Cali Kid Corals

moving tank/upgrade from maryland to california

So I have an established 20 gallon nano stocked with SPS in maryland (under the care of my parents and me remotely) and am planning to move my livestock here to a 60 gallon cube. Here is my plan, please let me know if you see any real faults on it. Keep in mind that I realize this is a risky procedure.

1.)setup 60 gallon with dry rock.
2.)Seed with dr.tim's bacteria and ammonia (similar to my qt tank procedure)
3.) Let tank cycle (hopefully less than a month)
4.) add cuc
5.) fly to maryland and ship all 3 fish here (or maybe just 2)
6.) give another month for tank to stabilize
7.) during this time test with an sps frag
8.) if all systems go, fly back to MD and ship corals
9.) pray

I'm leaving my live rock in MD, because I fear there will be a lot of die off if I ship it here. Also since my parents have been taking care of the tank since I've been gone there has been serious algae issues. Another thought I had was to bring the corals here first before the fish, however the problem with this is that I really won't be to place the corals anywhere if things go wrong.
 
I don't see any faults in your planning but what will you do about your lighting? I presume you're going to be purchasing additional lighting since you're making an upgrade from a 20 to a 60?
 
If you had primarily soft corals, I would say bringing them over earlier would be fine, but for mostly SPS I'd make sure the tank is ready to go.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes the lighting here will be different. I thought about asking someone to hold my corals, but I feel like it's a bit too much responsibility and risk. I have at least a few grand laying in that small tank, and if anything dies, I'd want it to be because of me.
 
Back
Top