Need advice for moving a tank!

tiggra

tiggra

New Member
Hey,
This is my first post but I have reading for the last year or so.
I am about to take on the monumental task of breaking down my tank to move and get it back up in time to save as much life as I can. The move is to a city 1 hr away + time to break down and remove the sand, etc. I am mostly worried about the micro life which I am expected to loose 50% or more. I have a 55 gal., 100+ lbs live rock, 40+ lbs live sand, corals, fish, inverts.
Does anyone have any suggestions, tips, warnings to make the process as painless as possible?
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by tiggra
http:///forum/post/2620361
Hey,
This is my first post but I have reading for the last year or so.
I am about to take on the monumental task of breaking down my tank to move and get it back up in time to save as much life as I can. The move is to a city 1 hr away + time to break down and remove the sand, etc. I am mostly worried about the micro life which I am expected to loose 50% or more. I have a 55 gal., 100+ lbs live rock, 40+ lbs live sand, corals, fish, inverts.
Does anyone have any suggestions, tips, warnings to make the process as painless as possible?
Welcome to the boards!!! Put the stock in a tub. Put your rock in another. Drain the tank but leave enough to cover the sand. Can you have new water mixed when you get there? If not then you will have to keep the water from the tank in buckets. As long as the sand isn't disturbed, you will be fine. You do have to have water to fill the tank back up with.
 
jsbarjon

jsbarjon

Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2620366
As long as the sand isn't disturbed, you will be fine. You do have to have water to fill the tank back up with.
Sorry to interupt guys, I have a question if you don't mind..
WHat do u mean by disturbed..??
If it happend to get disturb how do u fix that?
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by jsbarjon
http:///forum/post/2620376
Sorry to interupt guys, I have a question if you don't mind..
WHat do u mean by disturbed..??
If it happend to get disturb how do u fix that?
It depends on the sand bed. You could get a nitrate spike, or disrupt the bacteria and get an ammonia spike. Once a sand bed is settled it should not be disturbed. Sometimes it has to happen, such as when you move. The way to fix it would be water changes.
 
tomato clown

tomato clown

Member
It's not a good idea due to the toxins released from boat engines. It gets trapped in and amongst the sand as well any oils and tanning products. Plus they've been doing testing at some beaches where the water levels are that of a septic system. Oh how everyone loves to pee in the water.
As well the dry section of beach is littered will all sorts of junk from cigarettes to old diapers. When they clean the dry beach they basically rake everything and just spread the nasty stuff all over.
Finaly you wouldn't get the proper bacteria you would be looking for, as well they typically either dredge canals and place the sand on the beach or they just have playsand dumped there to fix the errosion.
 
jsbarjon

jsbarjon

Member
Originally Posted by Tomato Clown
http:///forum/post/2620718
It's not a good idea due to the toxins released from boat engines. It gets trapped in and amongst the sand as well any oils and tanning products. Plus they've been doing testing at some beaches where the water levels are that of a septic system. Oh how everyone loves to pee in the water.
Thx Tomato
 
jsbarjon

jsbarjon

Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2620366
Put the stock in a tub. Put your rock in another. Drain the tank but leave enough to cover the sand. Can you have new water mixed when you get there? If not then you will have to keep the water from the tank in buckets. As long as the sand isn't disturbed, you will be fine. You do have to have water to fill the tank back up with.
About moving the tank, When putting the stock in another container,
1) Can i just bag them like a fish store with Oxygen?
2) For the live rock, I read that just wrapping them with wet news paper from water of the tank should be fine?
3) After the move is done, will i have to acclimate the stock again before putting them back in?
 
tomato clown

tomato clown

Member
Run to the hardware store and you can get some cheap 5gal buckets, then to a cheap dollar store for some large tubs.
5gal buckets for water and rocks, el'cheapo tubs for smaller things, and your best bet on the fish is to get a power inverter for the car so you can plug in a powerhead and a heater. Put the fish in a bucket w/ the PH/heater and once you get to the new place, First thing is to get the tank set-up before unpacking anything else.
If the move was like 10-15 miles the platic bags would have been fine, but an hour can sometimes take a tad longer then expected.
5 gal. buckets would run probably $6 each
 
xdfireguy

xdfireguy

Member
Just went through this myself. A couple suggestions.
1) Make up lots of extra SW in advance.
2) If you use RO/DI - Get it stored ready to make more SW.
3) Rubbermaid is your friend. We used mostly the 10gallon sized containers for LR.
4) Keep the containers small. They will get HEAVY, quickly.
5) Get the fish out LAST, try to siphon off as much water as you can to limit how far they can go.
6) Have plenty of towels. Don't forget one for your hands - when I needed one, I realized they were all on the floor, under all the buckets!
7) Plan on breaking down things in the morning so you are not doing your "rough" aquascaping at 4 in the morning.
8) If the system is established, you may want to consider skimming a few cups of sand from the surface and use it to seed a new sandbed.
9) I ran carbon afterwords, but there are other products that people sware by like purigen and chemi-pure elite. I haven't tried them, but they might help?
 
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