Moving an established 60g reef

[Reefman603]

It’s probably overkill, but I bleach new buckets before use (and then make sure they only get used for fish and avoid cross contamination). If you get pre-used buckets (e.g., reused paint buckets, pickle buckets, etc.), then you need to ask what level of risk and bother you’re willing to take. If you still want to use the bucket then clean well, use bleach, air dry, and leave them in the sun for a few weeks, followed by water tests.

Okay yah all the buckets will be brand new as well as the tote, I’ll give them a wash with some bleach and rinse well before I use them just to be extra safe

 

[BeejReef]

It's gonna be fine. You'll love it. We're all just being extra cautious cuz we can well imagine how hard it would suc* to have all of that on our kitchen floor waiting to go into a a)broken tank, b) contaminated water, c) not enough water.

Child - "Daddy, why aren't the fish moving?" Wife - "I told you this was a ......."

 

[Will W]

you should not relocate the sand, it should be rinsed 100% clean before re use, and even better, fully replaced.

sand stayed in contact w that dudes phosphate level choices, his waste built up...start clean, you have a chance.

you can rinse the entire sandbed all at once and transport zero waste into your tank, or you can change it all out at once, not in sections, for the new tank. It does not cause a recycle we have a 20 page action thread on it
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445
the thread has working examples of tank moves, multiple ones.

don't transport any old sand, rinsing it doesn't cause a cycle, nor loss of bac that matter.

its not that you need some of the current bacteria from the bed carried over

you need none of it, see our works above.

key terms evolving below:
stirred up
cloudy

that's a death knell in reef moves never accept it, plan against it. envision a thread doing for pages the very type of move going on here- able to track start to finish[/QUOT

I completely agree him on the the sand. I think the sand along with temp are your biggest factors to a tank move. I had a tank in college and did bare bottom or pitched the sand every time i had to move my tank. I actually did multiple 13 hour drives with mainly acro's with no issues.

 

[Reefman603]

So basically I should just by brand new live sand from my LFS and just start fresh and be better off in the end ? I just want to make sure the aquarium doesn’t go thru a recycle, which I’m sure there is plenty of beneficial establish bacteria in the sump, just want to make sure removing the bacteria in the sand won’t shock the system

 

[Reefman603]

It's gonna be fine. You'll love it. We're all just being extra cautious cuz we can well imagine how hard it would suc* to have all of that on our kitchen floor waiting to go into a a)broken tank, b) contaminated water, c) not enough water.

Child - "Daddy, why aren't the fish moving?" Wife - "I told you this was a ......."

Haha yah I completely understand, trying to avoid that disaster in every way I can.

 

[brandon429]

its true you can swap the sand

rinse the new sand totally, under tap water, until its clear and if you are talking multiple bags then that's probably 2 hours straight rinsing work, drill tiny holes in a bucket or use netting dunno that's a big rinse job

the goal is to have new sand that is cloudless; no amount of scaping, shifting, rocks falling, re adjusts, nothing kicks up a cloud

check the examples its worth a 40 min read to anticipate any losses or small details, we did jobs in there with thousands in coral on the line.

 

[Aquavaj]

A 65g will be a cinch, especially with that many friends helping. I did a fully running 120g with just my brother and the help of the mover guy. Just be extra careful draining and moving buckets full of water around a stranger's house. I spilled about a cup of water on the floor when the hose I was using to siphon the water out slipped out of my hand. Bring towels just incase.

 

[snorklr]

depending what part of the country you're in, tractor supply has food grade white plastic 5 gal buckets for about 25 cents more than the regular ones from lowes ....thats what i used

 

[Peace River]

...Bring towels just incase.

Towels - always good advice! I've gotten to the point that I just keep a few towels in my vehicle. In fact, I have started carrying a furniture moving dolly with me and it is amazing how many times I end up using it to help people move tanks or even end up with tanks following me home!!!