Moving to new home - Advice

So i can take all the sand out and just put it back right? What about adding new sand to the existing sand? Any problems there?

 

I wouldn't suggest doing that all honestly. I would just leave in the bottom of the tank. When you go to set the tank back up, I would put all your live rock back in and pour the water over the live rock and try not to stir the sand up to much.

You should be able to add about 1" at time ontop of your old sand without to many issues. You don't want to add to much, or else you will kill all the live critters in there.

 

So lifting the tank with the sand in it wouldnt be a problem then? No real difference from lifting the tank with the sand and it sitting there with the sand in it right, same weight and all,

 

I don't think I would try to lift it with the sand in there it's going to be very heavy and you may break your tank. I have to do the same thing soon for new carpet, I was going to leave the sand in it since I just need to slide it about 6-8 feet on the stand but as stated I think most of the things in the sand will die and make for some really bad water. I'm going to start with some new live sand and maybe some of that tank starter stuff. The good-bad of it for me is I'm the guy that lost most of my corals from carbon that that had copper in it so a little less to worry about.:-/

 

I don't see where the problem would be as long as you keep it level as possible. As long as you don't disturb the sand to much, you shouldn't have that much die off on your hands. You will have to take most of the water out to keep the weight down though.

 

Good luck with getting inverts and corals to stay alive with having a previous copper issue. How did you get the copper out?

 

Many water changes, filter and carbon ,and used poly filter and cuporsorb shrimp and crabs ok as well as my conch. I test 0 for copper now but I had to stay on it every day. Kind of look forward to restocking just not spending all that money.

 

I am not sure if you were being sarcastic or not.
I guess it would depend on the depth of the sand and the build up of organics in the tank. I haven't used a sand bed since the mid 90's so I am hardly an expert on sand beds. I have however moved a reef tank several times in the last 25 years. I think though if you google disturbing sandbeds you will see it usually ends badly.

 

Wow, that was a good catch. Of course you don't want to disturb the SB. Man I can't believe I forgot that one little word :not:.

 

Sikpupy had it right for a short move its not a big deal. I wouldn't even bag the corals or fish. Wrap the corals with the plastic bags to keep them from being banged around should be enough.
My only losses came from forgetting a bucket of fish. This has happened to a few people I know.
For a long move, like 8 hours drive. I used styrofoam boxes from lfs and dc air pumps. Again I didn't bag them but used bags to insulate them from other corals. Take as much water as you can. Try to contact local reefers in the new area who can pre mix some salt water for you or locate a store who sells it and might be willing to bring some to your new house.