Going for the upgrade

Hi All,

A couple of weeks ago, I posted saying that I "might" be upgrading my tank in the coming months. Well, I have decided to do an upgrade for sure. Over the past two - three weeks I have been getting ready for the big move. Currently I have a 40 gallon stretch hex with 100 lbs. of aquacultured live rock, a bunch of aquacultured soft corals and a farm raised clownfish. I do not have a sump, and the only filtration I am using is a coralife super skimmer. I have a Coralife agualight pro on the tank which gives me a Metal Halide lamp and actinics. By and large I have been happy with that set up for the past 18 months. However, I have found the lack of a sump to be a real issue. There is no place to put Carbon, Phosban, etc. I have had to resort to a whisper hang on filter for these media, and it really limits me. Also, with the design of the stretch hex, I have found it hard to get "good" 'water movement in all areas of the tank.

So, based on that I have embarked upon an upgrade plan. I have been taking my time getting the necessary equipment in order, mostly to keep below the radar with my wife. She is great with my reef addiction, but if thousands of dollars of stuff show up all at once, she might not be so supportive. So slow but steady has been the mantra. I actually did okay, and she only raised an eyebrow when the sump arrived in the mail, and the box was big enough for her to fit in. oops

Here is the plan. First of all, I am not going huge. The tank needs to fit in my home office. I would love a 200+ gallon tank, but based on the above, that is not an option. So I purchased a 65 gallon all glass tank with the mega flow option (built in overflow). I also got the MegaFlow 3 sump. I have removed the bio balls and will be using it as a sump only. I am using a new quiet one 4000 pump, the coralife skimmer and lights from the old tank. I have recently replaced all of the bulbs in my fixture, plus put in a new membrane and filter media in my RO/DI unit. So Its like I am getting a new tank across the board. Kind of cool.

I intend to put in new sand in the new tank. One bag of agra-alive sand and one bag of regular reef sand. I am only going to put a thin layer down, as I do not intend to have a DSB, and the sand is only for cosmetic purposes. I will not be moving any sand from the old tank to the new. I think that would cause more problems then it would prevent (trapped phosphates, nitrates, etc.) The rock is well cured, and I think that will be enough to prevent a re-cycle of the tank. Also, I will be moving all of the water from the old tank to the new. And adding about 30 gallons of new water to make up the difference.

What do you all think? See any problems with that plan? When I posted the original idea, I got some good feedback. Namely, don't move the sand, and make sure to provide plenty of water and air in the storage vessels during the move, just in case it takes longer then expected and the corals need to sit in containers for a while. Can you all think of anything else?

Im going to do the move the weekend after next. Ill post pictures and keep you all up to date on the progress.

 

Sounds good to me.
I however do not see the need to get rid of the sand. I know that is a mixed issue but if you wanted to use the old sand in your fuge you could slowly add it and save yourself a few dollars. I just moved 4in of sand in my 75 that I had to put in 5 gal buckets (about 4 of them) and then just it back in the 75 at the new location. I was in a huge hurry and actually had to put in the sand, toss in the rocks without looking where they were landing, all the coral, and then the fish. I was amazed everything survived even though you could not even see into the tank for about 4 hrs. Not a single loss. Now that is just me though and I did a 20% water change every other day for about a week to ensure everything worked out. About the sand.. mine also was about a yr and a half old never became rock hard like some peoples so that may have helped as well. Good luck and take lots of pics

 

I'd use some of that Old sand anyways to put a little life into the new system.. P0'4's should be no problem I used the agra-live and it seemed to do a good job In our newly set up 180 I was kind of forced to take a small Hippo and a Huge lawn-mower Bleeny and the Hippo was almost dead when I was given to us.
He went through the new un-cycled tank and look's Way better then he did when we had to take him his latterial line is clearing up and almost not at all noticeable . he went in at about 2 weeksinto the cycle and now its been 8 weeks and just four or five more weeks and its done so I’m guessing he will make it just fine. And all I did differently this time was to use the Agra live that was sent to me to see what I thought of it. It was a 15lb bag tossed in on top of 80 lbs of caribasea custom seafloor and a cup of sand from a smaller reef we now have after it was cleaned and scrapped for the coralline .
I noticed the other day all kinds of little tube worms stuck in the overflows , this morning I see a lot of pods along the bottom of the glass and the corallines are starting to catch hold now as there are coralline spores catching hold. Other then the agra- live I set this one up as I always have just using a cup or two of sand from a old and trusted system if it was not mine. Oh and the damn Hippo never had a speck on him and that was a first for me they always speck up for a few weeks to a few months.