Neptune Aquatics

New Build - Merging Tanks

VietNR1

VietNR1

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Hello All,

I'm new to BAR but have been keeping reef tanks for about 2 years now. I'll be upgrading to a 150 gallon tank and was seeking some advice on the best way to merge or combine my current tank with another tank I'm picking up (I'm getting the 120 off CL this week). So my current set up is a three foot long 38 gallon tank with about 50lbs of live rock and mainly zoa's, mushrooms, a leather, a clam, torch, frogspawn, monty frags, a six line, and algae blenny. The other tank is a 4 foot long 120 with about 200lbs of live rock, a pair of skunk clowns, various polyps, and I can't exactly remember what else right now but they're basically two individual tanks that are up and running.

My goal is to merge both tanks into a 6 foot long 150. I'm just not sure what's the best way to do so. In the past when I've moved, I simply placed all my livestock and rocks in buckets drained the water, kept the water, moved the tank then filled everything back up. I was pretty successful as I did two moves and didn't lose anything. But now with this other tank and going bigger, I know I'm going to have to kick up the sand when I move it from the 38 and 120 to the 150 so I'm a little concerned. TIA for any thoughts, suggestions, etc.
 
Hey Viet,

Personally, I would ditch the sand and go with new dry sand seeded with some of the live sand. Alternately, you could wash/rinse the sand that you have before putting it into the tank.

Or better yet, just go barebottom and be done with it.

You're lucky that you can set up your 150G separately and keep the 120 and 38 running at the same time. This will save you a lot of pain in not having to do a staged transfer where you have all of your livestock in buckets for an extended period...
 
I'm with Jason moving sand can be a tricky endeavor.

Before you touch anything I would make a plan for overall what you want the tank to look like, do you just want to keep all the corals and rock? Do you want any particular aquascape job? Don't be afraid to have stuff that you don't want too.

I would drain as much water as possible first without disturbing the sand bed, corals will be out of water deal with it... it also makes it much easier to catch fish in a shallow amount of water. Pull the rocks carefully, place them in the container with water, and get the fish out. Do your aquascaping, add water, add fish, add additional water as you will need it.

If you want to reuse the sand, I'd clean it out a lot before adding it, especially if it's a 2 year old tank. Or just go with new sand.
 
Actually, I will have to do a staged transfer. I should have mentioned the various things I'm up against. The 120 needs to be moved on Friday so I will be going there, tearing it down, and setting it back up Friday? Also I need to move my 38 by next week so I'll either have to tear it down and set it back up as well or wait until the new tanks up and running and then move things over. Either way, no fun. I was hoping to save as much water as possible from the 120, move the sand from there, move the sand from the 38, then cover it all with new live sand then aquascape and fill back up.

I thought it was ok and sometimes a good idea to reuse sand. I've always done it as I upgraded, from a 10 to a 20, 20 to 29, 29 to 38. I guess it wasn't that big of a jump but each time so I wasn't stirring too much up. But I did have to physically move the sand each time kickin up whatever was underneath.

So from what both of you are saying is that I'll need to either clean out the sand or get new sand completely? BB is not a choice cause it'll be at my folks place and they want a natural look. Looks like I got a lot of work to do this week.
 
I'm a bit curious on this as well. Soon I will be moving my 100gal from San Diego to San Jose and was reading here for tips. I as well was under the impression that reusing sand was a good way to quickly establish a tank. Mine has been mixed to a point I'm unhappy with and was going to sift it through when I moved, I guess i should rinse it out as well?

Good luck with the combonation! It might be a good idea to start sharing water between the two for a few weeks before the combining, so that you won't have to do as much acclimation.
 
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Good luck with the combonation! It might be a good idea to start sharing water between the two for a few weeks before the combining, so that you won't have to do as much acclimation.
Click to expand...

This is a good idea! :)
 
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