Help! Upgrading to Red Sea Reefer XXL

Hi everyone! My husband finally agreed to let me upgrade my tank to a brand new Red Sea Reefer XXL 750. One one hand I am excited....on the other hand freaking out! Please ease my fears! The new tank will be in the same room but in a different area. Here goes:

1. I don't want to have a cycle, will be using 100lbs of my current live rock, new sand, and buying another 100lbs of new cured live rock.

2. I have spent years getting my fish and corals that I wanted. Some were hard to find. Tank is how I like it. Everything is thriving. But I need more room.

3. My biggest worry is loosing my fish or nems I have had for years. I worry about this the most.

Please help set my mind at ease....any tips or stories of your tank upgrades will be appreciated! My current tank is a 4 ft 80 gallon. Thanks in advance! Pic of current tank taken today.....

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Congrats on the future upgrade! Your tank is looking great and I like how wrasse dominant it is.

Your new tank being in a different location in the same room should make the transfer easier. Incorporating your current rock into the new tanks scape will make it a little bit more challenging but shouldn't be too bad.

How I'd go about it:
Get new tank set up and running with bare bones basics
-new heaters
-upgraded return pump (im assuming)
- if upgrading skimmer start to break that in
- fill with fresh mixed water with major 3 parameters matching current tank
-add new cured live rock * personally I'd add ammonia and verify its completely cycled
-add sand, preferably a dry type and rinsed. I don't trust that the bagged live sand is actually live

Now if you have some time before you buy the new tank I'd start prepping your sand bed, syphoning it regularly with water changes. Focusing around the rock work as much as possible so when the time comes to pull the rock and unavoidably disturb the sand bed it'll be cleaner and hopefully free of toxic gases/super dirty sand that could cause ammonia spikes. I'd also start to remove encrusted coral from rock if need be. That can potentially help with water quality not stressing all corals at once on transfer day.

Day of transfer
- Have some gloves for handling rock. Your hand are gonna cut easily after being wet for hours.
- Make sure both tank's parameters and temps are similar
- Have fresh saltwater mixed and at correct temperature
- I'd add a bottle of Dr.Tim's One and Only or Fritz Turbo to the new tank
- Before transferring rock make sure your ATO is OFF and wave maker pumps are off, maybe just return pump running. Don't want to kick around all the nasties!
-Very slowly remove rock trying to disturb sand bed as little as possible. I'd have a bin of saltwater to dunk/rinse the rock before going in new tank
- Top off with your fresh mixed water as you remove rock. This way you can keep your return running and tank temp stable, allowing fish and coral to remain in current tank while you rock scape your new tank.
- Transfer coral, inverts/clean up crew and easy to catch fish
-Drain tank down to a few inches above sand and lastly try and catch all your wrasse since they'll be buried in the sand and you'll need to dig around releasing who knows what.
Start to move over rest of your equipment.

Hope that helps, everyone attacks tank transfers differently and I'm sure others will chime in. Start with writing out your game plan, it'll help you envision obstacles a head of time.

Congrats and +1 on above ..... you can also set up a temp tank/bin for your corals and fish so they won’t be affected by dirty water to much ... you could even ask for help on the forum pretty sure this forum can help depending where you are located

Wow! Thanks for the wealth of information! I am writing everything down as we speak! I appreciate all the help! 😁