Moving a tank, what to do?

[Maxthecat]

Hey, im moving to my new appartement in about a week or so and ill have to move my 30g reef. Ive been reading up and im not quite satisfied with what I found. I dont have a sump and quarantin tank, so everything has to go back in the same tank. Im a student so I dont have any money to buy a quarantine for the move... sucks to be poor.

My plan is this: keep about 60% of the water, Ive been told to rince the sand and put it back gradualy in the tank (?) by my LFS, I was intialy planning to just use 50% of my sand and throw the rest out to avoid the cycle.

Is this a good plan? what should I not do? what do you guys have to say?

[Vincenzo.]

drain all the water but a couple inches into a rubber maid or 2 or 3. put the rock in one, coral in the other, and inverts/fish in the third.

By leaving 2''-5' inches in the tank u can leave all the sand and let it swirl around.

After u get in ur new place drain that grimy water out and add everything back


Just remember to have a 10 gallons of ro water made. Cuz after u set up do a small water chance.'

[Maxthecat]

but will moving the sand like that releasse the phosphats that were absorbed in it, creating a cycle?

[Vincenzo.]

that build up is what u want. Unless u want to start ur tank from scratch with new sand and old rock, it will still have to cycle anyways.

Normally people stir their sand bed 1-2 times a month anyways to keep it 'clean' some people dont, but i try to.

[Maxthecat]

i guess my starfish is doing that all the time

[mikerobart]

That is how I moved my 29g.. what Vince said. Few rubbermaids, keep as much water as possible, leave the sand in the tank. I added my fish right back in.... and topped off water, didn't lose anything except one fish because I dropped a rock on him!

Now, when it comes time to move the 90g... that will be another adventure altogether and one I am not looking forward to one bit.

[Maxthecat]

what about corals?

[Vincenzo.]

in their own rubber made with existing tank water. U dont have to worry about them stinging one another because they will all close up from transpo.

[sdivell]

I've moved with tanks twice and the first thing i've learned is moving the fish tank is not something to do while you are moving the rest of your stuff.  It really needs to be done on its own day, and preferebly after all your furniture.

I second all the advice above.

good luck on your move!

[Malyon18]

I agree with the above I just moved my tank and it was the last thing I moved in and I moved it on a different weekend then the rest, it takes a lot of work to move a tank

[Maxthecat]

Thanks gang! ill let you guys know how its gonna go

[Hookup]

Hey Max,
  If your move hadsn't happened yet, I would advise reading on melev's site (http://www.melevsreef.com/) which talks specifically about using/reusing/cleaning and moving sand from an established system. (http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html)

  You LFS's advise could be quite sound.  Live Sand does certainly contribute to the filtration process, so throwing it out would be a bad idea, I think.  However, stiring up sand is also a danger in some systems.  It would definately depend on age, and depth of your sandbed.  A really old sand bed, that was very deep would scare me more than a newer (6months or so) sand bed that was farily shalllow (~1" or less).  Additionally, the sand-bed cleaning crew would be a factor that I would consider.  I regardless of all other factors, I would go and read up on Melev's notes first.

  Best of luck.

[Maxthecat]

So its been done, moved it without any prob. I got a bit of amonia out of the move but water changes and intense skimming did the trick. I lost my leather though... sad