moving my 29g w/ 10g refugium

[makana]

ill be moving my tank in the next two weeks. is there anything in particular i should do other than plan? reduce feedings?
i have a bunch of specimens in there:
two osceralis clowns
one blue mandarin
three pajama cardinals
many zoos
acanthastrea sp.
galaxea sp.
many acropora spp.
many montipora spp.
caulastrea sp.
many softies (colt, xenia, anthela, sarcophyton sp.)
3 tridacna spp. clams (two derasa, one maxima)
many small unidentified rock and sand bivalve mullosks
plus many macroalgae and sponges and alot of microfauna

is there anything i should do to prepare any of these particular specimens for the big move?
oh yeah, the move will only be a few miles away and i will have good help from a good friend who has moved his 60g reef many times and used to work at cpr so he knows his stuff reefwise. plus he has a pickup truck so it should go smoothly.
we plan to remove all snails, crabs, etc and bag them and put into cooler. then remove rocks and coral and put into rubbermaids and put those into cooler. then get fish out and into bags and into tthe cooler. drain the water down to the sand into buckets and tubs. move tank into truck.
next remove all rock and algae plus all fuge critters (snails, sea stars, etc) from fuge and bag and into cooler. then drain fuge down to near sand putting water into bucket. fuge into truck and cooler and all plumbing. then setup is reverse, being careful not to kickup sediment when putting water back into system.
does this sound good?

as you can tell im nervous about the move....thanks for the help!!

 

[kukki]

im going to be doing the same thing with my 29gal and 10 fuge, sometime before the year is up... ill pretty much be doing the same exact thing as you.... bucket the water, toss the fish into coolers and such... my only concern is, wouldnt leaving the sand in the tanki { i dont know how you would remove and move it, i guess bucket it and put water in there }...

but wouldnt leaving the sand in and moving it cause some if not to much stress on the tank / glass and seams if your not ultra careful picking it up and all?... ill prolly be moving my own things without any help, is why i was wondering about the sand

 

[Phyl]

I wouldn't move the tank with anything in it. That just isn't going to be good for the tank. I'd scoop out the sand and move it in buckets. I'd also be worried about the stress that would put on the tank.

 

[electrikat]

Plus oh my gosh it's heavy. Wet sand is the heaviest thing on earth and someones going to get hurt. You should stir it up in the last couple of gallons of water and throw out that water. This way you can get rid of the excess detritus without messing with the bacteria.

 

[kukki]

im not sure how much the sand will weigh in the fuge part of my sump, its only 3-4 inch in half a 10 gallon... but even then i think im gonna remove that too

then again lol, i have no fish and no rock and still cycling so.. i have alittle less to worry about

 

[makana]

i was going to leave the sandbed and move the tank ontot a thick piece of plywoowd for support to move it. i realize it will be heavy, but wont it be worth it if it works because the sandbed will have little to no disturbance. i guess i could remove the sand into buckets but i dont want to if its not absolutely necessary.
i hate moving! my tank is so perfect right now :'(

 

[JohnNLuc]

Seems everyone is moving there tanks around here. I am as well. But only to another room. I plan on keeping the sand in the bottom of the tank and just moving it, its only going about 40 feet into the next room but none the less all my rocks, coral, fish, and inverts are going into 25G rubbermaid tubs. As we speak I have my ro/do unit making water due to the fact im gonna toss about 25G out and replace it with fresh as if I was doing a water change as well.

 

[makana]

best of luck

 

[maxamillion]

two people can move a 20 gal without too much of a hassle... but it will be heavy! Plan on having a few extra people just in case (not necessarily right there, but at least nearby)

-Max

 

[makana]

what about the sandbed. it is a truvue should i remove the sand before moving it? probably huh?

 

[kukki]

i would take everything out that was possible... all it takes is one little thing and maybe months later after you get it set back up, the bottom falls out or something and then that will be a mess =\

 

[makana]

yeah that would suck. but my poor sandbed