What's the best way to UPGRADE a reef tank?

[Rogerscody17]

Hello reefers,

I have a 75g tank with aprx 80gs of water, including filtration. I have a deadline of this Friday(today is Tuesday early morning) to upgrade from my 75g display to a 125g display with a 55g sump.

To clear the air here:
1. I'm using all new live sand. Old rock.
2. I will perform 2 water changes this week. Both 15gs and hold the old water to fill up some of the space needed. I will now have 110-115gs of water.(still need 70g of water.
3. Switching from leds to coralife 250w MH lighting. I'm keeping the lighting strictly between 18-20k spectrum.
4. I have Sps frags, lps, and softies, large maxima clam, and small fish. Of course a clean-up crew.
5. The current tank does NOT have any form of a uv-sterilizer, protein skimmer, sump/refugium, or reactors. So I feel like with the equipment I will have on the new setup will help not stress out anything.
6. The new tank will have a HOB overflow-box, not internal/built-in.

Questions:
1. Will this much water change, will it stress out anything?
2. Should I just run the tank and fx6 canister without the sump(minus 55g of freshly mixed saltwater I.E.less stress..)
3. How do I come across acclimating these corals to the new lighting, and for how long. Should I look around for anything specific?

Thank you all.

[Pife]

The best way is to set it up and let it cycle for several months then slowly transfer everything over.

[rgulrich]

Having been through the process of shutting down a 180, moving the contents to a new 300 in a new house, and getting it all up and running again in the course of a day (albeit a long one), here's a few tips:
Preparation - pick the location for the new aquarium. If it's going in the same spot, your work is cut out for you. You'll need to find something (Brute containers, 5-gallon pails, whatever) to hold all of your rock and reef life while you transition over. Prep as much water as you think you'll need and then prep another 20-50 gallons (again, Brute containers can come in handy) preferably on a concrete surface to handle the weight. It's better to prep the water at least 24 hours in advance to allow the ph to stabilize and all of the salts to fully dissolve into solution. Line up friends/fellow reefers to help if possible.
Execution - partially fill the new aquarium with water and start transferring the rock and livestock in. Things will settle pretty quickly.

For your specific questions:
1. Of course things will be stressed out, but if you've pre-mixed the water at least 24 hours in advance you will have eliminated the greatest potential stressor, ph differential. If you can get the temperature close to what it is currently that would be even better. This kind of stress should be minor.
2. Bring up as much of the new filtration system as possible - it will help remove any compounds that any organisms stressed by #1 above may release into the water. It would be good to keep the last canister filter of used media and hook it up to the new tank as well for a few days to help redistribute the old bacteria into the new aquarium.
3. Acclimating the corals to the different lighting is a judgment call. When I pulled some of my LEDs and replaced them with 250W MH, I ramped up the exposure time from only a couple hours a day to the current 8 hours a day over a period about 2 weeks long. A lot is going to depend on your corals' reaction to the new lighting. After a day or two of the aquarium settling down after the move, if the corals retract their polyps into the skeletal structure during your lighting period you might want to consider backing off a bit. Mine actually stuck out their little arms welcoming the new lighting, and their current colors and growth reflect how much they like it over the previous.

You're going to be in for a long day or two. I'd really recommend writing a checklist down to make sure you don't forget something, and again, get your water mixed sooner rather than later. And double check to make sure the new aquarium location will handle the weight -before- you begin any of this.

Cheers,
Ray

[Rogerscody17]

Originally Posted by rgulrich

Having been through the process of shutting down a 180, moving the contents to a new 300 in a new house, and getting it all up and running again in the course of a day (albeit a long one), here's a few tips:
Preparation - pick the location for the new aquarium. If it's going in the same spot, your work is cut out for you. You'll need to find something (Brute containers, 5-gallon pails, whatever) to hold all of your rock and reef life while you transition over. Prep as much water as you think you'll need and then prep another 20-50 gallons (again, Brute containers can come in handy) preferably on a concrete surface to handle the weight. It's better to prep the water at least 24 hours in advance to allow the ph to stabilize and all of the salts to fully dissolve into solution. Line up friends/fellow reefers to help if possible.
Execution - partially fill the new aquarium with water and start transferring the rock and livestock in. Things will settle pretty quickly.

