How Would You Go About Upgrading A Tank?

[p3rmafrost]

Hello Everyone -

I'm curious to hear how you planned out your tank upgrade. I currently have a Reefer 250 (54 gallon display, 11 gallon sump). I'm confident that at some point I would like to upgrade it to a larger tank, right now I'm thinking about something in the 100 gallon range. I'd like to get something about 48 inches wide. My current tank is in the only viable spot in the basement for a tank of that size. If I were to upgrade, my current tank would need to come down, and the new tank would need to go into its place. The current tank has a variety of corals, a huge CUC, and 6 fish.

 

How would you tackle that challenge?

[YHSublime]

Just did this. Upgraded a 22 gallon tank into an 80 gallon tank, in the same location. 

 

Broke the old tank down into plastic totes from home depot, had the extra water made up and on hand. Setup the new tank, put contents back into new tank with more water. You could also cycle rock in a container or tub before hand so you don't have to wait/worry when you setup your new jam. 

 

Don't overthink it, you're literally adding more water (and probably rock) to your system. 

[howaboutme]

I was gonna say that the best way is to put the tank in another location but that's not happening here.

 

Somehow I think Isaac's 2 sentence paragraph is much harder than it seems...Plan for a long day, especially if you're doing it yourself. Try to do most of the plumbing (like gluing) before hand when you dry fit in another location. Then all you need to do is to attach them via unions. Basically, do as much as you can prior.

[YHSublime]

2 hours ago, howaboutme said:

Somehow I think Isaac's 2 sentence paragraph is much harder than it seems..

 

Always is. 

 

Plan to have assistance. And another day on top of moving day. For me it's making sure the tank is plumbed and the water quality is matched up as best as possible. Most tanks will be OK without skimmer, dosing, lights, etc. My biggest piece of advice would be to have all the equipment ready for a bigger tank. For me that was making sure the stand was ready, tank was drilled, and I had all my plumbing on hand with a gazillion extra pieces. My MP10's wouldn't work on new glass thickness, so I already had MP40's ready to roll. Like anything, the more you prep, the easier it will go. 

 

2 hours ago, howaboutme said:

Then all you need to do is to attach them via unions. Basically, do as much as you can prior.

 

This. And untangle all your cords. 

[wildcrazyjoker81]

What has already been said is pretty much it in a nutshell. If you know you're going to need time, then borrow and or buy a Rubbermaid trough and set it up as a normal tank in the room until you can get the new one up and running. I've upgraded numerous times and it is a long day for sure. Having the big troughs has saved me numerous times as it allows you to make a ton of water and leave it running in case plumbing leaks or something just doesn't go as planned. 

[epleeds]

Are you able to move the smaller tank to another spot in the basement?  It’s wouldn’t be very hard to drain it, move the tank over a few feet or so and then put everything back in. That would take maybe an hour. 
 

then you can plan on the spot for the new tank and take it slow. The bigger problem of going from a 50 gallon to a 100+ is where are you going to get the extra water. Do you have enough on-site to make the transfer easy. Or would you have to carry 5 gallon buckets of water. 
 

It’s not hard, I have done it several times. I even drained my 200 gallon tank to pull the entire sand bed and put everything back in about 6 hours later. It was a PIA but on a smaller tank it should be fairly easy. 

[nburg]

I moved my tank across the country in 2019, and I agree that if you could move the current tank so you have time to set up the upgraded tank, add water, make sure there are no leaks and maybe even cook some new rocks, that would make your life easier to not worry about the current livestock until the new tank is ready to receive. 

 

I moved my 116g into 2 20g long tanks plumbed into eachother, then moved them all to the big tank once I got it up and running, up to temp and even had rock in there for a week or so... then moved everything in and it seemed to go well, even for the Acropora. 

[lynn.reef.nerd]

My only question is the time span between getting livestock out and having the new tank up and ready.

 

If you need to hold the livestock in the holding tank for days/weeks to set up the new tank (setting up, plumbing, etc.) I would consider something simple like a large rubbermaid container. You can put all your live rock, fish, livestock in it with flow and it should be fine. Add some lighting if needed for longer duration. 

 

I know @telegraham recently swap tank and he has a rubbermaid going with lights while he sets up his new one. I moved homes with rubbermaids as temp. tanks also and it worked out well. I did not lose any of the fish. 

[p3rmafrost]

You all rock. This has been really good advice.

 

Right now I don't have a new tank, and I'm not really in the market for one. If a fantastic deal (which happens a lot around here) popped up, I might jump on it, but it isn't a priority. That said, I'm absolutely certain that at some point I will upgrade the tank, and I wanted to make sure I thought through the logistics before hand.

 

My basement is pretty large, and I have plenty of space to make/store extra salt water. I also have the room to store the existing water in my tank. It would be a matter of picking up either a huge brute bucket, or a ton of 5 gallon Home Depot buckets. The room will look like crap for a few days, but that's to be expected.

 

Fortunately, most of my corals are on rocks that are small enough to fit into containers, and I think I could get them out without damaging anything. I also have a bunch of extra rock. I have a few select pieces that I have been "seasoning" in my sump. When the time comes to upgrade, I would probably rotate them to the display, and add my other pieces into the sump for a few weeks. I think the only new thing I would need would be some sand. I believe I have enough equipment to facilitate the move.

