MOVING HOUSE/AQUARIUM

[Chris444]

Hi, I will be moving house in 2 weeks so the aquarium. I have a few questions about moving tank.
It is a 80g with 15g sump. Few different types of fish, soft corals, LPS,anemone and invertibates. I am moving house only 5 minutes drive(literally). My questions are:
Do I keep the old sand which I am able to transport inside the tank without even moving it?
Do I keep all of the water?
Live rock completely submerged in the water or just keep it damp, if so how?
Should I prepare the live stock in any way for move?
Things that should/shouldn't be done before move
THANK YOU!

 

[Phil85]

With such a short drive you've got some options. What I would do..
Get a bunch of 5 gallon buckets. Remove rock. I would only keep rock with encrusted corals submerged in water, otherwise just stack in bucket/cooler. Be sure to keep different types of corals and anemones segregated in different buckets as they can still sting/harm each other. Siphon out the water - save what you can, it'll make things less stressful for the inhabitants. Don't put rock in with the water you want to keep, the sloshing will remove a bunch of debris from the rocks and make it dirty. Be sure to have fresh saltwater prepped ahead of time. Leave only sand in tank when moving and try not to disturb.
This has worked for me several different times.

 

[S2G]

I'd keep as much water as you could unless you got stored sw. I used the big totes from Walmart with yellow lids,a bunch of buckets, and my 32 gallon brute cans

 

[Grape_City_Reefer]

Please let us know how the move goes, I am in a similar situation. Just got preapproved for a mortgage loan and maybe putting an offer this week on a home. Approx. 5 minute drive as well.

Phil85 or anyone else have you had any issues with moving a tank with sand in the bottom? I thought the weight would cause issues with popping seals or cracking.My goal is to get the tank emptied to the sand bed and try to move my tank and stand in one movement.( 40B with custom built pine stand.)


I apologize for highjacking the thread Chris444.

 

[LadyMac]

With such a short drive it won’t be too difficult just labor intensive. I’ve never moved a saltwater tank, but many many freshwater tanks so I’d imagine it’s similar.

Keep the sand, I prefer in buckets with a lid just because of the weight of it. Keep it moist. Same with rocks. They don’t need to be submerged since it’s not going to be a long haul. I personally would keep about half or 2/3 of the water, and take this opportunity for a waterchange. Since it most likely would still be your old source water it wouldn’t hurt them. Set it up gently, especially when adding fish back. You want to of course add your most docile first to the most aggressive; just to help keep the peace. Things may stress a little bit should bounce back. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[brandon429]

We do bunches of moves on the sand rinse thread

You should 100% clean the sandbed and rocks of pent up detritus since you have a required takedown coming up


Then set it up totally cleaned out at new place

Rinse sand in tap water until totally clear, does not harm anything search the thread for proof.
The rocks are swished in saltwater to evacuate built up waste, only the sandbed gets the tap since sandbed bacteria are not required in any reef to maintain filtration (theyre extra beyond what's required)
Does not cause a cycle... The cycle locus follows the waste/detritus, the actual act of moving never kills bacteria it boosts them temporarily in fact. You should deep clean, to partially clean or not clean has zero advantage large thread shows


It is fully ironic that not rinsing your sandbed to perfection is the riskiest move. Nobody believed sandbed bacteria were expendable, so we made a four year running test of claims where we control cycles always and never use ammonia testing nor bottle bac to do it.
We use microbiology

Works:

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

For the water: if you have no current algae issues etc you can drain it off and move it, but I prefer at least half all new water. Your live rocks are enough filtration for your reef even without sand and all new water. Knowing that ahead of time will help the move, allows you to be deliberate vs hesitating

*there have been hundreds of tank moves without any cleaning, just moving things carefully. within those hundreds of moves, there's been hundreds of losses at various times/various amounts of loss/ due to upwelling events because a dirty move always imparts variation. The only known system that 100% will not recycle is the cleaned one. no variation in the pages.

 

[Blutspitze]

What @Phil85 mentioned worked well for me - just over a year ago I moved to a new place about 10 minutes from my old one. The biggest question will be how old your sand is. When I moved, it was ~7 months, but I had a Diamond Goby and regularly siphoned in the sand, so there wasn't a need to throw it out. As you probably know, the deeper parts of the sand end up holding pockets of nitrates that can nuke a tank if it gets disturbed.

