Moving soon (hopefully) have some questions

[Krad]

If anyone accepts an offer of mine on a house (LOL) I'll be moving my 10 year old 75 gallon tank. This was my first reef tank so I am excited to move on and avoid the rookie mistakes in the new build.

My current plan is to buy a new DT and have it cycled and set up in the new home however I have a few questions.

1. Has anyone ordered a TRUVU acrylic tank, or have any other brand recommendations? I am looking for a 150 gallon drilled tank.
2. I doubt I can salvage any of my live rock, blue clove polys and aiptasia have taken over pretty much all of it after a crash. What's a good site to potentially order 200lbs of dry rock?
3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?
4. The only livestock I plan on moving is my fish and inverts, only corals left are zoas and I am not sure how they'll hold up under the above treatments.

Thank you! I am sure I'll have more questions the more I think about it. Any tips from people that have moved tanks before are much appreciated - I'm sure I forgot about something!

 

[boacvh]

Following. About to have to move a 75g too!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

For question 2, why not order some actual live rock for the new build? Not 200 pounds, but maybe 40-50 to get some nice diversity for to seed the rest of the (dry) rock?

 

[Krad]

For question 2, why not order some actual live rock for the new build? Not 200 pounds, but maybe 40-50 to get some nice diversity for to seed the rest of the (dry) rock?

Good idea, I was thinking of getting some locally from a store but your right that will help seed and move the cycle along. I might even see if the store will temporarily hold my fish if I if make some hefty purchases from them lol.

 

[Dburr1014]

3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?

May I suggest bleach bath!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Regarding the aiptasia in the sump; I would scrape/scrub off any visible algae, aiptasia, eyc. Then filling it with a bleach solution and letting it sit for a few hours should kill any remaining traces.
Obviously you would rinse it out well before returning it to use. (And only use regular bleach, not "splashless")
While one method of manual removal in the tank is injecting boiling water into the aiptasia, I don't know if this will be effective as a whole-sump treatment.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Also, please don't try to reuse your sand...

 

[Krad]

Also, please don't try to reuse your sand...

Nope first mistake I’m fixing lol. Need coarser sand to stop it blowing around. Might even do no sand in the new tank

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

To answer a question you didn't ask... you can run a healthy temporary system with a smaller tank and a HOB filter (and a heater, of course.) You would do bare bottom and preferably use existing rock for the biological filtration. Just watch your feeding and plan for weekly water changes.
Might be less stress on the fish than having the lfs hold them.

 

[Krad]

To answer a question you didn't ask... you can run a healthy temporary system with a smaller tank and a HOB filter (and a heater, of course.) You would do bare bottom and preferably use existing rock for the biological filtration. Just watch your feeding and plan for weekly water changes.
Might be less stress on the fish than having the lfs hold them.

Good idea! I have a 20 gallon tank I use to hold bait during the ice fishing season. Can easily put a HOB on there

 

[Dr. Jim]

To get rid of aiptasia, you can fill a small pail with boiled RO/DI. Dip the surfaces of the rock with the aiptasia in the hot water and hold it there for about 10-20 seconds (while you rotate the rock to get all the surfaces needed). By not submersing the entire rock, you will preserve enough of the bacteria. Try to avoid feather dusters or anything you want to live, of course. Use a toothbrush to scrub off whatever dead aiptasia you can, followed by a "shake" in a bucket of tank water.

If you are doing this just for rock in a sump, you can probably do all the rocks at one time. If doing an entire tank, I would do half the rock, then test nitrates and phosphates daily to make sure they don't spike. Perhaps a week later, you can do the rest of the rock.

I've recently done this on a 100 gal tank with about 80 lbs of rock. After my first "half" the nitrates doubled to only 4 (from 2) but quickly dropped back within 5 days; phosphates did not vary significantly (0.083 - 0.100).

 

[Krad]

To get rid of aiptasia, you can fill a small pail with boiled RO/DI. Dip the surfaces of the rock with the aiptasia in the hot water and hold it there for about 10-20 seconds (while you rotate the rock to get all the surfaces needed). By not submersing the entire rock, you will preserve enough of the bacteria. Try to avoid feather dusters or anything you want to live, of course. Use a toothbrush to scrub off whatever dead aiptasia you can, followed by a "shake" in a bucket of tank water.

If you are doing this just for rock in a sump, you can probably do all the rocks at one time. If doing an entire tank, I would do half the rock, then test nitrates and phosphates daily to make sure they don't spike. Perhaps a week later, you can do the rest of the rock.

I've recently done this on a 100 gal tank with about 80 lbs of rock. After my first "half" the nitrates doubled to only 4 (from 2) but quickly dropped back within 5 days; phosphates did not vary significantly (0.083 - 0.100).

