tank upgrade looking for some advice

[LeoC]

Hey everyone my tanks been up and running for a year and a half now its a mixed reef, 45none rr. It sprung a leak last week and i have already bought a 65rr and planed on setting it up but now its kinda rushed to get it going. I bought 80lbs of sand half dry and half live. I already filled the tank with salt water and added the sand. I was wondering if its okay to swap everything into the tank now live rock and all or should i wait and how long? its been running now for 4 days.
Thanks.

 

[THE WOOKIE]

you are going to have to let it cycle unless you filled the new tank with your tanks old water. either way i would test your water before you do anything

 

[JohnK]

Was the "live" sand the stuff that comes pre-packaged, or is it sand from the old tank?

The Live sand in a bag probably isn't all that "live" and most likely won't have any cycling issues. If it was established live sand from an existing system there may have been some disruption and subsequent die off so I'd test for ammonia and nitrite before swapping the rest of your livestock over.

If it were me, I would move one hardy frag over and use it as a guinea pig.

IMO / IME when you are moving and most of the rock and coral is in an established system there will be little to no initial cycle unless the substrate is a mess.

 

[LeoC]

Its the sand u buy in the bags. I didn't want to use the sand in the tank now. It was a little to course for my liking. The only thing I'm using from the old tank is the live rock. I have little over a 100lbs

 

[JohnK]

I would say move cautiously and change things over gradually, but I wouldn't expect any major issues IMO/IME.

 

[PSU4ME]

I would agree, leave the old sand and use the old rock. Not much of the good bacteria is in the water column so if you used all new water you should be ok. As John said, move them over cautiously and see how it goes. If you're comfortable with what you're seeing then move it all. Just test everyday to make sure nothing goes nuts. I've done it this way before with no issues.

 

[LeoC]

Thanks guys appreciate the info.