Best Method in Swapping Tanks

[jodirt]

Okay
So I'm swapping my old tank 29gallon to a new 29 gallon acrylic tank with overflow. Whats the best way to swap my tank without stressing my fishes and corals.
thanks

[chrisalmand]

there is not a way to take fish ot of a tank and not stress them out..

[jodirt]

okay so i will take the fishes and corals out, do I keep the same water? change water? how long would I need to let the new tank running before putting everyone back in?

[2crazyreefers]

IMO it should be easy, done this many times. Use 5 gallon buckets, fill them halfway and put your fish - corals and rock in them then continue filling them with water till full. I always re-use all the old water (but never the sand) so just syphon out all you can without disturbing the sand bed. Then I would set up the new 29 add a bag of new live sand then replace your rock, corals and fish.

[scarter]

agreed, use as much old water as possible, make sure ew tank is atleast half full with new aged/aerated salt water, us everythign from old tank except sand

[corals b 4 bills]

The "BEST" way is to have Charles Delbeek & Julian Sprung stop by and give you a hand. or you can do what the others have said there right on track.

[stumpy08]

Since I'm doing sort of the same thing this weekend (going from 30 to 54), why shouldn't you re-use the sand? I bought a couple bags of dry sand and was going to "seed" it useing the old sand from my 30.

[ManotheSea]

Stumpy08 has the plan. Use dry sand and seed it with a few cups from your existing sand bed. Then throw the rest away.

Sand beds can get nasty. Part of what they do is absorb unwanted organics and convert them to less toxic forms. If you dig out the whole sand bed it will release a lot of unwanted stank.

Do not use sand in a bag from store shelves. I think they promote algae growth. Buy some ocean fresh live sand online if you want.

Use as much wet equipment from the old tank to the new because it harbours the good bacteria you need. Dont dry or clean the equipment. Use the same water then after filling do a nice sized water change. The tank should be as aged as the first but better due to the new sand bed and water change.

[poppin_fresh]

seeding the sand is ok, but digging up the whole bed on an old tank may cause problems. You might release a lot of trapped organics which could cause a large cycle.

[Cheekmonkey]

I am about to do the swap and my sand bed is only 4 months old about 2" deep, should I not reuse it?