For your specific questions:
1. Of course things will be stressed out, but if you've pre-mixed the water at least 24 hours in advance you will have eliminated the greatest potential stressor, ph differential. If you can get the temperature close to what it is currently that would be even better. This kind of stress should be minor.
2. Bring up as much of the new filtration system as possible - it will help remove any compounds that any organisms stressed by #1 above may release into the water. It would be good to keep the last canister filter of used media and hook it up to the new tank as well for a few days to help redistribute the old bacteria into the new aquarium.
3. Acclimating the corals to the different lighting is a judgment call. When I pulled some of my LEDs and replaced them with 250W MH, I ramped up the exposure time from only a couple hours a day to the current 8 hours a day over a period about 2 weeks long. A lot is going to depend on your corals' reaction to the new lighting. After a day or two of the aquarium settling down after the move, if the corals retract their polyps into the skeletal structure during your lighting period you might want to consider backing off a bit. Mine actually stuck out their little arms welcoming the new lighting, and their current colors and growth reflect how much they like it over the previous.

You're going to be in for a long day or two. I'd really recommend writing a checklist down to make sure you don't forget something, and again, get your water mixed sooner rather than later. And double check to make sure the new aquarium location will handle the weight -before- you begin any of this.

Cheers,
Ray

Very in-depth answer. Thank you, just what I wanted to hear. I will keep you posted this Friday and I might just take some before and after pics for anyone who wants to know how to do this.

[rgulrich]

Good luck and have fun. A good excuse to have your friends over and order some pizzas, too.

[formsix]

Great advice already. Make sure to have PLENTY extra new salt water on hand in case you need to do a large water change shortly after you move everything.

[Rogerscody17]

Originally Posted by formsix

Great advice already. Make sure to have PLENTY extra new salt water on hand in case you need to do a large water change shortly after you move everything.

[QUOTE=23249234]rgulrich Good luck and have fun. A good excuse to have your friends over and order some pizzas, too.


Doing the big move tonight! Wish me luck.

[rgulrich]

You're going to do great, and your reef critters are going to love their new home. Just to prove it can be done, here's a shot of my 300 the night I finally transferred all of the rock, the couple fish I decided to keep (I moved out a couple large engineer gobies) and a couple of corals from a 180 - from the previous house.


And a picture of what it looks like today a year later (!!!) (sorry about the blurry cell picture):


Have fun, take your time, and double-check everything in the process (salinity of fresh mixed water, new tank level, plumbing connections, the whole enchilada).

Cheers!
Ray

[E Rosewater]

I know I may be too late but I upgraded from a 155 to a 200 in the same spot. With proper preparation and storage containers it's not terrible. I did it in about 6 (just me and wife) hours with no loss of livestock (coral or fish). I wrote up how I did it on here.

Have LOTS of dry towels handy.

[skimjim]

the best way to upgrade to a reef tank is to FIRST get a 2nd job paying at least $15/hr

[Rogerscody17]

Originally Posted by rgulrich

You're going to do great, and your reef critters are going to love their new home. Just to prove it can be done, here's a shot of my 300 the night I finally transferred all of the rock, the couple fish I decided to keep (I moved out a couple large engineer gobies) and a couple of corals from a 180 - from the previous house.


And a picture of what it looks like today a year later (!!!) (sorry about the blurry cell picture):


Have fun, take your time, and double-check everything in the process (salinity of fresh mixed water, new tank level, plumbing connections, the whole enchilada).

Cheers!
Ray

Originally Posted by E Rosewater

I know I may be too late but I upgraded from a 155 to a 200 in the same spot. With proper preparation and storage containers it's not terrible. I did it in about 6 (just me and wife) hours with no loss of livestock (coral or fish). I wrote up how I did it on here.

Have LOTS of dry towels handy.

Originally Posted by skimjim

the best way to upgrade to a reef tank is to FIRST get a 2nd job paying at least $15/hr

UPDATE ALMOST 1 MONTH LATER:

Most coral have either died in the move, or have bleached in some way. All sps gone, most frogspawn, torch and hammers are gone. All fish have ick. 4-5xx$ down.

The move was excellent, but I think with the new sand bed and lack of a better pump(used the old ones off the 75), everything just went downhill from lighting, temp issues and I guess you could say new tank syndrome.

I will post pics in 7 days after I finish the last touches to the system.

I want to thank everybody on this thread who have helped me make it a good move. Learn from my mistakes and move forward. Looking forward to some new peices by next year!

Also thanks to James King, for giving advice through the entire build process from start to finish. More updates coming soon.