Tank Move advice

[kenc87]

So we finally found a sub-letter for our apartment, but the problem is he needs to be in by friday. So it looks like I am going to have to move the tank in crazy fast time. So here is my general idea of how to do this. The tank is a 65 reef with 20L sump and 30 gallon plumbed in frag tank. So before the move im going to have roughly 50-60 gallon of fresh saltwater made at the new place.

1. Place all corals into individual bags/containers for the trip.
2. Drain enough water into buckets to allow me to keep live rock covered.
3. Finish draining water from display and get fish by hand when water is lowest. Place fish into individual bags to allow for smooth transportation.
4. Remove all sand and throw away.
5. clean tank with rodi water and dump
6. Load all equipment into moving van and drive to new place.
7. Hook everything back up and put new dry sand into tank.
8. Start refilling slowly using new water while also aquascaping to ensure liverock stays wet.
9. aclimate fish and corals to tank
10. Check all parameters every few hours
11. Have a beer

Any ideas? I want to use new sand since I have a DSB currently and want to remove it. I unfortunately do not have time to set up a temp holding tank and cycle it as this is happening fast. I don't think I should have a cycle of any sort given that the liverock is well established and will stay wet. Hope to do all this within 5-6 hours.

[Joel_155]

I wouldn't use dry sand but live sand instead. Dry sand may cause your tank to go through a mini cycle ( at least that's what my LFS told me when I did my tank move.). Also I would try and keep as much water as possible to avoid issues with stability.

[coralsnaked]

Originally Posted by Joel_155

I wouldn't use dry sand but live sand instead. Dry sand may cause your tank to go through a mini cycle ( at least that's what my LFS told me when I did my tank move.). Also I would try and keep as much water as possible to avoid issues with stability.

I think you have this backwards. Live sand will cause a recycle and dry sand will not

[kclewis]

I pumped as much of my water as I could into brute cans and put the fish inside. I think your plan is solid.

[kenc87]

Ya live sand is not necessary. Any other ideas? I am really hoping to not lose anything

[Esage]

When I did this I used new live sand. Your plan is what I did last time and is what I will do again in six months.

[Lynxone]

I have to do this soon also. Do you use any of the old tank water or all new water?

[kenc87]

I'm planning on using roughly 25 gallons old water with about 65 new water

[Esage]

Originally Posted by Lynxone

I have to do this soon also. Do you use any of the old tank water or all new water?

I use as much old water as I can

[Lynxone]

That's what I was thinking. Let us know how the move goes and good luck!

[Timfish]

Originally Posted by coralsnaked

I think you have this backwards. Live sand will cause a recycle and dry sand will not

I'll agree with Joel_155 on this one. Saving as much of the bacteria from the old tank is what I would do. This means saving most of the water, sand and rock. When I move a tank I will remove 80% of the water first to minimize stirring up the detritus as much as possible, some corals I may remove during this but again my objective is to disturb things a little as possible. afer all the rock and fish are out I will stir up the sand and syphon off the detritus then scoop out the sand. Ive doen this many times over the years moving tanks and never had a mini cycle happen. Remember that RO does not remove the ammonia just break the chloramine bond and remove the chlorine so if your water source has 1 ppm ammonia and you do a 25% water change you should see .25 ppm an hour or so after the water changes. Doing a 50% or 70% water change along with removing a significant percentage of the bacteria in your system can potentially cause problems. A simple test is to check fresh RO for ammonia.

[kenc87]

Well given that I have a deep sandbed and to get the rock out I'm going to disturb it pretty bad, same situation given that I have two wrasses I'm going to have to go digging for I think replacing the sandbed is best. As for the water, there's really nothing beneficial in the water bacteria wise so it's essentially doing a massive water change.

[stevek480]

I moved my 125g last year and your plan sounds solid, pretty much along the lines of what I did. I tossed the old sand also and put in new dry sand, didn't have any problems with that. I also didn't even transport the rock in water because I had too much to move. I put the rock without any corals in a couple rubbermaid buckets, and covered them with wet paper towels. Then only put the rocks with coral on them in buckets of water.

One thing I can add, is that when you are emptying the water out of the tank after you get all the fish and rock out, it helps to have a wet/dry vac on hand. I took out all the sand I could with scoops and then used the wet/dry vac to get any remaining water/sand.

[Frantz]

ugh, moving a live tank is a PIA. With the fish, so long as they get along, I like using buckets. I drill two holes in the lid the size of air-tubing. I then run an air line with a stone at the end and I put the stone at the bottom of a tube of pvc. This circulates the water better than the stone by itself, but not needed for short trips. You can get a power inverter for $20 at hardware store to run the air pump, which is cheaper then buying a battery pump and batteries, and you can just use a pump you have sitting around.

[kenc87]

I'm only moving 5 miles so the fish should be ok. I'm going to bag them using bags from my lfs. Hopefully they will only be in the bags for a few hours at most