How to move a established 200

harleyreefer · 01/25/2010, 04:33 PM

Hey all, I have some questions about moving my 200 gallon tank, along with the 110 sump.
Besides the obvious PITA of actually moving the tank, what about the sand? I have about 4 inches of sand copvering my tank, with a layer of various sized stones (pea sized) scattered about the floor. The tank has been going for well over a year, and is doing fairly well. My PH has been lower than I like, but I havent done much about it, though I have been considering the buffering thing. (7.9, give or take)
Anyway, I get the part about the rocks... buckets, tubs and more buckets, with powerheads. Can put the corrals in a smaller tank (29 gal), so Thats not such a big deal, but I am worried about the sand.
. When I move the sand, there will be no way to move it without disturbinbg it, obviously, and I am worried about what nasty chemical processes will come about as a result if the move. I have moved the tank a few times, but it was usually after a tear down, and expected to start all over anyway. I am hoping to do it this time without starting a full cycle all over again.
. I even thought about sifting the sand to seperate all the fine sand and the pebbles I put in over time. (some of it is garf grunge that was nice at the time, for a more "natural" look, but I think I would like to go with a cleaner look this time. Perhaps I can keep the pebbles in a refugem, or in one side of the tank. (The pebbles are covered in coraline algae, and I hate to get rid of all that purple :-)
. Should I rinse the sand out with saltwater? I hear a lot of things about the different bacteria deep in a sandbed, and I am extremly leary of disturbing the sand bed in a normal situation, but a move will completly mess the balance up, if I have any balance that is. Will ricning the sand even make any difference?
. The whole idea of moving is daunting, and I have stayed in the same plce to avoid just this subject, but I relly need to make the change now. I just dont know the best course of action. Even considering a few changes while the tank is down, (change the backing from mirror film to black, even thought about a plenim underneath).
. I stayed with "well enough" for long enough, but there are a number of "improvements" that I would like to tackle during this time of destruction of my fishes home.
Any thoughts on what I covered, or any other thoughts that I didnt mention would be welcome.
. BTW, I only have a few fish, 2 yellow tangs and a blue tang, along with a few shrimp. This is not counting the coralls, mostly softies.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

john32 · 01/25/2010, 04:40 PM

How far is your move?

Hillbilly318 · 01/25/2010, 04:42 PM

ive done it a few times, both times i started with a fresh sand bed, and left the old sand to dry outside in a bin, or a rubber maid tote.

harleyreefer · 01/25/2010, 04:45 PM

I am just moving a couple of miles accross a small town

harleyreefer · 01/25/2010, 04:54 PM

Gads!, thats a lot of sand to just replace. I bet I have... wow, I am not sure how many pounds of sand I have in there, but its a bunch. 4"x84"x24". With the move, I am not sure I can change out all the sand. Not sure where i would keep the old sand if I did that anyway. Besides, I have a bunch of little critters in the sand, would hate to lose all of them.
Jeff

bhammer · 01/25/2010, 05:13 PM

I helped a buddy move his 310 custom. He had a deep sad bed as well. What we did was to remove the top inch of sand and place in separate bucket. Before it was placed back in, it was washed with a garden hose and dried with a couple fans. Placed back in the DT that night along with rock. We measured params over the next 24 hours and never saw any issues. Placed coral and fish back in the following night and all is doing well. He had a 72 mile move and in the middle, found and accident. It took us 3 hours to make the drive.

We used a bilge pump for the fish and one for the coral. They were plugged into a deep cycle battery that was also hooked up to a charger plugged into an interior outlet. Don't think we needed to go that far with the charger but he wanted to make sure.

The worst part of it all was sloshing water in the traffic. I am sure though that fish thought they were right back in the ocean.

Malcolm_C · 01/25/2010, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhammer

I helped a buddy move his 310 custom. He had a deep sad bed as well. What we did was to remove the top inch of sand and place in separate bucket. Before it was placed back in, it was washed with a garden hose and dried with a couple fans. Placed back in the DT that night along with rock. We measured params over the next 24 hours and never saw any issues. Placed coral and fish back in the following night and all is doing well. He had a 72 mile move and in the middle, found and accident. It took us 3 hours to make the drive.

We used a bilge pump for the fish and one for the coral. They were plugged into a deep cycle battery that was also hooked up to a charger plugged into an interior outlet. Don't think we needed to go that far with the charger but he wanted to make sure.

The worst part of it all was sloshing water in the traffic. I am sure though that fish thought they were right back in the ocean.

i moved sand a few times, moved them in 3mil trashbags, about 20pds per bag. placed the sand in the new tank with water, cut the back underwater and slowly poured the sand out. 24 hour later using filter socks, water was close to normal ( visual )

chuckreef · 01/25/2010, 06:06 PM

I moved my 240. The sand came out last and went into a plactic trash can with a powerhead and heater just like the live rocks did into rubbermaid totes. I focused first on the physical move and on geting the rocks in and arrarnged, and the whole system re-plumbed. Then I added several (five or six pitchers of sand from the trash can (set next to the tank) to the DT (spread out along the tank bottom) every evening after work for four weeks. (The last add was kind of like fifteen pitchers worth but I was done). There were no bad effects on the system other than the silting up every night. I probably did it slower than I needed to, but I'd reccomend the same approach.

