Moving from a 55 to 120gal

[derek12261984]

Like the title says, I am going to be transitioning my tank over to a 120 in the coming weeks or months. I plan on doing it all at one time if possible as I don’t want two big tanks in that room. Any suggestions for a smooth transition? My plan at this point is to transfer water and live rock over to the new aquarium, then add the other 80 or so gallons The system will require with fresh saltwater. I’m in no hurry to move over as I don’t have any fish that have outgrown the tank quite yet. I just wanna make sure that I do it correctly so that I don’t kill any of my coral/fish. This will be my first time transferring.

 

[FDchase]

When I went from my 14 to 120 I had the new tank in a different location. Had it set up and full of water. When I was ready to transfer I spent about half a day transferring water between the two to acclimate everything to the new tank water. Once I felt it was acclimated enough I started transferring large amounts of water in an attempt to equalize temp as best I could, that part probably won’t work for a 55 so well. Then I started transferring rocks and corals, then I got my fish in the new tank, then picked out any snails or other creatures I wanted to save. I saved the sand but I rinsed it out and threw it in the sump. Didn’t have any losses.

 

[aztoza]

When I went from my 14 to 120 I had the new tank in a different location. Had it set up and full of water. When I was ready to transfer I spent about half a day transferring water between the two to acclimate everything to the new tank water. Once I felt it was acclimated enough I started transferring large amounts of water in an attempt to equalize temp as best I could, that part probably won’t work for a 55 so well. Then I started transferring rocks and corals, then I got my fish in the new tank, then picked out any snails or other creatures I wanted to save. I saved the sand but I rinsed it out and threw it in the sump. Didn’t have any losses.

How do you carry over bigger rocks full of coral? Do they have to stay submerged, or do you just pick it up and haul it across the house in the open air?

 

[Bruttall]

How do you carry over bigger rocks full of coral? Do they have to stay submerged, or do you just pick it up and haul it across the house in the open air?

haul them in the open air. There are a lot of diverse coral that have no water on them at low tide and they do just fine, a few minutes out of water won't hurt them a bit. Ya might get some critters hoping off in transit though, worms, pods etc. depends on your tanks biome. I used a big plastic bowl. You will want to fill the new tank and cycle it completely before you migrate old tank into it. I did this with a 75g to a 300g. Just leave room in the new tanks rock scape for your existing tanks scape to be placed. depending on age of old tank you may not want to re-use substrate, a lot on controversy on this by smarter people than I. My 75 was only 3 months old so I reused everything. If your sand is over a year old you may want to search on detriments to reusing it.

Good luck

 

[FDchase]

I had a plastic bin I put them in to keep water from getting all over the floor. A 14 gallon cube doesn’t have big giant rocks.

 

[derek12261984]

Little bit of an update. I have started the process of cleaning it up and removing the old silicone seals. It looks like somebody half done resealed this already once. I noticed there are black silicone up the sides while clear silicone is left on the bottom. I was gonna go ahead and fill it up as it was holding water but two of the seams on the front we’re looking well worn. Going to get it all cleaned up and scraped out this weekend and hopefully reseal it early next week. Fingers crossed it holds… I will take the whole dang thing apart if I have to lol… this tank is going up!