Taking a Hiatus

I've had my reef tank for about 4 years now and I've loved every minute of it. Unfortunately, I'm moving into a smaller location and it's just not realistic to take my tank with me. I'm storing my gear and tank at a family member's until I move into a larger place. Is it worth it to keep my live rock and try to recycle it again down the road when I set my tank up again? If so do I just let it dry out naturally or should I do some sort of process before storing it?

 

Try to scrub as much of the debris and clean them as well as possible first. That will shorten the cycle when you go to reuse it. It's definitely worth keeping imo.

 

Oh, and welcome to 3reef. Sorry to see you breaking down on your first post!! Maybe try a biocube in the new place. But if its not in the cards for now... god speed and hope to see you back in the hobby some day! When you do come back, visit this site often, it sure makes the hobby more enjoyable.

 

+1. i would try and remove all the snails, starfish, worms etc... then just let it dry out and reuse as normal.

 

Oh man... Mattias. You just had me laughing really hard over here. I think you mean etcetera. Excedra is a whole different thing. ;D Thanks for that buddy. That made my day. 8)

I agree with Grim's and Swimswithfish's advice though. Scrub everything down and you will be good to use it again in the future.

 

LOL. Stupid auto-correct! Ahh.

 

Sounds good. I keep going back and forth between putting clothes in my closet or my tank... we'll see which one wins. The more I think about breaking it all down the more it hurts!

 

Thats what dressers are for. I'd keep it if you have room.

 

Keep it in the closet! I keep my clothes on top of a desk; It never makes it to the closet.

I used one year old dried out (former) live rock to re-cycle my tank a year ago. It worked just fine. I simply let it dry out.

 

Good to know I can keep all of the live rock. Now, just to find a home for the last green mushroom corals I have.