01/25/2010, 04:33 PM	#1
harleyreefer Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lufkin Texas Posts: 84	How to move a established 200 Hey all, I have some questions about moving my 200 gallon tank, along with the 110 sump. Besides the obvious PITA of actually moving the tank, what about the sand? I have about 4 inches of sand copvering my tank, with a layer of various sized stones (pea sized) scattered about the floor. The tank has been going for well over a year, and is doing fairly well. My PH has been lower than I like, but I havent done much about it, though I have been considering the buffering thing. (7.9, give or take) Anyway, I get the part about the rocks... buckets, tubs and more buckets, with powerheads. Can put the corrals in a smaller tank (29 gal), so Thats not such a big deal, but I am worried about the sand. . When I move the sand, there will be no way to move it without disturbinbg it, obviously, and I am worried about what nasty chemical processes will come about as a result if the move. I have moved the tank a few times, but it was usually after a tear down, and expected to start all over anyway. I am hoping to do it this time without starting a full cycle all over again. . I even thought about sifting the sand to seperate all the fine sand and the pebbles I put in over time. (some of it is garf grunge that was nice at the time, for a more "natural" look, but I think I would like to go with a cleaner look this time. Perhaps I can keep the pebbles in a refugem, or in one side of the tank. (The pebbles are covered in coraline algae, and I hate to get rid of all that purple :-) . Should I rinse the sand out with saltwater? I hear a lot of things about the different bacteria deep in a sandbed, and I am extremly leary of disturbing the sand bed in a normal situation, but a move will completly mess the balance up, if I have any balance that is. Will ricning the sand even make any difference? . The whole idea of moving is daunting, and I have stayed in the same plce to avoid just this subject, but I relly need to make the change now. I just dont know the best course of action. Even considering a few changes while the tank is down, (change the backing from mirror film to black, even thought about a plenim underneath). . I stayed with "well enough" for long enough, but there are a number of "improvements" that I would like to tackle during this time of destruction of my fishes home. Any thoughts on what I covered, or any other thoughts that I didnt mention would be welcome. . BTW, I only have a few fish, 2 yellow tangs and a blue tang, along with a few shrimp. This is not counting the coralls, mostly softies. Any thoughts? Jeff __________________ 200 gal DT w/ 110 sump 3x korilla4, 4x korilla7, quiet one 6000 return pump AquaC400 skimmer 72" constalation t5 fixture reefkeeper Elite, PC4x3,MLCx2(12 moon leds),SL1,Net Current Tank Info: 200 gallon w/110 sump

01/25/2010, 04:45 PM	#4
harleyreefer Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lufkin Texas Posts: 84	I am just moving a couple of miles accross a small town __________________ 200 gal DT w/ 110 sump 3x korilla4, 4x korilla7, quiet one 6000 return pump AquaC400 skimmer 72" constalation t5 fixture reefkeeper Elite, PC4x3,MLCx2(12 moon leds),SL1,Net Current Tank Info: 200 gallon w/110 sump

01/25/2010, 04:54 PM	#5
harleyreefer Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Lufkin Texas Posts: 84	Gads!, thats a lot of sand to just replace. I bet I have... wow, I am not sure how many pounds of sand I have in there, but its a bunch. 4"x84"x24". With the move, I am not sure I can change out all the sand. Not sure where i would keep the old sand if I did that anyway. Besides, I have a bunch of little critters in the sand, would hate to lose all of them. Jeff __________________ 200 gal DT w/ 110 sump 3x korilla4, 4x korilla7, quiet one 6000 return pump AquaC400 skimmer 72" constalation t5 fixture reefkeeper Elite, PC4x3,MLCx2(12 moon leds),SL1,Net Current Tank Info: 200 gallon w/110 sump

01/25/2010, 04:40 PM	#2
john32 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Angelo, Texas Posts: 90	How far is your move?

01/25/2010, 04:42 PM	#3
Hillbilly318 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 41	ive done it a few times, both times i started with a fresh sand bed, and left the old sand to dry outside in a bin, or a rubber maid tote.

01/25/2010, 05:13 PM	#6
bhammer Addicted User Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 743	I helped a buddy move his 310 custom. He had a deep sad bed as well. What we did was to remove the top inch of sand and place in separate bucket. Before it was placed back in, it was washed with a garden hose and dried with a couple fans. Placed back in the DT that night along with rock. We measured params over the next 24 hours and never saw any issues. Placed coral and fish back in the following night and all is doing well. He had a 72 mile move and in the middle, found and accident. It took us 3 hours to make the drive. We used a bilge pump for the fish and one for the coral. They were plugged into a deep cycle battery that was also hooked up to a charger plugged into an interior outlet. Don't think we needed to go that far with the charger but he wanted to make sure. The worst part of it all was sloshing water in the traffic. I am sure though that fish thought they were right back in the ocean.

01/25/2010, 06:06 PM	#8
chuckreef Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Davis, Ca. Posts: 816	I moved my 240. The sand came out last and went into a plactic trash can with a powerhead and heater just like the live rocks did into rubbermaid totes. I focused first on the physical move and on geting the rocks in and arrarnged, and the whole system re-plumbed. Then I added several (five or six pitchers of sand from the trash can (set next to the tank) to the DT (spread out along the tank bottom) every evening after work for four weeks. (The last add was kind of like fifteen pitchers worth but I was done). There were no bad effects on the system other than the silting up every night. I probably did it slower than I needed to, but I'd reccomend the same approach.