Critique my move plan

[GtiKyle]

Hello everyone. New member, but been looking to do a reef tank for years. Finally in the right position to make this happen, so i started looking around.

I found a Red Sea 500 (135g) about 15 minutes away from me. Tank has been up for 2 years and looks to be in good shape, although maybe a little neglected as of recent. The owner needs it moved this weekend, so I'm trying to get all the details sorted and a plan to make this less stressful. I dread overlooking something so i just need some seasoned eyes to help.

Currently there's some rock, an anemone, 1 clown, some xenia and other softies and sand. I think the tank had more in the past but I assume they relocated or removed some, so it's pretty bare. I'd like to keep what is alive to avoid having to do a full reset on the system. It looks like it needs some maintenance, there's a bit of algae but not too terrible.

My plan was to grab 4 brute cans with lids, some silicone hose, towels, a step ladder, fish net and drain the water into the cans. Place the rocks in what I can, maybe bring a cooler for the anemone, clown, and other corals and disassemble the stand from tank and truck it to my house. I was going to reuse the water as right now I don't have RO/DI water (ordered one today) or salt ready on hand. I have a little 10g tank i can put the livestock in while we work. I'll reassemble the stand/tank, pump the water back in, and rescape it as best i can. Turn on the heater, let everything get back into range and add back the livestock.

Is there any small details I'm missing? Any concerns? Did i think too simply or is there a lot of nuanced details i'm overlooking? It comes with some assorted testing supplies but i haven't taken inventory yet, and can still run to the LFS for any quick items i might need.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Hello everyone. New member, but been looking to do a reef tank for years. Finally in the right position to make this happen, so i started looking around.

I found a Red Sea 500 (135g) about 15 minutes away from me. Tank has been up for 2 years and looks to be in good shape, although maybe a little neglected as of recent. The owner needs it moved this weekend, so I'm trying to get all the details sorted and a plan to make this less stressful. I dread overlooking something so i just need some seasoned eyes to help.

Currently there's some rock, an anemone, 1 clown, some xenia and other softies and sand. I think the tank had more in the past but I assume they relocated or removed some, so it's pretty bare. I'd like to keep what is alive to avoid having to do a full reset on the system. It looks like it needs some maintenance, there's a bit of algae but not too terrible.

My plan was to grab 4 brute cans with lids, some silicone hose, towels, a step ladder, fish net and drain the water into the cans. Place the rocks in what I can, maybe bring a cooler for the anemone, clown, and other corals and disassemble the stand from tank and truck it to my house. I was going to reuse the water as right now I don't have RO/DI water (ordered one today) or salt ready on hand. I have a little 10g tank i can put the livestock in while we work. I'll reassemble the stand/tank, pump the water back in, and rescape it as best i can. Turn on the heater, let everything get back into range and add back the livestock.

Is there any small details I'm missing? Any concerns? Did i think too simply or is there a lot of nuanced details i'm overlooking? It comes with some assorted testing supplies but i haven't taken inventory yet, and can still run to the LFS for any quick items i might need.

good plan. not a lot of rock so it doesn’t like it will be too complicated. you will most likely lose some water so i’d get 5g from the lfs.

ideally i’d say take zero water from the old tank, but it sounds like that’s not an option for you.

if it were me i’d also siphon out all of the sand and rinse it clean before putting it back in.

 

[Aquavaj]

Get a small pump and hose to drain the sump. To drain the tank I used 5g buckets and dumped them into a 32g bin on wheels. This was pushed to the truck and pumped into the bins already loaded on the bed. Definitely saved our backs doing it this way. Don't forget to drain the overflow before disconnecting the plumbing. Ask me why I'm reminding you. lol

 

[Coralreefer1]

Welcome to R2R!
Ok, so the best thing to do since your basically starting fresh is to make sure everything’s all set before reestablishing the tank since it is a lot easier to do this now than to wait to do it when you have livestock in your tank.
First of all, ensure the equipment is running properly before disassembling the tank!
If the equipment is working fine your next step would be to remove the livestock and rock. You will want to add a heater and powerhead to maintain proper temp. and dissolved oxygen level for livestock in your bucket. You can leave the sand but I would add another 4” or so of new aragonite for deep sand bed filtration( research the benefits of this)! Clean the glass, filters, lights, powerheads and pumps. Drain and dump 1/2 of the water. Replenish the water dumped with fresh salt water premixed that can usually be purchased from your local pet shop when you get the tank set up in your house.
Once the tank is set up and temperature, salinity and other water parameters are reached, drip/acclimate you new tank water into the container housing your livestock. This should take roughly a 1/2 or so depending on the amount of old water you used to transport your livestock.
Then add the livestock into your tank, but don’t add the water from the bucket into your tank!
Monitor your tank and it’s inhabitants while testing your water frequently to ensure everything is up to speed...
These are the basics in a short and sweet synopsis! Go slow, don’t cut corners, ask questions and research all you can so you don’t make mistakes that could curtail out of control and be detrimental to you, your tank and it’s inhabitants.
Good luck...

 

[GtiKyle]

So thank you everyone who responded. The move went without too much issue. We drained the system, i saved about 1/2 the water and took it home with me. We kept the livestock and rock in a bin with a heater and powerhead while we put together the setup in our house.

I also took the time to scrub and clean the sump and sand. For the sand, i put it in buckets, put a hose in the bottom, and let the water overflow for 5 mins or so until it wasn't so cloudy. I think this was pretty effective. We cleaned all the pumps, skimmer and powerheads. I'm a little concerned that the system might be a shocked from all the crud we stirred up. We did roughly a 50% water change. I started testing yesterday and had ammonia at .025 mg/L. Is this ok? I kept all the live rock from the teardown so most of the bacteria should have made it over, yes?

So things are now back in the tank. I've ordered some more rock from BRS along with a bunch of supplies I didn't have. I hope to have some more updates to come.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

nice job!