Suggestions on moving tank for new tank.

[Scribe]

I currently have a 29 gallon and am in the process of building the stand and hood for my 90. The room my tank is in has some awful wood paneling. I want to move the 29 and remove the paneling and ceiling and paint. My plan is to set up a 10, fill with water from the 29. Lower the water in the 29 to the point where I can move it across the room. Keeping the base rock and sand bed in the 29. Then do the ceiling work and paneling removal and painting. Then the fun part. Setting up the 90 and filling with water and some water from the 29. Let the 90 run and add new sand, and some sand from the established 29. Wait a few more days and add some of the base rock....continue slowly adding base rock and sand from the 29. Let in run for another few days and acclimating the coral. My plan is to keep doing water changes in the 90 and 29. Taking the water from the 29 and putting it in the 90. Then putting in the corals from the 10. I'm thinking the 90 will cycle pretty quickly since it's going to be mostly water from the 29 as well as the rock and some sand.

The one problem I'm having is trying to figure out what to do about my sump which is going to be the 29. Should I get a 30-40 gallon tupperware thing and use that as my sump until the 29 is empty? I would guess I'll need to do some plumbing adjustment switching when switching from the tuperware sump to the 29. This seems to be my only problem.

Any thoughts on how long I can expect the tank to cycle?

[bachtor]

If it is only for a week or two, I would just run the 90 sumpless. Use some powerheads for circulation and a heater.

[Scribe]

I was thinking that originally when I was thinking of moving my entire established sand bed from the 29, but since it's a DSB, I'm thinking I'm better off not digging to deep in it. So I was thinking some new southdown would be the way to go. Thus I was hoping to hook up a sump while it's cycling so I could get the protein skimmer up to suck some of that nice southdown cloud out of the tank.

[bachtor]

what I would do is this:

1. Move the 29 as you described.

2. Place the 90 where you want it, and add your new sand. Then add some sand from the old tank.

3. Fill the 90 with some 29 water and the rest new water and add your baserock. If your adding new rock, this is the time to do it, or let it cycle in a trash can.

4. Add powerheads and heater for circulation. If your going for fresh southdown and established rock, you won't have a cycle. However, you do need to let the bacteria colonize and eventally settle the sand. This might take awhile.

If you want to speed this up, run a micro filter. A protein skimmer would do minimal removal of the particles, and since you don't have much of a bioload, won't skim much anyway.

5. Once settled, put your corals in a holding container, and replace water in the 90 with remaining water in the 29.

6. Since the chemistry is a little different in the 90, re acclimate your corals as you would when adding new corals to the tank.

7. At this point, I would add the sump and skimmer.

Again, my opinion only, but this is what I used to move my 46 to a 120. However, I didn't use a DSB in the 120, so my cloud cleared in a day.

Hope this helps.