Anyone have any tips for moving aquariums

[shyann009]

I will be moving soon , i have a 29g saltwater and a 10g freshwater. i will be moving about 40 minutes away from where i am now. been looking for ideas on how to do it. blah blah , but don’t wanna remake salt water for the tank especially right now. any ideas will be greatly appreciated thank you so much

 

[Auto-pilot]

Yes I have ideas!!!
I would have 40 gallons of new water mixed up and ready to go at the location of where you are going. I would also do it early int the day than later to avoid the hottest part of the day. Home depot sells 20 gallon totes with lids that work well as Moving tanks with water in them isn't smart and stresses the seals. A battery powered aerator would be a good idea. If your sand is old I would replace it and not reuse. If you don't have a good filter I would wash all sand or rocks before puting it in the tank.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I agree. Don’t try to ‘cheat’ and say, ‘Oh, what harm can the last 6-8” of water and sand do?’ BAD for the tank to move it filled with anything. Best wishes!

 

[shyann009]

Yes I have ideas!!!
I would have 40 gallons of new water mixed up and ready to go at the location of where you are going. I would also do it early int the day than later to avoid the hottest part of the day. Home depot sells 20 gallon totes with lids that work well as Moving tanks with water in them isn't smart and stresses the seals. A battery powered aerator would be a good idea. If your sand is old I would replace it and not reuse. If you don't have a good filter I would wash all sand or rocks before puting it in the tank.

will look into. thank you

 

[TCoach]

See my build thread. I moved a 92 gallon w/o any losses.

 

[Squidward]

I guess you can transfer tank water inside of 5 gallon buckets with a tight lid closed. But your tank is small so it shouldn't be too hard.

 

[DJF]

+1 battery powered air pump.
+1 use new sand in tank’s new spot (rinsed first with tap and then RO)

 

[shyann009]

I guess you can transfer tank water inside of 5 gallon buckets with a tight lid closed. But your tank is small so it shouldn't be too hard.

a lot of 5 gallon buckets lol. i thought about that one

 

[shyann009]

+1 battery powered air pump.
+1 use new sand in tank’s new spot (rinsed first with tap and then RO)

all new sand ? the sand isn’t horrible , got a good clean up crew. keeping sand good. lost a goby so it is getting dirty. but idk

 

[DJF]

all new sand ? the sand isn’t horrible , got a good clean up crew. keeping sand good. lost a goby so it is getting dirty. but idk

I wouldn’t risk any sand older than a couple months. I’d try not to disturb it when siphoning out the water and capturing the fish; keep it and maybe clean and dry it after the fact. You can clean and reuse it but the time that you spend cleaning it properly is better spent on your new set up. Most tank transfers that have losses and issues- the sand is reused. I feel like I should footnote this with @brandon429 as this is preached often by him with facts and threads to back it up.

 

[Zionas]

And at some point I will have to move a tank over 100 gallons. Oh well, it’s been done before.

 

[Staghorn]

I have some sand beds in my refugium that are 10years old plus and still my nutrients are .02 no2 and .00 po4. I would wash the sand in some kind of cheese cloth or a strainer with very small holes with saltwater once you don’t see a ton of detritus and junk flowing out of there you should be ok. Replacing the sand will effect your tank biology at this point it may not be too severe but it also may be enough to kill some stuff. As it is a tank move is very stressful on corals and fish. Also rinse your live rock in salta water to remove any detritus. If you have any algea issues now is the time to scrape or brush it off and you can use hydrogen peroxide on any of it before rinsing the rock. If you have a big cooler that’s what I would use to transport the fish and coral with the above mentioned battery powered aerator. Rock sand and whatever extra water you can transport in buckets. Try to keep them wet. Once you get to your new place unload the cooler and get a heater in there and monitor the temperature you don’t want it to get to hot or cold for that matter. I know you said you don’t want to do a water change but I would do a minimum of 50% and if you used your old sea water to rinse the sand or rock maybe even more. Your tank inhabitants will appreciate it. Just make sure you can get the temperature and if possible some of the other parameters to match your old water. I’ve moved 20+ tanks using these ideas and have been very sucsseful. Unfortunately the one time I tried to do stuff differently I wiped out one of my most prized sps aquariums, rushed things didn’t use my heaters and wasn’t prepared. Make sure as mentioned above to have the new salt water ready to go.
Good luck post pictures after your done.

 

[shyann009]

I wouldn’t risk any sand older than a couple months. I’d try not to disturb it when siphoning out the water and capturing the fish; keep it and maybe clean and dry it after the fact. You can clean and reuse it but the time that you spend cleaning it properly is better spent on your new set up. Most tank transfers that have losses and issues- the sand is reused. I feel like I should footnote this with @brandon429 as this is preached often by him with facts and threads to back it up.

ideas on moving the corals and anemone? and will a 50/50 sand change be better?

 

[shyann009]

I have some sand beds in my refugium that are 10years old plus and still my nutrients are .02 no2 and .00 po4. I would wash the sand in some kind of cheese cloth or a strainer with very small holes with saltwater once you don’t see a ton of detritus and junk flowing out of there you should be ok. Replacing the sand will effect your tank biology at this point it may not be too severe but it also may be enough to kill some stuff. As it is a tank move is very stressful on corals and fish. Also rinse your live rock in salta water to remove any detritus. If you have any algea issues now is the time to scrape or brush it off and you can use hydrogen peroxide on any of it before rinsing the rock. If you have a big cooler that’s what I would use to transport the fish and coral with the above mentioned battery powered aerator. Rock sand and whatever extra water you can transport in buckets. Try to keep them wet. Once you get to your new place unload the cooler and get a heater in there and monitor the temperature you don’t want it to get to hot or cold for that matter. I know you said you don’t want to do a water change but I would do a minimum of 50% and if you used your old sea water to rinse the sand or rock maybe even more. Your tank inhabitants will appreciate it. Just make sure you can get the temperature and if possible some of the other parameters to match your old water. I’ve moved 20+ tanks using these ideas and have been very sucsseful. Unfortunately the one time I tried to do stuff differently I wiped out one of my most prized sps aquariums, rushed things didn’t use my heaters and wasn’t prepared. Make sure as mentioned above to have the new salt water ready to go.
Good luck post pictures after your done.

thank you for the help, will most definitely try and have water ready at location. will clean sand. also the sand and water itself is about 2-3 months old.
will post pictures today if what the full tank looks like before

 

[DJF]

ideas on moving the corals and anemone? and will a 50/50 sand change be better?

The concept behind replacing all the sand is that you have enough bio filtration in the live rock to support the livestock & seed the new sand & disrupting the old sand does more harm than good. It’s trendy now to not even use sand. Some people will take a handful of old sand to get the bacteria to seed.