Need to be reassured.

Pale Morning1 · Apr 13, 2022

I have to move my Evo 13.5 to a different office in my workplace. Plan is to drain most of the water into tub and add the rocks in. I plan to have another tub with already prepared salt water that will be same salinity and temp. Move the tank add new water and then add back the rocks, coral and fish. Am I missing anything?

homer1475 · Apr 13, 2022

Nope, plan looks good to me.

I would just use the old water as well, just use the fresh for top up as you will obviously loose some.

Tamberav · Apr 13, 2022

Ya it’s fine and just treat it like a water change.

Pale Morning1 · Apr 13, 2022

Just nervous. I have a chalice that is on one rock but starting to grow around a different rock. I do not want to break it.

blaxsun · Apr 13, 2022

Pale Morning1 said:
Just nervous. I have a chalice that is on one rock but starting to grow around a different rock. I do not want to break it.

Don't sweat it. You can always remove your rocks and corals and place in a tub with saltwater while you drain, move, re-setup and re-fill the tank.

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

Sounds good. Do you have sand? If so, rinse it well before putting it back in. Do not move tank with sand if you can avoid it. Or just dump sand (picking all the snails and such out) and put new rinsed sand in. I do this with my 6g often enough.
Just move the coral and rocks carefully into a nice big bucket of water so as not to break it.

Give the rocks a little shake in the old water (carefully of course) to get rid of debris.

Put it all back together. 100% water changes are fine. I do it often.

homer1475 · Apr 13, 2022

Honestly with only 13G of water, once it's drained, and the fish are out, you could probably move it with the rock and corals still in it.

I have done it a few times with a 10G setup. Were probably only talking 20 to 30 pounds.

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

If you do it all within a few minutes, certainly that would be fine. If you want to treat it as a bit of a clean out, move everything to shake and clean.
I use the time with 100% water changes to do a full tank clean. Sides, back, bottom. Really get it clean. Then put all back. Takes very little time.
I do it on my 40g and 20g when I feel it needs it.

homer1475 · Apr 13, 2022

DeniseAndy said:
If you do it all within a few minutes, certainly that would be fine. If you want to treat it as a bit of a clean out, move everything to shake and clean.
I use the time with 100% water changes to do a full tank clean. Sides, back, bottom. Really get it clean. Then put all back. