Moving a tank.

S

scotts

[So in a few months, I"ll be purchasing a house and moving out of my apartment. This leaves me with 145+ gallons of water to deal with. Along with all my corals and such. For those that have moved tanks, what's the best approach to take with this? I'm really kind of clueless how to accomplish this. Freshwater tanks were no problem, but a reef is a completely different kind of beast.

I'm completely open to suggestions. I've been thinking the best way to go is to sell all the livestock, and retain my sandbed and rockwork and just re-establish the tank once I move.]
 
[My tank is in it's infancy so it really doesn't compare to yours, but it got moved this past weekend. It's only a 58 gal. with a 20 gal. sump and it still took around 4 hrs from power down to power up.

I put all live rock in 18 gal. tubs with enough water to cover them. Sand bed was removed and put into salt bucket then everything was loaded onto a trailer.

Set it all back up and replaced the sand bed. I added another 40 lbs to the sand bed to help replace the nasty crap that came out. A 4 month old sand bed wasn't to bad, but any older and I think I would scrap it and replace with new. Just keep some old to seed with.

I have had no problems so far. All livestock is healthy. I need to move some rock around since I couldn't see throught the sandstorm at first.

I would dedicate a full day to moving your tank. I had a half day set aside for mine and ended up moving in the heat of the day due to some other unforseen moving problems.

Of course you can always just pay someone else to do it:D That's what I may do next time!

Good Luck!]
 
[Do a search on the forum. This topic has about a half dozen other threads with good info for you. Mine even has pics!]
 
[crash519 is correct on how you move tanks. There are a few more tricks you need to know...

1. If your rock has sponge growth, make sure you put in your bucket with the sponge growth down. And when you put it back in your tank you put the sponge growth down. Otherwise you will create a HUGE ammonia/nitrate spike in your tank and it will take you many water changes to fix it.

2. When you set your tank back up, check for any leaks...especially around the overflow area.

3. If you have a fuge, make sure your caulerpa is in water all the time and move it as fast as you can and put a light back on it. even if you have to make two trips. It will keep you from having it go a-sexual.

4. If you have bio media, well....that stuff just stinks. and you will have to clean it up and way through the spike it's going to cause.

5. Move all your corals in full water and please understand your corals. By that I mean make sure you know what corals CAN'T touch other corals. Make sure you don't put them together. Also, I know this will probably take a day, so put a small powerhead and heater in with your corals so they stay the same temp. Make sure the powerhead is going over the heater or the heater will either not work or pop.

6. When moving your fish also put a powerhead, heater and airstone to keep the O2 in the water...they will use it up quick and then you will have to slowly acclimate them back over hours....trust me I know this one. Make sure the powerhead is going over the heater or the heater will either not work or pop.

7. If your sand has been there a long time, you might want to run it through some RO water to clean it out before putting it back in the tank. Or you can take crash519 idea and purchase new sand and seed it with a little of your sand.

8. Bucket up as much water from your tank as you can. But as always, you will have to purchase or have fresh saltwater on hand to finish filling up the tank. That's the way it is...not all water will get moved over. So, make sure you are prepared to either purchase or have fresh saltwater made up.

9. Once you get your tanks set back up...test! test! test! your nitrates, nitrites and ammonia..(I did that backwards...lol) before putting any fish or corals back into your tank. It might take a day or two before you can do this. While you have your fish in the bucket, make sure your doing daily water changes on them. They have nothing that will remove nitrates.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.

James]
 
[I prefer moving LR in trashcans. You can buy 33g trashcans at Home Depot for about $7 each, and they are easier to carry LR and tank water (half full) with a second person because of the handles. Brand new trashcans are safe to use, but rinse them out. Get the decent ones, not the absolute cheapest. You don't want one to burst, after all.

If the sand bed is older than 6 months, don't disturb it. Just get a LOT of helpers to carry the tank. If it is younger, it can be removed and readded to the tank.]
 
[They would be fine. Think of nature - cloud cover / storms do occur sometimes.]
 
@Marc wrote:
[I prefer moving LR in trashcans. You can buy 33g trashcans at Home Depot for about $7 each said:
[Yeah, my sand bed will be older than 6 months at the time of the move. My tank is mostly SPS, and my concern is losing the corals that have sentimental value for me. I'd almost like to just sell everything and start over with a RR tank.]
Click to expand...
 
[The sand bed is about 250lbs I think Scott said, on top of a 100 gallon glass tank....I really don't think leaving the sand 'untouched' is an option.
So either looking at all new sand, or some nasty algae/nutrient issues for the first few months after its set back up. New sand may be the cleanest/easiest route to take especially if you decide to try and keep most of your corals.]
 
[I'd have to agree with your idea of selling the tank and starting over with RR. You can find enough friends to store the corals for you in the meantime.]
 
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