i am in the process of buying a new 55g glass tank.. for a awesome price, i might add... this guys is selling me the tank, hood, stand and hang on filter for 65 bucks! woo hoo :^: so the tank i'm using now is 55 as well, but it has some scratches on the glass so its not really that clear, so i'm going to swap out tanks.. however i'm not really sure how i should do this... can i just take everything out of my current tank put my rocks and critters in buckets and transfer them in to my new tank ?? what do i do about the water, and my sand??? will i have to cycle my new tank??? i need help, can someone please give me some advice!! thank you ;-)
Tank Swap
- Thread starter ErYn
- Start date
74nautique
Reefing newb
I had to swap tanks once, first make up some salt water (25%) then I lined 3 of the large trash cans I had with bags and started draining all the tank water into them and placing all the coral & LR in the cans, I put a pump in to circulate the water. I caught the fish, shrimp, crabs and put them in a bucket of tank water. Took the sand out and put into another bucket then changed tanks and reassemble and used all the old water I could (didn't drain the trash cans all the way due to junk floating around) then did a water change. I didn't seem to have any problems but it took about 14-15 hours. If you don't have a sump use the old 55 for one.
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thank you for the advice. i do have another silly question, when you say put a 'pump' in to circulate water, what kinda of pump are you talking about?? and i dont have a sump, i only have a hang on filter. the only other problem i have is that i'm moving into another house, so i'm going to swap from old tank at my old house, to my new tank at my new house... do you think that will be a bigger hassle??
74nautique
Reefing newb
I used some power heads but you could use an air pump with air stones also. I don't think it would be any more hassle to move to another house but the hardest part would be moving the water. You could put your fish, coral, LR in buckets with lids for the drive over to the new house and drive slow (so you don't slosh everything around too bad). Maybe you could move the water the same way?
74nautique
Reefing newb
:beerchug: Good luck and plan on taking a lot of time.
squibley2
Reefing newb
When I moved tanks from one house to another I moved all the water in 5 Gal buckets from Home Depot they have the lids there as well and when you put those lids on they are air and water tight so don't do that with the fish and stuff unless it is a really short trip and make sure you wash them first.
minireefer
Reefing newb
Depending on how long the fish and coral are going to be out of the new tank. you might want to get some bags and rubberbands for a store( the LFS Might give you some).If you bag the coral and fish you can put them in foam container like a stirefoam cooler the keep the tempature change down
