Upgrading my 55 to a 125...thought?

[sturnmeyer]

I'm about to begin upgrading my 55g to a 125g. My 55g has been setup for almost 9 years so I am thinking that it would be more beneficial to use the current DSB. Here was my first thoughts. Did I miss anything?

 

1. Move my fish to the (2) 30g tanks that I have. These are too small for them but should suffice for a week or so.

2. Drain the 55g and store in containers.

3. Move the 55g and setup the 125g.

4. Transfer the DSB from the 55g to the 125g.

5. Add new sand, maybe .5" - 1" on top of the original DSB in the new 125g.

6. Move the LR from the 55g to the 125g.

7. Fill the 125g with the water saved from the 55g and new water mixed the night before.

8. Let sit and do its things.

9. Test constantly and once I'm confident the levels look good move the fish into the 125g.

10. Add new LR once cured.

 

I was wondering who has done upgrades like this before and what lessons learned you had come across?

 

Of course...I'll be taking pictures of the entire ordeal!!!!

 

Thanks

Scott

[Gatortailale]

So basically you want to put a 125 in same location as the 55?

 

Basically you are going to have a new tank cycle which means you need to let it cycle for 3 plus weeks before moving over fish and other livestock - if you want the best for them. Depending on size of your fish, they should be fine in a few 30g tanks.

 

Be Patient. Ecosystems do not develop over night!

 

You can move the 55 to another location in your home and keep it running for the few weeks of cycle time if you need more room for your fish.

 

Good luck

[sturnmeyer]

Yeah....I know I'm going to have to let it cycle. I just figured with the same LR, DSB and water from the 55g my time for cycle might be lower? Of course, there is no set time frame for a cycle. Some cycle early, some late.

 

I was really more curious what others have done when doing the same thing. What experiences they had and pitfalls they found.

[dhoch]

I've done this twice now... 55->125->180... the 55 and the 125 were in the same place and I didn't know near what I did before I did my 180...

 

1) Plan on holding containers for ~1-3 weeks.. as craig said thats best for your critters... they'll be fine in that way... make sure they have some LR...

 

2) Save as much water from your old tank as possible...

 

3) OK

 

4-5) I wouldn't do that... Instead I would put in a new sand bed, and add an 1-2" from the old tank... just my opinion and what I did both times, and it seemed to work for me... I've been told doing that much of disturbing of your sand bed is not going to be good and it's not going to have the same structure going into a new tank.

 

6) See 1... I would put some in the 2 30s... and then some in the new tank.. hopefully you are getting more LR

 

7) Make sure you mix MORE water than you think you'll need ... In fact I'm not sure how much water you are going to have left over 30 + 30 > 55 (I would think you would want the water to go with your fish)... then do water changes through the week on the 30s and move to the 55... hmmmm

 

8) Yup

 

9) Yup

 

10) I might do some of this in step 6

 

 

Some additional thoughts... Plan a full day for this move.... Get friends (WAMAS members?) to help

 

More Water than you think you'll need...

 

Towels...

 

The sand will stink some be prepared for this...

 

Dave

[sturnmeyer]

Thanks Dave.....great tips.....

 

I will be using all of the same LR I have in the 55 for the 125. My 2 30gs are already established with their own LR so I just have to do normal acclimating. I change the water at the same time and keep them the same temp so it shouldn't be a problem. I figure I'll move my Picasso into the main 30g with my 2 Percs and then the 2 Maroon Clowns and Yellow Tang will go into the frag tank which has no fish in there. Both are up, been up and have plenty of LR in them.

 

Scott

[sturnmeyer]

Well the upgrade is almost complete. I have a bit more plumbing to do tonight and pickup my additional LR in the next couple of days. I haven't had any issues at all and everything has gone really well. Here are the steps that I took for those who would like to know.

 

1. I moved all of the fish in my 55g to my 2 30g tanks. These were already establish with LR so normal acclimating had them happy as a clam in no time. These tanks are a little small for them but should suffice until I know the 150g(yes, 150g and not 125g like I thought ) is ready.

 

2. The LR in the 55g was then put in containers which were also filled with the water of the 55g. I managed to save probably 98% of the water in the 55g which was helpful.

 

3. Once the water was drained down to the DSB I removed some of it trying not to distube it too much. The 55g tank was then moved out of the way.

