Moving to new tank

[Scoot]

I've got to move everything - getting new carpet - into a new temporary tank (we're moving in 5 months and we're having a built-in tank setup).

Anyway, if I move all the rock, sand, existing sump/fuge, will there be enough biological filtration in the new tank to take care of ammonia/nitrite/etc? I'm going to be able to have RO water right there at the tank for mixing, so PWC's will be a piece of cake, but I don't want to stress anything.

Has anyone else moved everything from a well-established tank into a brand-new tank before?

Edit - I'm thinking about using the old 75g tank as a sump - that would increase the biological filtration...

 

[melosu58]

When I moved from my 55 to my 125 I transfer the LR. I bought more sand and seeded it with about a cup or two from the old sand. Sand is cheap and not worth tranfering the nasties over to the new tank.

 

[Scoot]

No nasties that I'm aware of in there - lots of fauna though (plus tons of snails that live in the sand)... are you referring to ich, etc?

 

[melosu58]

Food , Fish waste and bad gas pockets under the sand. Yes it does have fauna it it but there is alot of bad stuff in there too.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Melosu, I know it sounds harsh to get rid of all that fauna but getting rid of the waste is worth it. Seed you new sand with some of the old. I should have done it when I had my tank torn down a month or so ago but I did not.

 

[ellisz]

I have moved my tank twice and I re-used the sand. Take the top layer off and you can judge about the lower section depending on smell. My sand bed was fairly new when I had to move it. I have 3 yrs in my current sand and I will be moving from a 75 to a 180. I hope to re-use the sand but I will have to see. Wish I could find some South Down. I have not looked for sand in a LONG time.

 

[Scoot]

Regarding biological filtration - is the rock, water, and old sump/fuge enough to avoid cycling?

 

[roka64]

Regarding biological filtration - is the rock, water, and old sump/fuge enough to avoid cycling?

Yes, as long as you aren't adding more fish. The current rock/sand already has the beneficial bacteria to support your current bioload. I would still have some extra water, just in case.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree....When I moved my tank I mixed up about 50 gallons of new SW just in case I needed it. I ended up doing PWCs over the next week a little at a time until the new 50 was in the tank. Better safe then sorry.

 

[Scoot]

Okay. The front half of the tank - with 4-5 inches of sand, was incredibly clean. my nassaurius (sp?) snails and sand goby did a great job keeping it clean.

The back half - in, around, and under the LR - what a mess. Terribly dirty. I'm glad I scooped up the front half first, I'm using that in the new tank. But once I got the LR moved to the front, and started the back half, I knew right away that very little of that was going to be used.

I'll probably scoop it all up after I have the fish and softies and anemones relocated, and clean it somehow. There's too much to just pitch. But it's in a serious need of cleaning

Moving the older LR from the bottom of the pile did make the water a mess, but the XP3 cleared things up pretty quick.

I scooped all the sand I could last night into tupperware containers, one at a time, and left those site on the bottom overnight. Then this morning I just had to pull those out. Didn't make much of a mess.

Update - I've moved all the LR that doesn't have anything growing on it, all the sand from the front and a bit off the surface of the back. I've also got the Filstar xp3 moved. That leaves about 10 rocks in the old tank with various softies and anemones, and the 14 fish.

The fish aren't very happy without much LR to hide in/around. I might throw some decorations I have in there from when I first started so they don't stress too much. Honestly, some of them seem to like it - there's lots more swimming room now, and my 3 chromis are schooling back and forth... The clowns which usually hang out behind the overflow box are out and about too.

Tomorrow I'll drain the old tank into a large container (for emergency purposes), and start acclimating the fish. Then the corals and anomones.

Once those are moved, I'll tear down the sump and move all that. Then the canopy with the MH.

What an incredible about of work to move a tank 30 feet.

Cool thing today, was that I found my starfish, which I've had for 9 months, but haven't seen in about 5

ALSO, a peppermint shrimp I haven't seen since the day I put him in showed up. Wierd.

I also found a bristle work that was about 10 inches long. I shrieked a little when I turned a rock over and it started crawling up my arm. Gack.

Oh, and regarding extra water. Now that its in the basement instead of the dining rm, I was able to go out and get a 50 gallon trash can (plastic of course) and hooked up my RODI system right there. Luckily, there's also an open 4" drain pipe right there by the tank too. So for the first time I can do a PWC without a single bucket. W00t!

I should have about 50 gallons ready to go tomorrow when I move the fish, plus the water from the old tank, which I'll keep on hand should things go really bad (but let's hope they don't).

 

[Scoot]

All done. Fishies acclimated fine, I saw no stress whatsoever. I didn't end up using even half the sand. After draining the old tank, I discovered the sand I found was full of, well, detrius. Pretty nasty. I'm amazed how well the sand goby and my nassarius (sp?) snails kept the sand in front clean.

Got everything else all setup yesterday. It's so nice not to have the fuge and skimmer in the stand! Everything is so easy to get to, plus the temp is MUCH easier to control now, I can keep it right at 81 steady. I have a temp probe in both the sump and the display, so I can see where any heat is coming from.

Plumping the sump was tricky. The chest I used for the tank is low - only about 18" high. Maybe 2' at best. The drain from the overflow box was too low to hit the fuge, so I had to plumb it horizontally behind the tank, then down to the fuge. I lost a ton of flow there, but I'm running a filstar, between those two I think I have enough water movement for the next 4 months or so That lower flow from the overflow meant I had to drop my Mag 9.5 return pump and use a smaller one, the overflow couldn't keep up with it, even with a T back to the fuge.

That was my first PVC work - went really smooth. Cut, clean, rough up, glue, move on. The only problem is the PVC set up too fast to make any adjustments after a few seconds, I had to get the parts in precisely where I needed them the first time.

Also - my pump for my CSS 125 skimmer crapped out. I think it was a Rio, which I know has a bad bad rep. I got a good zap when I plugged it in. Had to go get a replacement, I hated to do it, but I got a Rio 1700 at the LFS, and with a few mods, the needle wheel and venturi fit right on, and I'm skimming again.

Back to enjoying the fish for awhile. I'm head over to update my new 180 tank thread.

 

[melosu58]

Sounds like it is coming together Scoot. Way to go.

 

[Scoot]

Nice thing about the basement - constant ambient temperature. I've been able to keep temps between 81 and 81.5 without any tweaking of the heater at all. The anemone's seem to appreciate that, they seem fuller.

Fish are still a little shy, but no signs of stress. More like they're mad at me The 2 clownfish found their usual hangout behind the overflow box today. All the rock is totally rearranged, so the other fish are still finding their "spots." The sand goby has already made a new burrow.