I might try that after things settle down from the fenbendazole treatment. Start with the few rocks in the sump, then tackle the DT.

 

[MichaelReefer]

If anyone accepts an offer of mine on a house (LOL) I'll be moving my 10 year old 75 gallon tank. This was my first reef tank so I am excited to move on and avoid the rookie mistakes in the new build.

My current plan is to buy a new DT and have it cycled and set up in the new home however I have a few questions.

1. Has anyone ordered a TRUVU acrylic tank, or have any other brand recommendations? I am looking for a 150 gallon drilled tank.
2. I doubt I can salvage any of my live rock, blue clove polys and aiptasia have taken over pretty much all of it after a crash. What's a good site to potentially order 200lbs of dry rock?
3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?
4. The only livestock I plan on moving is my fish and inverts, only corals left are zoas and I am not sure how they'll hold up under the above treatments.

Thank you! I am sure I'll have more questions the more I think about it. Any tips from people that have moved tanks before are much appreciated - I'm sure I forgot about something!

I highly support the idea of getting a bigger tank when you move. I have done that every time I moved Plus you can use it as an excuse to your lady.

 

[Krad]

I highly support the idea of getting a bigger tank when you move. I have done that every time I moved Plus you can use it as an excuse to your lady.

YES 75 gallons too small, debating between a few sizes right now. 60x24 is what I am currently settled on

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

YES 75 gallons too small, debating between a few sizes right now. 60x24 is what I am currently settled on

That's the footprint I think I've settled on, but 6 feet seems like it might work too....

 

[mehaffydr]

1. Has anyone ordered a TRUVU acrylic tank, or have any other brand recommendations? I am looking for a 150 gallon drilled tank.
I would contact Glass Cages @Joe Glass Cages I prefer Glass over Acrylic but they do offer both.

2. I doubt I can salvage any of my live rock, blue clove polys and aiptasia have taken over pretty much all of it after a crash. What's a good site to potentially order 200lbs of dry rock?
I would fore sure buy some live rock starting with all dry rock is a pain. Gulf Live Rock or Tampa Bay Saltwater

3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?
Bleach and rinse and let dry

4. The only livestock I plan on moving is my fish and inverts, only corals left are zoas and I am not sure how they'll hold up under the above treatments.

 

[Joe Glass Cages]

1. Has anyone ordered a TRUVU acrylic tank, or have any other brand recommendations? I am looking for a 150 gallon drilled tank.
I would contact Glass Cages @Joe Glass Cages I prefer Glass over Acrylic but they do offer both.

2. I doubt I can salvage any of my live rock, blue clove polys and aiptasia have taken over pretty much all of it after a crash. What's a good site to potentially order 200lbs of dry rock?
I would fore sure buy some live rock starting with all dry rock is a pain. Gulf Live Rock or Tampa Bay Saltwater

3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?
Bleach and rinse and let dry

4. The only livestock I plan on moving is my fish and inverts, only corals left are zoas and I am not sure how they'll hold up under the above treatments.

Hi @mehaffydr Thank you.

Here to help if I can.

 

[Dburr1014]

1. Has anyone ordered a TRUVU acrylic tank, or have any other brand recommendations? I am looking for a 150 gallon drilled tank.
I would contact Glass Cages @Joe Glass Cages I prefer Glass over Acrylic but they do offer both.

2. I doubt I can salvage any of my live rock, blue clove polys and aiptasia have taken over pretty much all of it after a crash. What's a good site to potentially order 200lbs of dry rock?
I would fore sure buy some live rock starting with all dry rock is a pain. Gulf Live Rock or Tampa Bay Saltwater

3. My sump which has aiptasia growing in it, what would be the best way to "purge" it of life before plumbing it into the new tank? Hot water? let it dry outside?
Bleach and rinse and let dry

4. The only livestock I plan on moving is my fish and inverts, only corals left are zoas and I am not sure how they'll hold up under the above treatments.

Why would you start with all new rock because of polyps and aiptasia? All it would take is a bleach bath and dry it out. And then I would buy a small quantity of Iive to seed it.

 

[Krad]

Why would you start with all new rock because of polyps and aiptasia? All it would take is a bleach bath and dry it out. And then I would buy a small quantity of Iive to seed it.

Yeah I think I overestimated how hard it would be to 1) get rid of the polyps (fent treatment worked amazing) and 2) aiptasia will make it into the new tank regardless of what I do lol.

Ill take some pictures later but the polyps legitimately took over my whole tank, every square inch of visible rock was covered by them. I had a crash years ago and most of my coral died off but they survived and went unchecked for a while.

I knew I was moving so didn't want to re-populate the tank with coral but I got lazy and didn't do my due diligence of stopping the spread of both the polyps and the aiptasia.

Lessons learned!