 

4. After some cleaning and painting the 150g stand was brought in. I installed all of the equipment, 20g sump and 10g fuge before bringing in the 150g tank. All of this stuff was actually designed and built weeks earlier when the tank was being tested for leaks in my garage, so this step was much easier.

 

5. The saved DSB and new sand was added to the 150g.

 

6. The LR and saved water from the 55g was then added.

 

7. New water, premixed days before was then added to fill'er up.

 

8. Added powerheads, overflow and the new Tek 8 bulb T5 fixture(this thing is BRIGHT).

 

Right now the tank is still settling. I am waiting for a couple of things to arrive today so I can finalize all of the plumbing.

 

In the next couple of weeks I'll add more LR, monitor closely for the cycle and start getting the fuge and protein skimmer going.

 

That's about it....all in all everything has been done over the course of 2 nights and hasn't taken as long as I had planned. ***knocking on wood here***

 

I'll try to take some pictures of the tank and the setup tonight to share if anyone is interested.

 

Thanks to all who offered their thoughts and advice.....it was much appreciated and very helpful....

 

Scott & Brandi

[Gatortailale]

Sounds good. Glad to hear all is going well, but you know what they say - "this thread is worthless without pics"

 

[Charlie97L]

so if you do a tank transfer, you have a cycle, even if you use established live rock?

 

the reason i ask, is i just got a 90, and am starting to look at what i need to do for the transfer.

 

if you have fully cured LR, and use the same water that's in your tank currently, can't you just put everything right over (with acclimation to the new water, of course.

 

charlie

[rocko918]

very well thought out and you will be rewarded with a awesome tank. Nice work Scott, thanks for sharing and look forward to see those pictures!

[sturnmeyer]

Sounds good. Glad to hear all is going well, but you know what they say - "this thread is worthless without pics"

 

 

 

They'll be up tonight....definitely.....

 

 

Thanks Bob.....

 

so if you do a tank transfer, you have a cycle, even if you use established live rock?

 

the reason i ask, is i just got a 90, and am starting to look at what i need to do for the transfer.

 

if you have fully cured LR, and use the same water that's in your tank currently, can't you just put everything right over (with acclimation to the new water, of course.

 

charlie

 

I'm not sure if there will be a cycle or not. I'm planning for a cycle on the safe side. I figure I'd rather wait a week or two and make sure then move my livestock back in thinking there would be no cycle to find one a few days later and loss of all of my livestock. I'm planning on testing the tank every day so I should be able to keep a close watch as to what is going on.

[Charlie97L]

They'll be up tonight....definitely.....

Thanks Bob.....

I'm not sure if there will be a cycle or not. I'm planning for a cycle on the safe side. I figure I'd rather wait a week or two and make sure then move my livestock back in thinking there would be no cycle to find one a few days later and loss of all of my livestock. I'm planning on testing the tank every day so I should be able to keep a close watch as to what is going on.

 

hmmm. yeah, i mean, i can keep (mostly) the 58 set up while i set up the 90... it's really the LR that concerns me the most. plus most of my equipment is transferring over. so i don't know if i could sustain my 58 for 2 weeks without a lot of that.

[sturnmeyer]

hmmm. yeah, i mean, i can keep (mostly) the 58 set up while i set up the 90... it's really the LR that concerns me the most. plus most of my equipment is transferring over. so i don't know if i could sustain my 58 for 2 weeks without a lot of that.

 

I think you'll probably be okay since you are doing 58 to 90. You are only adding 38g where I was adding 125g because of the 180g total water volume.

[sturnmeyer]

Okay everyone...here is the pic I promised. Been caught up doing a few other things...

 

The 150g has been up for over a week now and everything still looks great. All of the levels are still right on the money. We may add a bit more LR but are fairly happy with what we have.

 

Tonight I went ahead and put a couple snails and a few small frags in the tank to see how things go. The snails started grazing immediately and the frags had full polyp extension within minutes. They definitely seem to love the 8 bulb Tek light fixture. I have it about 5" off of the water.

 

If everything looks good on Friday then I'll probably move my Maroon Clowns back into the tank. I want to wait on the Picasso and Yellow Tang for a bit longer. BTW....do you think my Yellow Tang would do okay with a Clown Tang?

 

Here is the pic...

 

Here is the plumbing layout...

Tank Diagram

 

More pictures and updates to come.....

[inedukated]

Nice pic!

 

Keep us posted.

-Ben

 

p.s. I guess I need IE to open that MHT file... darn