Breaking down the tank due to moving

[SaltieFresh]

I'll be moving in a few weeks, so I'll get to enjoy breaking down my tank, lol. Quick info, it's a 90 gallon tank and it will take about 24 hours to break it down and put it back up in my new place. Tell me if my assumptions are correct. (1) I'll take about 50% of the water along. (2) The live rock will be placed in plastic with wet newspapers wrapped around them. (3) I'll put my two clowns, two damsels, firefish, royal gramma and CUC into a five gallon bucket with an air pump.

I was wondering about the sand though. Will I go through a mini-cycle if I use the same sand, or would it be better to maybe use only a little bit of the original sand with new sand? If I'm missing anything, just let me know. Thanks

 

[austinsdad]

The rock with only newspaper has me a bit concerned. I'd put them in buckets with an air pump also if it were me. Even more, newspaper has plenty of ink to leach. I wouldn't trust it at all.

My vote is to use new sand only. The rock, assuming you have enuf of it, will carry the necessary bacteria to seed the new tank. That's whay I'd rather you transport it in water and keep air on it. Old sand stirred up can cause some really nasty things to get stirred up and cause problems.

 

[SaltieFresh]

That's what I was figuring about the sand. If using newspaper is an issue, that's okay. Luckily, I have heavy duty plastic storage bins. So I'll be able to fill them up with water instead of using newspaper once I put the LR in.

 

[melosu58]

I agree with new sand. Too much trash in there to use it again. When I changed over from my 55 to my 125 I used all new sand because the old sand was so nasty looking and smelling.