new sand cause a cycle?

tell me what I'm missing, I don't want to risk losing any fish.

1. That doesn't really matter. Most of the bacteria in your tank live in the sand and rocks, not the water. If I were you, I'd use half old water and half new water, as long as the quality of the old water is still good.

2. Definitely. Having a cloudy tank due to sand is not going to be harmful to your fish. New sand won't cause a cycle, but stirring up and disturbing the old sand might, so rinse it well before moving it over. You will probably have to buy some new sand anyways because the new tank will be much larger.

Biff, are you saying to rinse my existing sand really well between tanks?

I would agree with you saving some of your old tank water and majority of the current tank water, and then about 50% new tank water. Make sure you rinse the old sand in some old tank water, not plain water, so that bacteria will live. You really shouldn't have a cycle, as long as you don't disturb the sand until you've removed all the water that you're reusing in the new tank.

this is gonna be sweet. I'm gonna get a whale!

Yeah, rinse the sand. It will contain a lot of sludge, and you don't want to put that sludge in your new tank!

If you want it done in one day you better plan ahead, buy all the stuff you need. Get a case of beer and a bunch of food, cook out and have a bunch of friends help you.

Did somebody say beer?

SeaBee said:

If you want it done in one day you better plan ahead, buy all the stuff you need. Get a case of beer and a bunch of food, cook out and have a bunch of friends help you.

Click to expand...

That right there is a fact.
Just have everything ready to go and start early.

Just have worst case plan. Like a large heavy duty trash can(new) with enough warm salt water to do a heavy water change later that day or the day after in case things don't go well.

And so it has begun...I'm currently filling up (3) 90 gallon cans for the transfer of the tank. At 75 GPD. I should be done with this by friday. I've got the small frag tank ready for the little bit of coral that I have, everything should fit in there no problem. I've gotta go get 3 more cans so that I can empty the tank into them, I think I'll fill each of the existing cans 1/2 way with new saltwater and fill them the rest of the way with water from the tank, (I don't know why, but it makes sense in my head) probably makes no difference.

In all reality, I think this will go fairly smooth. We're going to start Saturday at 9 am. Directly after biscuits and gravy. I'll send some pics throughout the day.

How do you recommend I rinse the existing sand? Does anybody have some specific techniques that work well?

:x: :x: :x: Good Luck!!!

Better be careful when you mention biscuits and gravy.You might end up with more "help" than you need.:mrgreen:

Sounds like you got a plan worked up and ready to go.Good luck with it.

Little far for me to get there but I sure could go for some biscuits and sausage gravy.

The live sand I got from another tank that I used in mine I just rinsed by putting it in a 30gal tote. I drained the water from my tank into the tote. Mixed it all up. Let it settle then drained off the water. I did that 3 times as thats how much water I replaced when I was setting up the tank. After that I just shoveled the sand into the sump to use there as a sand bed.

I'm thinking about putting all of the sand on top of a screen which sits on top of a bucket, and just pouring water from my tank onto the sand, which should drain the gunk into the bucket.

If the screen has a small enough size that the sand will not fall through it will likely clog rapidly causing a big mess. If you can spread the sand out or do small amounts at a time it might work though. Just sounds kinda time consuming though. When I did mine the first drain off was a milk chocolate brown. The second was tan and the third was kinda light tan milky white. So I figure it was effective at getting the poop out and was actually really easy to do.

I just put some sand in a bucket, added some water, shake, drain, repeat a few times.

ok. that's how I'll do it.. Thanks VA and Biff. Stay close to your computer on Saturday. It's going to be an extravaganza!

Ugh I gotta work Sat. I wish ya luck though!

Damn, I was gonna have you and Yote Next Day Aired to me. Free Biscuits and Gravy.:D