 

I have a 4 head doser, large skimmer, 3 power heads, 1 gyre and an adequate light. The return pump would likely need to be upgraded. I would be looking at moving from my Reefer 250 to something in the 100-150 gallon range. It really depends on the dimensions of the tank, I would be looking for something around 48 inches wide. My current tank is 36 inches wide.

 

I'm also looking at upgrading a second tank, a 55 gallon freshwater tank. We have a turtle that my wife rescued from a colleague years ago (she's the only occupant). After getting back into saltwater, we discussed it, and we'd like to do a similar setup for the turtle. We would like to have something with a sump and be able to hide the massive amount of filtration equipment that turtles need (messy critters).

 

Thanks again to everyone for their advice, if you have more, or if you read this post and I missed something, keep it coming!

[cpeguero]

Everyone has already provided great advice. Just adding my 2 cents:

If you can set up a temporary system (few days to a week or more) for your livestock, it will significantly reduce your stress level. I’ve moved tanks probably over a dozen times, and tear down and set up in same day is the biggest stressor. This also means you won’t be rushing when problems come up. You can take time to make sure you address them the “right” way, not the way-that-gets-your-livestock-back-in-the-tank-quickly-and-not-dead.

When you do upgrade, take the opportunity to fix/upgrade/change things you don’t like or want to improve. You’re already thinking ahead, so that’s the best time to plan for those things. Make sure you keep lists/write down what you want to do and come back to it later. I spent over a year planning my upgrade….. can’t count how many times I changed things after revisiting or discussing with others.


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[cpeguero]

Also, if you need more rock or sand, I have lots to get rid of….


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[p3rmafrost]

2 hours ago, cpeguero said:

Everyone has already provided great advice. Just adding my 2 cents:

If you can set up a temporary system (few days to a week or more) for your livestock, it will significantly reduce your stress level. I’ve moved tanks probably over a dozen times, and tear down and set up in same day is the biggest stressor. This also means you won’t be rushing when problems come up. You can take time to make sure you address them the “right” way, not the way-that-gets-your-livestock-back-in-the-tank-quickly-and-not-dead.

When you do upgrade, take the opportunity to fix/upgrade/change things you don’t like or want to improve. You’re already thinking ahead, so that’s the best time to plan for those things. Make sure you keep lists/write down what you want to do and come back to it later. I spent over a year planning my upgrade….. can’t count how many times I changed things after revisiting or discussing with others.


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This is great advice. I have often found that "small" projects turn into a yak shave which in turn makes small projects big, time consuming projects. After the discussions here what I am leaning towards is upgrading the turtle tank first. She's an air breather so she can sit around in her holding tank for a long time, she can even sit in the tub for a bit while I work on her tank. Once her spot is upgraded that would give me a "spare" 55 gallon tank to sit on the ground and move my livestock into. I can transfer over the pumps and run a bare bottom tank for a while as I get the new tank set up. That should reduce the stress and give me time to correct any issues that pop up. Does that sound reasonable?

[nburg]

I’d make sure the 55g is thoroughly cleaned otherwise great plan. I’ve used a 75g turtle tank for my first reef tank and it was fine. 

[p3rmafrost]

1 hour ago, nburg said:

I’d make sure the 55g is thoroughly cleaned otherwise great plan. I’ve used a 75g turtle tank for my first reef tank and it was fine. 

Oh yeah, it'll be clean. Turtles are pretty nasty. They have a host of bacteria and other funk that I don't want in my reef. I keep two sets of gear so they're never cross contaminated. I'll need to research what kind of disinfectant to use, but when the time comes I'll figure it out. 

[cpeguero]

1 hour ago, p3rmafrost said:

This is great advice. I have often found that "small" projects turn into a yak shave which in turn makes small projects big, time consuming projects. After the discussions here what I am leaning towards is upgrading the turtle tank first. She's an air breather so she can sit around in her holding tank for a long time, she can even sit in the tub for a bit while I work on her tank. Once her spot is upgraded that would give me a "spare" 55 gallon tank to sit on the ground and move my livestock into. I can transfer over the pumps and run a bare bottom tank for a while as I get the new tank set up. That should reduce the stress and give me time to correct any issues that pop up. Does that sound reasonable?

Sounds like a good plan. I would put an Ammonia Alert in there, just to be on the safe side. Also, if you have any number of corals in there, plan to at least monitor alkalinity to make sure things don't go too far out of whack on you. I'd imagine the move will impact their growth and/or uptake of resources. If you need to dose, make sure you're testing frequently - I learned the hard way to ALWAYS test for what you're dosing.

[nburg]

13 minutes ago, p3rmafrost said:

Oh yeah, it'll be clean. Turtles are pretty nasty. They have a host of bacteria and other funk that I don't want in my reef. I keep two sets of gear so they're never cross contaminated. I'll need to research what kind of disinfectant to use, but when the time comes I'll figure it out. 

I would imagine a vinegar bath, and then wiping around the seams with diluted bleach would probably do a good enough job. I imagine much of the bacteria from the turtles might not survive in saltwater?

[p3rmafrost]

On 12/9/2022 at 12:53 PM, nburg said:

I would imagine a vinegar bath, and then wiping around the seams with diluted bleach would probably do a good enough job. I imagine much of the bacteria from the turtles might not survive in saltwater?

Good call on the bacteria. Time to do research!