Need suggestions - Moving Reef Tank

[Justfbilly]

I am getting carpeting replaced with hardwood floors where my reef tank is located in my house. I have to break down the tank and move it out of the room where it is located so they can lay the hardwood flooring. The upside to this is that the tank will only be down for a few hours and I will be able to move the tank back to its original location and set it back up. I am looking for any tips from anyone that has had to deal with breaking a tank down and move it for a short period of time. Any tips on what I should do and what is the easiest way and less stressful on the inhabitants. Also any ideas on the easiest way to move the tank, stand and sump. Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[brandon429]

most would drain the tank, put it on sliders or blanket and manhandle it to where it needs to be and refill partially then repeat but that's not what I would do

this is a rare cleaning opportunity, for hard work. much better to make your tank have zero detritus in it, zero, during this process. my way which we've done lots lately in move tank threads is:

take out all corals and put into holding bucket. fish same, separate bucket for fish no substrate. rocks in another bucket (lots of buckets job) and those rocks are blast cleaned of no detritus inside while they sit there. that bucket water for the rocks is changed to make sure they are held clean, and are getting cleaned.

now you have only a tank of dirty water, and sand if there is sand. if not, your job is much easier.

drain all the water and discard if practical. blast clean all the sand at once, leaving no detritus, doesn't harm its bacteria. it harms detritus to rinse, not bacteria.
some even replace the whole sand bed and start clean. either way. id refill with all new water, 100% new, but only if that's practical. my lfs has a water delivery truck for big jobs, some may want to preserve the old water to avoid hassle

then set up the whole new cleaned tank back where it should be, with no recycling since you moved no detritus. this is a no recycle procedure, all very hard work with a great payout indeed. doing the opposite, least work and leaving all detritus in place, is algae battle upon setup for having nutrient upwelled everything and not exporting it.

clean partially=some detritus left, some recycle risk to your system.

clean harshly, all the way, all at once=no recycle, takes tons of work, transfers no detritus. all pretty clear cut

 

[happyhourhero]

I get the rubbermaid tubs from wal mart and put all rock and low light corals in them with heater and power head. SPS and Nem and most fish went into a 20 gallon with my normal lights over it also with heater and power head. I used as much original tank water as I could and filled the new tank up with a little over half new water and mixed it there for 24 hours. Brought it up to temp and transferred everything over. I dont use sand so I cnanot imagine having to deal with that. Good luck!

 

[brandon429]

No sand, no recycle risk

Given clean live rocks not plugged up for sure.

Sand has neat worms and zones agreed, but they are optional to even have as one less liability as well.