how to go about upgrading??

[illcssd]

i currently have a 29g, and i am prob. upgrading to a 55 pretty soon. i have a 3 sb, and about 75lbs of lr, i know its alot, i actually planned on upgrading. but if i just put new sand, and my current water and lr, and add some more water, how much of a cycle do you think i will be going thru.?? and is there any special tips for doing this>???im kinda nervous about it, cause my 29 just got stabled, and now i dont want to have to start all over but i dont htink there is any way around it>..........???is there thanks austin

[Casey]

Probably not any good luck with it.

[Geoff]

is there any way you start setting up the 55 while the 29 is still running? that way you can have the 55 cycling for a while, then start transfering some of the stuff from the 29 to the 55.

i would just get rid of the SB in the 29 though. trying to move a SB is disaster waiting to happen. this would be the biggest cause of a cycle.

G~

[Reefer Addict]

I agree with Geoff... I moved everything but the sandbed in my upgrade from a 55g to a 120g and didn't have any cycle to speak of... not a single blip on the test kit.
I did however, sift out a bunch of shell rubble that I had in my first sandbed and transferred that over... I think that helped seed the new sandbed with bacteria... after seeing all the goop that came out of the old sandbed though I'm happy I decided to replace it, and it was only a little over a year old.

I'm a firm believer in vacuuming out detritus now... I keep my 1-1/4" sandbed immaculate in the new tank, and am working on getting plenty of sandbed stirrers (currently have gobies and pistol shrimp).


HTH

[Bleeg]

I also agree with geoff... however, i did move my sandbed in my 55 to my 120. I also added enough sand to go up about 5 inches in the 120. This was all live sand so it wasn't that big of a deal. I did get a little bit of an amonia spike but with the amount of cured rock i had in there, it went away fairly fast. Heres a pic of my 120 now: http://www.thereeftank.com/photopost...t=7&thecat=500

the custom stand actually covers abou 2 inches of the sb.

good luck