New Tank ?

[Brandon Lovato]

I will be switching over from my 75tank to a 180tank i need to know the best way.

do i take all of the crushed coral and sand from 75 and transfer to 180 and then add the new sand that i have.

or do i just take a little sand to seed the tank i am not sure what is the best method.

how does one start but all sand in and them water then rock and then coral and fish.

mabey some one can give me some advise on how to upgrade

i have about 120lbs of live rock in the 75 this has been here for about two years allong with the sand that will be going into the new tank.

[murfman]

put in your new sand and then what you have on top. how coarse is the cc? if it is too coarse, and you plan on keeping sand sifting fish, then you might want to dump it and go with pure sand. if you are going to put the rock in right away, then i would get some base rock (this way you dont have a large ammonia spike) with little life on the surface but the benificial bacteria inside. these guys ship ups for $20 for a 50 lb box.

http://www.themarinecenter.com/dfwrockspecials+.htm

[Brandon Lovato]

the live rock i have now has been in my system for over 2 years do you think this will cause the amonia spike. or the crushed coral from the 75

[jdallred]

Are you going to be getting more LR right away? If you are, I would set up the new tank w/new sand, new LR and water and let it cycle, then seed it w/LR and LS from your 75 and then start transferring a little at a time from the 75 to the 180. The amount of new sand and rock would of course be dependant on how much $$$ you have and want to spend on it. This IMO would be the safest way.

[dubitup]

I just recently moved my tank. I removed the old 2" cc sb switched for a 3-4" southdown sb.

I used a large mesh bag for approx. 5lbs of the old cc sb to seed the new bed just sat in the tank, it's been there for 2 weeks now and all is good, starting to get lots of lifeforms in the new sb.

I tore down the the entire set-up and this is how I set it back up
1. new sb, 150lbs of south down
2. Place 80% of 120lbs of LR

place tupperware dish on top of sb to reduce cloudyness

3. add water
4. place mesh bag w/ old sb, as well as a few cups of sand from LFS's on top of new sb

Let clear up over night

5. more aquascaping with remaining LR
6. replace all livestock

I plan on removing the mesh bag with the cc in a few more weeks...all is well.

[Brandon Lovato]

so i still use all the water from 75 put that into new tank after i put the new sand in and then add the new water that i will mix on the sand and then the live rock from the 75.

i did not plan on buying any new rock any time soon so do you think if i just take everyting from 75 to 180 water live rock and a little bit of sand from 75 to seed new tank this sould be all right.

i will also have this plummed to my refugium and a small 20 gallon grwo tank. a total of another 40 gallons of water.

[dubitup]

I re-used all of my water other than what was used to bag the corals, I think I had to replace 15g or so...and all of my exisitng LR from my 75...

If I had a fuge, I would have used a lot of my exisiting cc sb for it.. and not seed the tank at all.

If you have the option....I would add all of LR that you plan on into the 180, cycle as needed, then switch over livestock - that way you do not have to buy cured rock which can be very costly or just by the 150lbs that Boulderreef is trying to dump, and you existing LR then you should be fine.

[WifesaysImnuts]

I'm upgrading to a 180 myself right now and my plan for rock is to add mostly base rock and let it seed from the LR I've already got plus a bit more that I may be purchasing next week.

You can get 60lbs of base rock from a guy on ebay for $60 (40 for the rock, 20 shipping) shipped to your door. He also sells on his website www.hirock.com, but if you get it from his ebay auction it's cheaper.