5ft Tank.

If your smaller tank is established, I dont expect there to be much of a cycle when you switch. there will be a spike but not enough to cause real damage imo.

Like stated above, I would displace everything from the small tank into bins, water and all. then I would move the larger tank where you want it, then refill the larger tank with the old livestock, including water.

Pre mix the water as if you were doing a 40% water change insuring the SG, PH, and temp are where they should be.

I would be prepared to do daily water changes for about a week to try to minimize the stress that the spike will place on your pets.

Good luck!

Yep i'll second that...done exactly the same myself....no issues what so ever...I would not do water changes every day though, mainly as i dont think it will be neccesary...

Niko
 
As long as you keep the filters running there shouldn't be a problem. Place fish,sand,liverock in a large rubbermaid,with the filters running it,and there should be no problem. You can get a fairly large rubbermaid bin frome Home Depot for a reasonable price.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.
One thing that is bothering me is as i will need to add more sand to the new tank,how do i do this?
I have read that you should not put new live sand on top of oldsand,is this true?
 
I would rinse the new sand and place it in the tank first and then add everything on top of it. The old sand will seed the new sand.
 
Thanks for all the replies,you have all been a great help to me.

Thanks.
Liz.
 
I moved from a 55 gallon to a 30 gallon... I put all the water and live stock into huge rubbermaid containers with a powerhead and filter. Then i added about 3/4 of the water out of the tubs... perhaps you can do the same but mix some new SW and let it sit for a couple of hours?
 
not sure but thought I'd throw this in ..the LR will be more stable if it is placed before the sand. that way any critters that burrow won't burrow under the LR creating an unstable platform..no?

place the new sand under the old(live ) sand.
I also understand that new sand can be placed over old as long as it is a thin layer.

your LR should be able to handle the new tank as long as the params are very close.
 
Your tank will not cycle if you move everything from one tank to another, unless you allow alot of stuff to die.

If you are keeping everything in the water from the old tank during the change over, then there will be no cycle, because there is no die off.

Keep all the water, and mix new water to fill up the difference, do this ahead of time. Empty everything including the live rock into buckets and the blue bins. You may have some issues because the sand will get churned up and it could, not will, could release potentially bad stuff that was trapped in your sand. That would be my only concern.

As trainkilla said, it would be like performing a massive water change, and yes I would follow up with a 10% water change everday for about a week, testing all your params as you go. If you notice anything strange, then move all fish to a QT, but you should not have to.
 
Wow hot topic, by the time I wrote this reply, 8 people had added comments. lol
 
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