Moving questions. ..

[mbd521]

Good day everyone. So I have a few questions about moving a tank. But first let me give you a little background info. Tank is a standard 55 gal and has been running for approx a year. Its current inhabitants are a solitary percula clown fish 2 peppermint shrimp, and a pistol shrimp, along with a clean up crew consisting of nerite, nassirus (sp) cerith, and dwarf cerith snails, and a couple other snails and quite a few hermits. As far as corals go I have a nice mushroom a very cool fungia and a rock that is waving in the current with a ton of flourishing green star polyps. This year I bought some new equipment for the tank. I bought a second t5 light so now I have 4 x 54 wt light, also bought a reef octopus Bh2000 hob skimmer.

A short while after upgrading my lights I a had prettt nasty algae outbreak. I currently am using one of those little magnet scrappers evert day if not two of three timea a day to try to keep the algae from getting too terrible. Now here is where my question lies. When I filled the tank( and top offs), I did a most heinous act and used tap water which is filled pollutants and excessive nutrients which I am sure is contributing to this nasty algae outbreak. Well I also bought a 5 stage BRS RO/DI unit. And I plan on using it for water changes and top offs from now on, but I the mean time I am going to be moving because my landlord is selling my duplex.

I would love any great advice on moving tanks. I'm figuring I will need a lot of buckets to hold the live rock and the livestock. But my question is about the water. Can I just mix up new saltwater with fresh RO/DI water to get rid of the majority of the excessive nutrients in old water ( essentially doing like a 90% water change) . Or would that be a bad idea? I was figuring that I will probably have atleast a mini cycle no matter what (am I correct?) If I do change the water I assume that I would have to reaclimate everything or would I be ok leaving the snails and hermits in the tank. ( That would be a lot to pick out) I was hoping to leave the snails and hermits in the actual tank with a very small amout of water in it to keep the sand from dieing off.

Well any and all advice is welcome. thanks in advance!

Ps. A couple things I left out... the new house is less than 10 miles away. As far as equipment goes I also have a jbj ato and an emperor 400 , that I have place some GFO in to try to lower the nutrient level.

 

[Trex]

Do you have a means to make up the new salt water (( and store it )) before your move? If you can do that, I would suggest replace around 50% of your water. Mind you, you are still going to have algae issues for a while -- your rock have most likely absorbed a great deal of those excess nutrients.

If you can't make up the water before hand, I would attempt to move as much of the water as possible and do a series of large water changes once you are settled into the new place.

The issue being (( and this is without knowing which RO/DI unit you have and the water pressure at the new place )) is that it is going to take about 2 hours to make 5 gallons of RO/DI water --- will take the about 16 hours straight to make enough water, not easy to do while moving.

 

[mbd521]

Yes I do have means to make up ans store enough water. The RODI unit I have I'd the 5 stage Bulk reef supply unit with pressure monitor, flush valve and tds meter. Great reviews on this unit from multiple forums and websites.

 

[mbd521]

Btw thanks trex!!

 

[oceanparadise1]

i agree id make up new water. best way to get it all back to ro/di. corals and fish can be moved in a bucket (separate them) as far as sand goes, id prolly start over with new sand and just seed it with the old.

 

[Slayer311]

Having done this several times I can give some pointers. First use buckets for all the live rock with a simple heater and powerhead for circulation, 2nd do yourself a favor and start with fresh sand, trying to rinse the sand will usually cause algae outbreaks from bacterial die off. 3rd, a seperate bucket with one or 2 good pieces of live rock / heater / circulation pump for the livestock. It is also a good idea to mix up at least 50% new water during this as you will stir up a ton of waste moving the rocks.

 

[mbd521]

Not a bad idea oceanparadise but the tank would probably go through an entire cycle and take up to 8 weeks to be ready for fish and corals. I don't have the means to keep them seperately for that long. I couldn't put my lighting overy 10 gal quarantine tank... would probably fry the corals( I think)

 

[oceanparadise1]

Tank would not cycle again, I've done that way a few times.


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP on my iPhone5

 

[Esage]

i agree id make up new water. best way to get it all back to ro/di. corals and fish can be moved in a bucket (separate them) as far as sand goes, id prolly start over with new sand and just seed it with the old.

This is what I have done and I will do again when I move the tank in six months

 

[mbd521]

Thanks again guys!!! I just may go ahead and get new sand if I can find it in the budget... not reallly a big fan of the sand I already have anyways. ... stupid sugar fine blows around too much? Btw the move will likely be about a month and a half away!!