use all new, the benefical bacteria you need is in your rocks, not the water.
Upgrading to a new tank same day?
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OP
OP
Awesome thanks so much !!
MnFish1
10K Club member
No they can't - I mean they could try - but a dog in a nail salon does not equal 125 gallons of saltwater falling down to an apartment on the bottom floor. You need to disclose the aquarium to both your rental insurance as well as the landlord.
yes, indeed they could very well try, and have the potential to succeed, which is my point.
DanyL
Valuable Member
It really doesn’t matter as long as the parameters stay the same, and you have enough of it.
In both the first transfer and the frag tank setup we used diluted sea water from the Mediterranean.
On the second transfer we used both weeks worth of old water we accumulated during water changes, as well as freshly mixed water.
The important thing to remember when storing saltwater is to keep it aerated.
As for the amounts - plan to have slightly more water on the side than the volume of the new system. Best case scenario you’ll dump it or use it for the next water change, but in the case of an emergency during the transfer you will be well prepared.
This comes from my own experience where I had around 150L of extra water on the side, and ran out of space in the large pool we setup to temporarily keep the corals at.
We quickly were able to fill a couple smaller baths with saltwater and have that extra space available to us.
OP
OP
Wow awesome man thanks so much for detail.
Wanted to see if this "transition has occured. I am currently in the beginning stages of this exact process.
I am upgrading to a Nuvo SR80 from a 40-gallon breeder. I added 50 gallons of "fresh" saltwater to the new tank with heater and flow pumps, a bottle of DR Timms one and only and enough ammonia to treat 50 gallons.
Planning to complete the "Upgrade" this weekend. I planned to siphon out as much "Clean" saltwater from the existing aquarium, transfer over all the rock, corals, fish. New tank will be Bare bottom, and I WILL NOT be keeping the sand from the old tank. Lots of nutrients and micro-organisms I will be missing out on, but lots of waste in the sand too.
Good luck man, hope everything goes well. Obviously, you won't have enough water from your bio-cube and your other tank to fill the 125 gallons. I would suggest keeping as much of the existing water as possible (going to need to use it to keep the rock submerged during the move anyways) I also have a 32gal Bio-cube, but that tank is staying as it is, and where it is. Check my Profile for my thread about the upgrade if you're interested.
Thanks.
OP
OP
Finally got the tank on the stand on Sunday and now today hopefully will be working on cleaning the dust acclimated on the tank since sitting in basement and then, add some new live sand to the tank, drive over to home depot and get like 20 5 gal buckets w lids so I can empty my 50 gal brute trash can of salt water and transfer it to the apartment to use for the tank, and I have maybe 10 -15 gals of rodi water to take too. And then whatever is needed left over I can maybe use some of the water from both tanks but ngl their not im best parameters from neglect this week due to moving I havent been able to do water changes on them so not sure how this will be.. but plus the liverock in both tanks and then fish last. This is my plan not sure how well itll be followed lol
A plan is a good starting point at least. you have it mapped out which is good. I was going to go with the larger Aragonite rock like substrate (I will be adding this to my acclimation boxes for my frag rack). But for the time being I am going to continue with my plan of doing a bare bottom tank. I am trying really hard to be patient with this, but I am ready to go home tonight and make my transfer lol.
OP
OP
I forgot a step stool for my short butt so not sure how far i will get cleaning the dust out so much for plans
here's four years of 1 day tank transfers all in one thread. just because trolls got it closed doesn't mean it wasn't applicable here 
www.reef2reef.com
everyone of those jobs was done in 1 day. most are directly from a pet store to home as a day 1 skip cycle
but transferring tanks is the exact same thing, it's not different biologically.
Notice: NO testing for ammonia, no bottle bac, don't get entrained by old cycling science. its easy to xfer in 1 day.
A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac
This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...
www.reef2reef.com
everyone of those jobs was done in 1 day. most are directly from a pet store to home as a day 1 skip cycle
but transferring tanks is the exact same thing, it's not different biologically.
Notice: NO testing for ammonia, no bottle bac, don't get entrained by old cycling science. its easy to xfer in 1 day.
OP
OP
Thanks man I appreciate the link Im sure anyone viewing this thread in same boat will appreciate the link too!here's four years of 1 day tank transfers all in one thread. just because trolls got it closed doesn't mean it wasn't applicable here
A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac
This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...
everyone of those jobs was done in 1 day. most are directly from a pet store to home as a day 1 skip cycle
but transferring tanks is the exact same thing, it's not different biologically.
