Transferring a 10gal to a 20gal...Suggestions??Please give your input...

[quiksilver5768]

Hey everyone,

I havent been on a the board in a loooonnnggg time due to school and summer jobs and such. Though after having my tank for a year and a half, I feel it is time. The tank is fully stocked and seems a bit too crowded. My only concern is that due to the high water displacement in my tank...I really only have abour 5-6 gallons of water in the tank (I have lots of rocks). So Instead of the tank going through a sort of 50% water change when getting switched to the 20gal...it will be more like a 75% change. This scares me because the tank could go into another cycle. The cycle will most likely be quick (atleast i hope) since I have a lot of live rock going into the tank and my old DSB seeding a little bit of new substrate. How do you think I should go about switchin the tanks? Should it be an all in one change like I was planning? (Make the new water in the tank, about 14 gallons, with new gravel already in tank, then seed that gravel with my old DSB and add old water from 10 gallon. Let that settle for a few hours, then transfer LR, coral, and fish) Any Suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

[gobies]

Are you getting new rock for your 20g?

 

Here's a plan similar to what I'm planning on doing when I move the 10g into the 30g....

 

Round 1:

- set up 20g tank and mix 10g water in the tank

- add new sand, plus a couple of cups of sand from your 10g

- add the new live rock

then let that cycle...

 

Round 2:

- take the LR out of the 20g

- tear down the 10g -- put the corals into buckets, bowls, whatever

- add the sand from the 10g to the 20g

- redo all the rockwork

- acclimate the corals & critters to the 20g, as if they were new ones you'd just bought -- but instead of throwing out the "old" water, add it to the 20g

- arrange corals in 20g

- add fish

- add critters (e.g., snails, which take longer to acclimate)

 

 

Comments, anyone who's actually done this?