Tank Transfer experiences

[ReforgeBlade]

This past Saturday I upgraded my reef tank. I went from a 40 breeder to a 220 gallon tank with a 29 gallon sump. So far I’ve had no losses and no ammonia spike and I’ve been testing daily to be sure.

The only thing besides the fish and coral that I transferred was my rock which had been cycled for a little over a year. I did add a jar of copepods and a bottle of bright well aquatics microbacter to help seed the new sand and the new rock with beneficial bacteria.

I’ve kept my stocking light still waiting for the bacteria to grow but currently have 1 foxface Rabbitfish, 2 clown fish,1 diamond goby, 1 blue sapphire damsel fish(all from 40 breeder), and just added Sunday night 1 sailfin tang.

What I really wanna know is how others have transferred their tank and what you would do differently if you did another transfer in the future

 

[DJF]

Best advice regarding tank transfer is not to reuse sand without at minimum rinsing (but best to just start fresh); sounds like your transfer went methodical and smooth. Doesn’t hurt that there was a good amount of new water volume introduced.

 

[ylreefer]

My last tank transfer was from a 75g to 175g.
Got the new tank sat in place, fill with about 100g NSW, let it run to temp for a day. Added new sand then moved all the rock, filter media and equipment over. Finally moved the fish (about 40) and coral (over 100) and that was me done. I don’t think the fish even knew they were moved apart from having a time more space lol.

With that amount of “water change” and not bringing any old sand (“Detritus”) zero ammonia readings. I did install a sea chem ammonia badge for a couple of weeks. But nothing.

Had decided to remove the sand after a while and go bare bottom.