Switching my tanks, advice?

[DustinKeating]

I just bought a 20 gallon and i'm going to be changing the my 10 gallon into the 20, i think i've got it figured out, but i wanted to make sure no one see's any flaws in my plans.

- I've already got 10 gallons (approx) of premixed salt in the 20, along with 10 pounds of fresh crushed coral (not seeded or live).

- Once the substrate settles, my plan is to remove around 25% of the water from the 10 gallon, and switch it into the 20. Leaving the 20 gallon 75% full.

- Then i'll remove the fish and put them into bags (should i do the same with snails, coral, hermits...so far my plan is to do so).

- Then i'll take the LR (without coral on it) and switch it over to the 20g, along with my old cc substrate that was in the 10 (placing it over top the new stuff, good idea?).

- So now my 10 gallon only has water left in it, which i'll put into the 20, making the 20 gallon full, and the 10 gallon empty.

- then i'll very slowly acclimate everything. over the course of around 3 hours.

I have a couple questions though. Can i clean my LR midway between the two tanks, because it's got a lot of green hair algae and if i can i'd like to manually remove as much as i can...will this cause a big ammonia spike if i'm quick about it? and can i clean it with a clean toothbrush, i dont think that will be too damaging?

and do you think that this 50% water change will be too violent on everything?

I think this is a pretty stupid question, but the substrate has taken forever to settle (thought i washed it enough...NOPE) so when i place the new substrate and LR it's going to get stirred up again...If i remember correctly, that's fine for fish and corals...is that correct?

Thanks everyone.

 

[1979camaro]

i think overall your process sounds ok. if you don't want to try to bag everything you could just put the fish and inverts in a 5gal bucket for a while. if you keep the fish in a bucket with a heater your two sets of water should be very much the same so acclimation likely won't be necessary. as far as the substrate getting stirred up it really isn't good for LR or coral because it blocks their ability to do photosynthesis, but if you are careful you should be able to avoid a lot of cloudyness. you can clean the LR with a new toothbrush and it shouldnt cause a problem. get a bucket of SW and clean it off in that bucket then of course throw away the water in the bucket. the large w/c won't be a problem either b/c most of your beneficial bacteria is in the LR

 

[DustinKeating]

I'm pretty sure that the substrate in the 20, in combination with the stuff i'm going to add from the 10 is going to make a huge snowstorm. Mainly because the 20 is starting to settle now, and it looks like a light dusting of snow. any suggestions on adding water, substrate and LR and not make a mess>?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

i use something like this http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_maintenance_gravel_cleaner.asp?ast=&key=
i only use the syphon..i can remove the hose. I put some substrate into a beer pitcher and let it slide into the syphon wich is inside the tank, one corner out of the water, the other one at the bottom of the tank. No powerheads or anything.

 

[DustinKeating]

Thanks everyone, tank move went great. took a long time (around 4 hours) but it looks great now, and everything is alive. Had some interesting developments, i broke a heater and found out i need more buckets. but other than that went great.

I'll post pics later