Notice: NO testing for ammonia, no bottle bac, don't get entrained by old cycling science. its easy to xfer in 1 day.
except for the people who helped get it closed because they don't do work threads, and don't like to see others doing them, note the last 3 pages before the managers locked away the science forever.
notice in several pages from that skip cycle thread: what did actual tank owners who participated post? all happy stuff, and cool pics.
what did the argument crew of 3 posters do in that thread, help anyone at all?
its as if closing that thread stopped all discussions on day 1 skip cycling, which was the request of this actual thread.
you can kill reef tanks by doing transfers or messing with the sandbed incorrectly, I have links handy on that if anyone wants to see.
we build skip cycle work threads to show the 100% safe way to skip cycle any reef tank from pet store to home, or within the home as a tank transfer.
notice in several pages from that skip cycle thread: what did actual tank owners who participated post? all happy stuff, and cool pics.
what did the argument crew of 3 posters do in that thread, help anyone at all?
its as if closing that thread stopped all discussions on day 1 skip cycling, which was the request of this actual thread.
you can kill reef tanks by doing transfers or messing with the sandbed incorrectly, I have links handy on that if anyone wants to see.
we build skip cycle work threads to show the 100% safe way to skip cycle any reef tank from pet store to home, or within the home as a tank transfer.
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I had a small argument with someone over it, i told them, yes it was a new tank, but the contents are all well established, so why would it matter. its just adding more tank volume.... now if i was starting over completely with new rock maybe it would be tough. I am going to complete the transfer this week.here's four years of 1 day tank transfers all in one thread. just because trolls got it closed doesn't mean it wasn't applicable here
A thread tracking pure skip cycle instant reefs, no bottle bac
This is a testless cycling thread, we don't want ammonia testing here for any job if possible, because we are teaching reefers/readers that moving live rocks system to system does not restart the cycle: many in our community don't understand that rule and feel that any tank being setup simply...
everyone of those jobs was done in 1 day. most are directly from a pet store to home as a day 1 skip cycle
but transferring tanks is the exact same thing, it's not different biologically.
Notice: NO testing for ammonia, no bottle bac, don't get entrained by old cycling science. its easy to xfer in 1 day.
Thanks for the comment.
I think its fascinating this hobby goes back to the 60's onward and as of 8/2024 cycling science is barely opening it's new eye for the hobby. one would think we'd have cycling dynamics in full agreement by now. we dont
what we thought ammonia did in reefs this whole time: not the case. big changes are underway in how we test/manage/react to ammonia (or if we test for it at all = my threads are always testless ammonia prediction threads)
see Randy's chem forum for recent changes in ammonia dynamics for reefers.
we didn't have digital ammonia testers like seneye back during the formative years on cycle 'rules'-- what we had was API, and we all know how helpful API has been to the masses for determining ammonia status.
because digital nh3 meters have been available for 5 years, the info they give to us is polar opposite of the old rules, we can see these patterns developing, so that now makes cycling like the wild west all over again.
what we thought ammonia did in reefs this whole time: not the case. big changes are underway in how we test/manage/react to ammonia (or if we test for it at all = my threads are always testless ammonia prediction threads)
see Randy's chem forum for recent changes in ammonia dynamics for reefers.
we didn't have digital ammonia testers like seneye back during the formative years on cycle 'rules'-- what we had was API, and we all know how helpful API has been to the masses for determining ammonia status.
because digital nh3 meters have been available for 5 years, the info they give to us is polar opposite of the old rules, we can see these patterns developing, so that now makes cycling like the wild west all over again.
OP
OP
So let me ask you this do you also recommend using my old fish tank water? Or should I start all new? Old water is alittle neglected no water changes recently since I am busy moving but I only have 50 gal of saltwater ready im transferring.. I mean I could probably go to pet store to get some saltwater too w my handy dandy new buckets
I’m doing the same. I’m slow rolling this over a couple months. Moving 130g and a 70g into a 400g.
I’m in a slab and had an engineer approve what I was doing (system total 550ishg). I also had a meeting with my insurance company. I’m glad I did all that also.
OP
OP
Also should post some more info about how I moved the 125gallon. It was a lot heavier than anticipated. Struggled just to get it with two people into the house after it was delivered. I ended up buying these suction cups, two on both side. At that point I could deff lift that with two people but luckily I had two friends help so one person per handle and a hand underneath in case they would fail. I suction tested them over night and they never lost pressure, real solid unbelievably. Heres a link to make someone elses lift easier. (Also have a bicep injury and could do this).
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