Moving tank, need advice

[Tmm87]

So in a few days I'm moving about an hour and a half away to a new house. I have a new tank that I'll be setting up on Friday after I pick it up. Unfortunately I can't pick it up until Friday otherwise I could have set it up in advance. What is the best way for me to do this?

I have fresh sand ready to go, I plan to move the rock from the existing tank to the new tank (roughly 80 lbs or so) and will be adding some dry rock as well. I have a few corals (2 zoas, a candy cane and a small GSP colony), two anemones (one is being hosted by my clowns), the fish and my crabs/snails/shrimp.

What is the best way to move them? I will be setting up the new tank Friday night and then moving the old tank and contents Saturday along with the rest of my stuff that hasn't already been moved.

Is it safe to remove my live rock from the tank Friday and set it up in the new tank along with the new dry rock I have? I'd like to have my aquascape set up before I get the fish there, give the tank time to settle. Can I mix my saltwater in the new tank or do I need to mix it in separate buckets? I did this in my old tank (dry rock and sand, no critters) but I'm afraid of potential die off.

I'm currently running a canister filter on the old tank and will have a sump on the new one. With my live rock and fresh live sand and a small batch of seed sand from the old tank do I need to run the canister on the new tank?

I've got a few buckets already and can buy some more. I plan on getting a big rubbermaid tote for my rock. I've also got access to large fish bags from work. Better to bag the fish and critters or split them up between buckets? How much tank water should I save?

Heaters! I currently have a 250W for my old tank (70g). How much more do I need for the 120? Right now the heater barely runs, tank stays around 80 all the time. New house has central air and shouldn't have any issues being too hot or cold. I want the heater(s) in the sump to keep a clear display tank.

Sorry for all the questions, I've moved my fair share of freshwater tanks but this is my first marine tank move. I've become quite attached to my fish and critters over the last year and would hate to lose any. Please don't be afraid to include any information I may have missed. This is a pretty stressful time trying to get everything in order for the move. I'd rather have some redundant information that I may already be aware of than possibly overlook something and lose my fish.

 

[rockhead51]

No idea if the fish and coral will survive, but if you are using anything "new" (sand or rock) it WILL cycle.
Keep any live rock or sand from the old tank wet and you won't get die off.
But you need to understand that you have an established 70 g biome right now, and when you move it into 120 g, your biome will need to grow and re-balance at that volume.
Recommend you do NOT add anything to the biolode for at least a couple months (params should be stable before you even start looking.).
Match your temp and salinity to the old tank exactly.
Your stock should be fine overnight in the old tank with just the established filter (think QT), but I'd make sure they have somewhere to hide- the move will be stressful enough, no sense adding to it.
I'd save ALL the tank water (much of it will come over between fish, CUC, and LR anyway) to minimize change.
I would even set up the canister filter in the new tank for a while just to help ease the transition and establish the new bacterial colony.
Not sure about # and size of heaters, but multiple heaters is a good thing for redundancy, so whatever you end up with, get it/them going in the new sump the night before.

 

[vlangel]

Hi Tmm87! You should be able to do this fine. If I were you I would buy a brute can and mix the saltwater in it prior to Friday and get the salinity stable. (A brute can is handy to have with a tank that big). Even the biggest brute can will not be enough so mix the rest in buckets, enough to make about 100 gallons.

Friday night have your seed sand, dry sand, live rock, dry rock and an appropriate size bottle of biospira with you when you are setting up the new 120g. Also if possible, do a 20 gallon water change on the 70g and you can tranfer your seed sand and live rock in that 20 gallons that you removed from the 70g.

Set the new tank up and the way I have transferred tanks is I lay the dry sand, (that I rinsed very thoroughly or it will be cloudy for 2 days) in the bottom and then I put the seed sand on top. Add the 20 gallons of saltwater from the 70g tank and enough of the newly made saltwater to cover the sandbed so that it is totally submerged. Now aquascape your rock, both dry and live. When you have it the way you want, put a bowl on the sand so you can pour or pump water into the tank without churning up the sand. This should keep the tank from getting overly cloudy if you rinsed the dry sand well enough. When the tank is nearly full then turn everything on and check for leaks, salinity and other potential problems. You can run the system slightly lower than you would normally because you will add more water when you bring the livestock. Just make sure your return pump has enough water. When all is running smoothly add the biospira. Also add your second heater and I would probably get something around 150W. It may not do the job by itself but it will be fine with your other heater.

On Saturday when you move the livestock, I would not bag the fish unless you have access to oxygen. I would rather put them in clean buckets filled 2/3s full of tank water with battery operated pumps if you have them. You can put multiple fish in one bucket, especially if you have a battery operated pump. Your CUC don't need a pump. I agree with the prior post about running the canister filter and I would transfer it with the media and water in it. When you arrive, check the temperature, aaclimate your livestock and set up the canister filter. I would probably run some carbon in case any nasties were released in the whole process.

Again like the prior post stated you are likely to have a mini cycle from the move and new sand and rock. Have saltwater made ahead of time and check for ammonia every other day. It will probably peak around the 1st week or slightly after that. Keep doing water changes and try to keep the ammonia under .025ppm. After each water change it is helpful to add seachem stability. By 2 and a half weeks the tank should have settled down and your ammonia should be about done. I would not add anything new to the tank for a month or so to give it a chance to stabilize even more however.

I have helped move tanks and have done 3 tank transfers of my own tanks doing it this way. I never lost any of my livestock except 1 fish the very first time when I bagged my fish.

 

[Tmm87]

Thanks. Appreciate the info. Still very nervous about the move.

 

[Milktooth]

I recently acquired about 250 lbs of 16 year old established fiji rock from a friend of a friend who was moving and getting out of the hobby. This rock was very healthy and contained many varieties of beautiful macro algae etc. It was transferred from his 90 gallon to my 180 and I also added some dry rock which is probably still cycling. Anyway, I also acquired his very limited livestock (a clarki clown, and coral banded shrimp). I ended up losing the shrimp who was 6 years old, but the Clarkii, also 6, is thriving.

I have limited die-off of the macro algae fairly successfully however I went away for a week and when I returned the tank had sprung a bit of a hair algae problem. This may have had to do with my lighting schedule, but the hair algae snuffed out some of my beautiful macro-algaes causing die off. I have been successfully fighting the hair algae for two months now.

My advice would be to save as much of your old water as possible. When I took the rock I filled about 15 5-gallon buckets from lowes and home depot with his water and even some of his sand for my sump. It was more work but I believe that water buffered a lot of stress on the system.

I would also recommend continuing to run your canister filter at least for the first few months down in your new sump.

I truly believe the more constants you can maintain the better. As far as the aerator for your livestock I would highly recommend a Baby Bubbler. They are so cheap ($5) and will run for close to 24 hours on two AA batteries. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Baby-Bubbles/37825661?wmlspartner=wlpa

 

[Tmm87]

Thanks for the help everyone. Been a week or so, took a while to get settled in. Everyone survived the move.