Moving Livestock to a larger tank

not sure about salt water, but for fresh water in my experience, as long as you use the same filter, decor, and the water from your smaller tank everything will be ok . Again ive never dealt with SW so im not sure if the same principle applies, sorry.

I moved from a 55 to a 90 a few years back. I used as much of the stuff from the original tank as possible, and everything went quite well. Think of it like this: It's really just a big water change!

Transfer your sand, rock, and water right into the new tank... Adding more saltwater won't hurt anything, just be sure your parameters match so it's not a shock to the livestock..

I'm not familiar with that filter.. Is it rated to handle a 55 gallon load? If so, roll with it!

You should be fine up-sizing without having to cycle. You will be using all the established rock, water, etc from the old tank. My only suggestion is to have a ton of prepared water just in case. When I up-sized a year or so ago, I had Paly wars that night that crashed the tank. When I awoke in the morning, the tank looked like someone had dumped three or four gallons of milk into the tank. I immediately threw on a second carbon canister, but it was too late. If I had had enough new water made, I would have been able to save some of the fish/corals. It was not pretty. Lost all sps and most fish.


EDIT TO ADD: I would wash any sand I would be transferring from one tank to another. Rock, water, livestock...no problem. But sand, you disturb it too much and kick up a whole bunch of bad stuff. Either use new sand of wash it.

water from the existing tank doesnt have enough of anything in it to be beneficial so you don't have to worry about that. your mechanical filtration on the other hand is the key. keep it wet and heated throughout the process and you will be good to go. Mkae sure the new LR you add is established as well. If its not then only add 10Lb's or less at a time and wait a few week before adding more.
Witht the live sand scoop it out and put it in a 5 gallon pail filled with saltwater. wehn you go to add it to the new tank scoop it out of the bucket with something like a strainer so that the water falls out but you keep the sand. Don't use any of that water for anything. Ive moved a few tanks now and found that if you don't use the sand water and keep you bacteria colony in your filteration going there should be no cycle. Test water and if you get any ammonia do 25% water changes a day until its gone.