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Moving Advice

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Actuary, Mar 29, 2011.

  1. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    Well it looks like there's a good chance my fiance and I will be moving from downtown Des Moines to a western suburb in a couple months.  I have never been through a move with my aquariums before so that is something I'm obviously a little concerned about.  On the plus side it would only be 20-25 minutes away so the transport isn't as bad as it could be. 
    But I don't even know what the typical moving process is like for a reef tank.  I'm not too worried about my 28g nano or frag tank, it's somehow moving the 125g established SPS reef that concerns me.  What has everyone else done in similar situations?  Do you move everyting into large rubbermades, break the tank town, move the tank, get the tank up and running again, and then move everything back into the tank?  I've even wondered if this is the opportunity to get a larger tank setup which would allow me to move things over a little more slowly.  Any advice would be appreciated!
    Thanks!
     
  2. xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    The main concern when moving a tank like that is the sand bed. It can be a toxic wasteland waiting to kill everything.

    If you have shallow or no sand, no biggie, get everything into buckets, keep as much tank water as posible, tear it down, move it, set it up & away you go. Going to be a long day.

    If you have a deeper sand bed (2 inches or more) take everything out without disturbing the sand bed. Save as much clean water as possible. Then remove sand & move tank. You should rinse out the bottom of the tank, but dont scrub the sides or back. Most of your bacteria is on the surfaces of rocks and even your tank glass

    Put it back together without the sand. If you want to go back to sand, add it back in slowly after you have rinsed it. The deeper sand has all kinds of death traps waiting to kill everything.
     
  3. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    Good point on the sand. It was originally setup to have a 1.5 inch bed. However, I have a goby and pistol shrimp that have done quite a bit of landscaping so there are parts of the bed that are about 1/4 of an inch and others that are about 4-5 inches. Would you recommend trying to siphon off the top inch and then mix that in with fresh sand (or the remaining sand after it has been cleaned)?
     
  4. xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    Possibly, however under that top inch is the dead zone. Can you look in the side of the tank & see any layers or changes of color in the deeper sand bed? If so I wouldnt mess with it while you had other stuff in there. You can rinse & clean it & add it later.

    Best yet is to buy a new 180 tank set it up in the new place & move everything over slowly. When all empty sell the old tank!
     
  5. Kylie

    Kylie Inactive User

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    During the actual moving process, make sure you have plenty of buckets and heaters lying around. A lot of time will be spent draining your tank and during that time, you don't want any of your critters getting cold. I especially like using a properly cleaned large cooler for corals and live rock with egg crate braces in between to prevent any rolling around. Buckets work well for fish, dividing them up by category. For example, all my CUC went in one bucket, my scooting fish in another, my midas blenny got his own bucket with his rock he hid in, and my clowns got their own bucket with their anemone, etc.. I've never had a deep sand bed so never thought about the problems a deep one could cause, so thanks for the tip Craig. Even with a shallow sand bed, any water left in the tank before you move the sand is going to be a mess so try to remove all your critters beforehand while you can still see them /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

     
  6. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    Well maybe I should start looking around for a larger tank for the move! Would be sweet if I could get something to go in wall... we'll see though.
     
  7. Actuary Well-Known ReefKeeper

    705
    Adel, IA
    Ratings:
    +145 / 1 / -0
    So is there any chance someone has a 180-300g RR tank they want to part with? Wouldn't need a stand or canopy since I would plan on trying to go for an in wall setup.
     
  8. Nemesis

    Nemesis Well-Known ReefKeeper

    471
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Coralville bay fish store in iowa city in the resource page has 2 180 gallon acrylic tanks that he just got in last week . I think they are still there ,they are used and need some cleaning but they looked nice. Very big . I would call him and see what he wanted for them if thats something you might me interested in. He said it looked like there were no scratches on them. one had a center overflow the other had overflows at the two back corners.
     

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