moving Tank

[FishEggs]

i'm going to be picking up an established 10gal sw tank with a fighting conch, sand bed, and a few LR. this will be my foray into salt water so i dont know what the best way to do the move and what to expect after the move.
this is what he has
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
" Conch tank- I change the water every month using premade Petco saltwater. I do need to adjust the SG before using it because the saltwater is made for fish rather than invertebrates. I have a Prizm Pro skimmer on the tank, but it does not collect very much foam. The tank is so lightly stocked that most nutrients are probably naturally dealt with, but the skimmer is a good backup. I also have a whisper filter on the tank. I have a chunk of foam in the filter than does not cover the whole filter body. Thus, water easily flows around it. The purpose of this is to grow anaerobic bacteria, and thus I never clean it or mess with it. I also have a regular sponge in the filter for aerobic filtration. I also have a powehead with a small sponge attached to it that I clean periodically, as it gets clogged. My routine every day is to check the SG with a hyrdrometer (which I will include with the tank), clean out sponge if necessary, and agitate the water surface somewhat with my hand. The tank tends to get a film on the surface of the water so this reduces the film. I feed the tank some small sinking pellets (I use a wide variety, mainly tetra granules) every few days. The conch will also eat algae which reduces the amount of food I need to feed it."

So How should i proceed with this tank?

[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

[/FONT]

 

[thominil]

Wrap the live rock in wet newspaper. You can leave the sand in the tank but leave enough water to keep the sand wet. Ditch the hydrometer and get a refractometer, much more accurate. Surface agitation should be done by the skimmer, ph, or the filter. Toss the filter media and stick some live rock rubble in the filter. The skimmer is not really needed as pwc will accomplish same thing, but since you have it you may as well use it. I'd toss the food and get new food depending on the live stock. Pics didn't come through by the way. A 10g will be a little hard to keep up with, which is why in sw bigger is always better. Welcome to the salty side!

 

[FishEggs]

pics should be fixed.
can i just put the LR in a bucket with some of the tank water? planned on the refractometer already. i figured the size was going to be a bit on the high maintenance side but couldnt pass it up since it's free. all that is in it is a fighting conch. says he has an aditional power head in the tank that i already figured on directing it more toward the top of the water for surface agitation and oxygen exchange.
LR rubble in the filter is a good idea. the whole sponge thing he has going seemed kinda sketchy to me. will probably have to fix the lighting too.

 

[neilanh]

Since it's such a small tank, I'd put the rock in a bucket and cover it with tank water, like you said. The sand you can either put in another bucket, or just toss and start with fresh sand, which may be a better idea anyway.

 

[thominil]

Putting the live rock in a bucket will work and may even be better. If you upgrade lighting you may want to look into T5. Are you planning on going reef or leaving the tank as is?

 

[FishEggs]

why would starting with new sand be better?

for the time being i will be just leaving it as is until i get all the routines and such under control.

 

[thominil]

New sand will get rid of all the old waste and other things that sat on top of the sand that once moved, will be mixed under the sand and start to rot and thus, you have bad water quality.