Input on Switching tanks

[HaymannNH]

My wife has talked me into moving my 35 gallon hexagon reef tank to my 55 gallon fresh water tank.I know this is gonna stink to do but I agree with her,the 35 hex just does not have the viewing that he hoped for.
I know I need to empty the fresh tank and wash it well before moving the salt tank over.I was planning on moving all the sand ,water and everything to the 55 gallon tank.
I will not have enough sand and live sand for the 55 gallon tank,I have noticed alot of people use crushed shells mixes,would I be better off making up the 20 gallons with that instead of buying another bag of live sand?I have 60 lbs of live rock so I will be okay in the aspect until I get some more which I should'nt need much.
I want to try and make this as painless as possible so any advice would be great.
Thanks,
Don

 

[aquamom]

I have moved tanks several times. Always up. I have used as much existing water as possible and just the top layer of sand. Dig too deep into the sand bed and you stir up some nasty stuff. I then just purchased an appropriate amount of live sand to add to the mix. I have never had an spike or a cycle doing this.

It is however a HUGE mess.

good luck

 

[rjdudek]

I doubt you have to buy live sand. Just put the top of your old sand bed on top of the new.