Moving a Tank

[PrettyFishies]

I may be in a position to get a completely established setup, but i have to move it all. What's the best way to ensure no fatalities?

We're talking fish, corals and inverts here.

The move is only a distance of about 30 minutes.

 

[melosu58]

Several clean buckets for putting the fish, corals and inverts in. A cooler to put the LR in or buckets would do OK also but you`ll need to make sure they are covered with water or you`ll have a dieoff on them causing a spike in the tank. I personally would not save the substrate. I would get all new aragonite sand. Too much trash in the old sand.

 

[mr_X]

bring lost of bins and buckets, and transport everything fully submerged. separate whatever you can from the rock so it doesn't get crushed on the car ride.
have a large amount of salt water mixed up in case you need it. i would be prepared to do at least a 50% water change.
drain the tank almost all the way and just leave enough water to keep the sand bed wet, and leave the sand right in the tank. it's probably best to chuck the sand, unless you take care not to disrupt it. how long has this tank been up and running?
how large of a tank is this? will it be in a pickup truck bed in cold weather or inside a heated vehicle?

 

[PrettyFishies]

125 gal tank
In a truck in cold weather, but buckets can go inside car and truck

Not sure exactly how long the tank has been running yet, seller just said years

 

[mr_X]

ok then. i don't see how you can save the sand. it will most likely cause a cycle if it's disrupted, and then left in 20 degree weather for 30 minutes. everything in it will most likely be dead by the time it gets to your house.

 

[Sqasnatch]

I did the same thing when I bought my tank. Had to drive everything in it 8 hours. Had no problems at all. Everything was in buckets and coolers. But I had to do some major water changes from the dead sand. Ditch the sand and get 2 40 pound bags of the live stuff

 

[mr_X]

you can just use dry sand. it will become live on it's own eventually, and it's much cheaper. make sure it's aragonite based sand, so it buffers the ph.

 

[Sqasnatch]

I guess it would be cheaper cause it's lighter.

 

[mr_X]

no. it's not lighter. it's just not marketed as "live sand".

 

[mwilliams]

I was just reading these post and was wandering when you say to get aragonite based sand is the "Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand" made by Carb Sea is that the same type of sand?

 

[mr_X]

yep. that's the stuff. you mean this correct-

 

[ezy33]

I like using ice chest's as they don't loose heat very fast and have lids.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Ice chests/coolers are good if you can get those. I moved my reef tank on Christmas eve and used a bunch of 5g buckets half full of live rock and water. A 125g full of rock would need a bunch I'm sure so coolers might be a better option since the big ones will hold more. I only had to go 25mins away but everything stayed in buckets about 2 hours and were fine.

 

[mwilliams]

yep. that's the stuff. you mean this correct-

Yes that is correct... There are a couple others that I was not sure about such as: Carb Sea Aragonite - Aragamax Sand and Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand and Reef Substrate any thoughts on them?

 

[mr_X]

all of those should be fine. they are all aragonite based sand. you can even mix them if the lfs doesn't have enough of one type.
i just suggest that over silica sand because silica sand does not buffer the ph.

 

[rush]

You can keep the sand, just rinse it very well. That is what I did. I just bought a 112 from someone, kept the sand discarded all the water and topped it up with fresh RODI (already have one from my other aquarium). You can buy new sand for cheap enough, but only took me 40 min to rinse all the sand off. Doing this will get rid of all nasty stuff but it will come to life very quickly because all the micro organisms will still be alive (hard to kill). IF you have live rock that is cured the sand will seed within weeks.

 

[mwilliams]

Thank you guys.

 

[PrettyFishies]

Update: So, I have contracted with the seller to get the setup - 125 gal Established Salt Water Tank (sale pending)

Now I'm working on getting a LFS to move the setup for me. Too much to handle on my own.

The seller, who has over 20 yrs experience, is saying that It's possible to move it and keep the sand bed. Is it possible with care? Or do you think it's completely impossible to avoid triggering a cycle.

 

[mr_X]

i think he's mistaken. how old is this tank? how deep is the sand bed? how are you going to transport this tank exactly?

 

[PrettyFishies]

The sand bed is more than 5 years old. I think it's about 4-5" deep. You can see about 3" above the molding and there's more underneath.

I'm assuming they are going to drain the tank down to just above the surface of the sand bed.

Now that I think about it.... They have the LR on the glass- or sitting on acrylic on the glass - When we reset the tank, we can't avoid disturbing the sand unless we place the LR on top of the sand.

Hmmm