If you're interested, I have the process I used outlined in detail (with pics) over on my build thread - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/growing-pains-from-a-first-reef-build-55g.617937/#post-6229100

 

[RCS82]

I have a move coming up so I decided to remove all my sand and about half my rock and am so glad I did. It would have been a mess but now I have a clean barebottom tank with half my rock and my fish and corals are all looking great.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Hi, I will be moving house in 2 weeks so the aquarium. I have a few questions about moving tank.
It is a 80g with 15g sump. Few different types of fish, soft corals, LPS,anemone and invertibates. I am moving house only 5 minutes drive(literally). My questions are:
Do I keep the old sand which I am able to transport inside the tank without even moving it?
Do I keep all of the water?
Live rock completely submerged in the water or just keep it damp, if so how?
Should I prepare the live stock in any way for move?
Things that should/shouldn't be done before move
THANK YOU!

I just moved a month ago and it was a pain, I only had a 15 gallon nano at the time but it still sucked. Now I have a Reefer 250 and hopefully the lady and I will be buying a house in a few years and will have to move again. Good luck! Just keep things organized, labeled and separated. I would lay some towels down in the car just in case. My 55 freshwater was way worse but only because it was over three times bigger.

 

[Grape_City_Reefer]

Thank you for the input, and good luck to you when you do partake in the next move yourself.

 

[VB Don]

I'm moving 17 Oct, fingers crossed. I will remove all sand bed and rinse with tap water.

 

[brandon429]

I know how insane it sounds if it weren’t for twenty people and myself doing it over and over there I too would never consider it, but if we don’t rinse it’s the #1 cause of recycles, and if we rinse with saltwater we will not have enough. The large sandbed tap rinsers take about two or more hours of work, in buckets, rinsing outside via hose until it’s this clear below. Even tap rinsing is lethal if it’s done partially, not because of the tap water but due to leaving in clouds of waste out of concern for the bacteria

But a stone cold two hour (or as long as it takes) rising to total clarity makes every cycle work consistently. Here’s my tap rinse on 13 yr nano vase all corals and rocks are sitting out on the counter then go back on top of clean bed

Final rinse was in saltwater to evacuate the tap and start new

 

[Paul B]

I moved my 125 gallon tank last year about 60 miles. First I built a new stand, then I bought some of those 20 gallon vats and filled them about a third full for the fish and corals. The rock I just put enough water to cover them. I also used five gallon buckets.

I took all the water I could carry and got new water where I moved. The tank was only half full until I had enough water. I collected the water in the sea but if I didn't live there I would have just bought ASW and mixed it in the new house.

I didn't lose anything, not even a pod.
I have a thread on it.

Moving 47 year old reef 60 miles. OMG

So about six months ago our closest friends got a new Grand Son and he lives in Long Island right near where I live. Of course they wanted to see him all the time and they moved to Key Largo a couple of years ago so they bought a condo 60 miles east from my home out on Long Island in wine...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[RJKain-777]

I’m moving in 2 weeks, I have a Red Sea 425xl. I’m thinking g of leaving the bottom 2 inches of water in the tank , as well as my stand. I’m only moving 5 minutes away. Then using as many 5 gallon buckets as possible to keep 1/3 of the water. I’m going to use both my 45 gallon brutes to make new water at the new place the day before we move.

 

[Paul B]

It will lbe very difficult (and dangerous) to move that tank with any water in it. Even 2 inches.

 

[Blutspitze]

I’m moving in 2 weeks, I have a Red Sea 425xl. I’m thinking g of leaving the bottom 2 inches of water in the tank , as well as my stand. I’m only moving 5 minutes away. Then using as many 5 gallon buckets as possible to keep 1/3 of the water. I’m going to use both my 45 gallon brutes to make new water at the new place the day before we move.

Even with only 2 inches of water, you're looking at ~8 gallons, so nearly 64 pounds of just water. Not to mention sand/etc., if you have any. It's possible, but would not be easy, and most likely you'd need folks who have experience moving tanks to even try it.

 

[RJKain-777]

Even with only 2 inches of water, you're looking at ~8 gallons, so nearly 64 pounds of just water. Not to mention sand/etc., if you have any. It's possible, but would not be easy, and most likely you'd need folks who have experience moving tanks to even try it.

I’d be scared of nuking my tank from the sand. Maybe I’ll remove my sand and go bare bottom.

 

[Blutspitze]

I’d be scared of nuking my tank from the sand. Maybe I’ll remove my sand and go bare bottom.

Not a bad idea, depending on how old the tank is. Mine was ~7 months in when I moved it, and the sand was fine. IDK if there's a rule of thumb for when to throw out vs. keep sand, though.

 

[brandon429]

@VB Don
How did move go