Need Advice ASAP on moving a tank

Morning all,

As some of you know i recently joined the 3reef community. I was planning on picking up a larger tank for christmas. However as luck would have it I have just acquired a fully setup 90 gallon tank with 180 pounds of live rock and 100 pounds of sand.

The Tank is up and working, the live rock is fully covered in coralline algae and both mushroom and zoanthid polyps. It has a full cleanup crew and 3 fish. Fish are a yellow tang and 2x pyjama cardinals.

I have a truck so I am not so concerned about the actual moving the tank but I really could do with some input on how best to preserve the coral's and live rock. At a push I can put the pj's in my QT tank, the tang I dont think that will fly.

My plan so far is as follows:

Using a set of 33 gallon bins from wallyworld transfer the water and live rock to these, keep heated and oxygenated during the move.

Do the same with the live sand.

Fish use a cooler, inverts the same.

Not sure if i will be able to move everything in one shot but the drive should be at the most 45-50 mins.

I have to have this tank moved by Saturday.

Mods if this is not appropriate to ASAP feel free to move.

Thanks in advance all for input.

Mark

 

i think you have everything covered

 

The only thing I would watch out for is the sand.
Every time I have moved a tank or assisted someone in moving their tank, we kept about 3 inches of water in the tank and kept the sand in the tank.

The main reason for that is that by moving the sand, you will release alot of nasty-yuckie stuff that could start a "new cycle" in the tank.

The largest tank I have helped move is a 75g which had close to 100lbs of sand in it and moving it was a pain in the butt cause of my sand rule.

Other than that, you seem to have everything else under control and you have thought about it before hand.

After you have the tank moved and the rocks back in - I would wait about 24 to 36 hours before moving the fish back in. Same with any corals, just so the tank has time to settle in it's new area. I would also suggest doing about a 30% water change too when your re-filling the tank.

Good luck in the move!

-Fritts

 

Heres another thread about moving a tank. Dont be afraid to use the search eng. Luna

http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aq...g-bigger-one-54342.html?highlight=moving tank

 

fritts is right sand has alot of crap in it personally i would wash the sand before setting the tank back up. you want his sand not his dirt

 

Thanks all for the quick replies,

I think I will try and leave the sand in the tank with a little water, I was just concerned about that creating to much stress on the seams.

This was totally unexpected the guy is moving and through the whole lot up on ebay and he is 30 mins away ended up getting the whole setup for 500 bucks.

 

Good luck with the move, keep us posted. Luna

 

Thanks will do, I am lucky my bio cube has finished cycling so at a push if readings are off I can always put the cardinals and some coral in there for a few days.

 

Update on the tank move,

Ok I am going tomorrow to pick up this baby.

I am lucky in that I now have an fellow member of my local reef club coming along as well to help me.

I have 25 gallons of fresh water mixed up now.

My plan is to break the tank down completely load it up move everything.

Install the new 100 pounds of live sand i went and got seed this with 4-5 cups from his tank.

Add back in the hopefully 80% water I will have kept from his tank.
Put the two cardinals into my QT tank for a couple of days.

Top off the tank with new water.

Add back in the liverock with coral thats has been heated and immersed the whole time.
Add back in the tang I have no tank big enough for this fish. (unless i add it to my biocube 29 for a couple of days)
Monitor the water daily
if i see spikes do a 20% water change each day for 3 days. Then down to 10% until reading stablize.

The trip should be a max of 1 hour from his house to mine so I think that the liverock and coral should be ok for that. I added my first coral to my BC earlier this week and that was a 45 min drive and its doing fine.

The only thing i can see upfront dieing off will be some of the coralline algae that is on the tank.

Comments suggestions are welcome.

Thanks all

 

Figured I would post an update on my tank move.

Took most of yesterday, thank heavens one of Atlanta's best LFS and sponsor of the Atlanta Reef Club was on the route back. I stopped off to get some live bacteria to help with keeping the tank cycle to a minimum. They bagged all my livestock for me and gave me a couple of nice styro boxes to keep everything warm.

The tank is installed and up and running the water is still a bit cloudy as is to be expected. Today I will be scultping the tank to how I want it and adding in some additional sand. I moved two nice mushroom corals into my cube, a large leather and a small coral i am having a hard time Id'ing remain in the main tank. So far knock on wood nothing has died.

The fish ended up being a one eyed yellow tang and two damsels lol. Damsels I have moved into my qt tank as I am not a fan. Yellow tang is in the 90 eating and looking better than when I first saw him. All the inverts made it I have some great snails, crabs and brittlestars, only thing i did not move was a sea cucumber that I handed off to a friend who helped with the move. Last thing I needed with the stress of the move was a cucmber nuking the tank with stress.

Thanks everyone for input I will post pic's soon