Upgrade My 55g To 100g ?

[J-NEILL]

I Have Just Set Up My 100g Tank With Saltwater And 40lbs Of Crushed Coral. I Want To Cycle My Tank But Dont Know How Much To Transfer From Established 55g To 100g For Cycling.
The 55g Has 100lbs Lr,verts And Brain Coral.i Have A Trickle Filter That I Have Let Run For Some Time To Build As Much As Possible Bacteria For The Transfer.
How Much Lr Rock Should I Transfer And How Much Bio Bals Should I Transfer To Make The 100g Cycle Fast But Yet Still Be Safe With The 55 Until Final Transfer?
55g
Tang,clown,4 Stripe,
3 Brain Coral
100lb Lr
4olb Live Sand
Trickle Filter

100g
1000g/hr Pumps
40g Sump
40lbcrushed Coral

 

[jhnrb]

well basically there are 3 ways that come to mind.

1- add sand and bio balls from 55 to new system, add live rock. the more the better. once cycle has completed, start adding the animals slowly until the transfer is complete.

2- move all animals into buckets, transfer rock and bio balls to new system, add sand and live rock to new system, add animals and corals, also add most of the water from the 55 to the new system.

3- put animals and corals in buckets with water from the 55. add all sand and bioballs and live rock to the new system. aclimate and add corals and animals to the new system. sort of like a large water change. add all the water from the 55 to the new system.

with any transfer, assure temperatures and salinities are same on both systems. Im sure serveral others will weigh in here as there are a multitude of ways you could do it. the more seasoned live rock, live sand, you add the faster the system will seed and stablize. I did not intend to get too detailed here but to just provide enough to create some thought on several of the approaches you could do.

 

[graphixx]

if your going up to a bigger tank. I would STRONGLY recommend ditching the trickle filter and get a protien skimmer (i am assuming you dont have one since I did not see it listed). bio balls are nutrient traps they do not remove the matter in the water they just trap it and concentrate it.
The substrate you have in the 100 now I would let run for a day or 2 just to settle. I would then take maybe a third of the "live" sand from the 55 and transfer it to the hundred. the reason for this is ifyou take all the LR and sand from the 55 over to the 100 your gonna have serious die off!!! I would do about a third this will "seed" the new sand bed. let that run for about a week. by doing this your introducing nitrosomas and nitrobacter into the tank and they will feed off the die off that happens in the live sand you bring over. after a week I would test and see where the tank is. If it looks like its still spiking I would do a 20% water change. I would hate to see you try and rush it and end up doing more harm than good. I think if you do it properly you should be ready to move the entire 55 to the 100 in a couple of weeks. I am sure this is probably not what you wanted to hear. This is just my opinion I am giving. I know we get sooo excited when anything new is going on with out tanks. wether it be a new tank or a new critter. I have found that patience is the hardes thing to practice in this hobby but I feel its THE most important thing you can do.

good luck

Greg