Originally Posted by Claire7275
I have the opportunity to get a 90 gallon established tank. There are about 125lbs of live rock, some corals, some inverts and some fish. But the tank has to be picked up in a town about 3 hrs from where I live. My biggest questions would be how long, if at all live rock can be out of the water without killing things off. What other difficulties/issues will I run into? Thanks for any idea, suggestions or advice!!!
Claire
One of the most valuable things we got when we moved our daughter's tank from 1.5 hours away, was an AC adapter to plug into the cigarette lighter port of the van. With that we were able to keep the water with the LR and critters warm during the transport. I'm not sure what you're thinking about doing with the sand, but that is the probably the area where you'll have the highest probability of a cycle. Me? I'd switch it out and replace with new base sand...it'll seed from the LR eventually.
In the beginning of the transfer, remove and keep all water. Be sure that all LR, corals, inverts, and of course, fish, have enough of the tank water to move around in a suitably sized bin. Save all other water in other bins. As stated previously, plug a heater of suitable size for the bin into the AC adapter in the transport vehicle for the rocks, and critters bin.
When you arrive to your desintination and have the tank set up, begin by adding sand, add excess water to the tank. Heat and aerate overnight or until the tank is heated properly, 78-80 degrees. At this point, you can begin adding the rock. Be sure to acclimate the critters to the new tank. Take a pitcher of bin water out, add a pitcher of tank water to the bin...and so on. Be sure to check the parameters before adding critters to the tank to make sure that they are the same or pretty close.
Hope this makes sense and that it helps..
Lisa :happyfish
