Moving our tank in 2 weeks...

[BanZI29]

We finally bought a house!!! We will be moving into our new place in 2 weeks,
I have a 25g AIO and I need to move my tank. How can I do this? It is a very short trip (10 min drive) from our old place so they won't be out of the tank to long but,
the tank only has about 18g of actual water in it (rock takes the rest of the volume)
I was thinking of just using home depot buckets for each rock, 5 total, and using part tank water and part new water to make sure they are covered.
Will this work or is there a better way?

 

[Zach B]

The words moving and aquarium/tank in the same sentence always scare me lol. Sounds like you've got a good plan down though, the buckets with lids will work just fine Take your time

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Here is what I did.
Get yourself some battery powered air pumps, a few additional 5G buckets with lids and depending on how organized you are, some additional heaters. Cut holes in the lids for the air lines. Have about 50% more water then you think you will need on hand!
Put on gloves
Drain 75% of tank water into buckets
Remove rock/coral and blow off detritus using old tank water
Remove fish and check sandbed for inverts
Remove sand and rinse until clear with tap water. Final rinse with RO (no this will not cause any cycling issues, been done 100s of times before)
Move tank and livestock
Check water salinity and temp
Refill with sand and rock
Add water
Add inverts and least agressive fish first
Reduce photoperiod by 30% atleast for the next week

I used with method to move 5ish tanks about 20 minutes away in 2 days with zero loses. Sand rinse is critical.

 

[Nick Steele]

Agree with @NeonRabbit221B I did this process to help rid me of Dino’s and it took 3-4 hrs on a 20G AIO. I had rocks and a few corals in my shower that I misted with water every 10 mins or so. One bucket with all my corals and one bucket with all my fish. I didn’t use a heater but house was at 75F. I got rid of all my sand instead of rinsing but if you rinse make sure it is 100% clear before putting in back in.

 

[BanZI29]

I am definitely going to clean the sand. I don't think I will need a heater thou. I live in s. florida so it warm here now. I will never use our tap water thou. it is really bad here.

 

[Nick Steele]

Just noticed your in PSL also! Howdy neighbor

Using tap to rinse is fine just do a final rinse with rodi before going back into the tank.

 

[BanZI29]

I was actually gonna get 5g of salt water from my LFS and use that to rinse it out.

 

[Nick Steele]

You’ll probably need much more than 5 gallons. You need to rinse it completely till it’s clear water. There’s a thread about it. If you’d like to read it I linked it.

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

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I can understand the hesitation to use tap but we have all done it. The contact time should be enough to absorb in the sand. Bottled spring water is likely cheap enough and an option. You will likely need about 10g water to rinse a 5g bucket of sand.

 

[BanZI29]

I can understand the hesitation to use tap but we have all done it. The contact time should be enough to absorb in the sand. Bottled spring water is likely cheap enough and an option. You will likely need about 10g water to rinse a 5g bucket of sand.

Good Idea, I can get that from the dollar store. I really hesitate on the tap because I had our water tested and it's not even close to drinkable. the TDS is over 600 and the chemicals are above fed recommended limits. Its really only good for washing dishes.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Don't use the tap lol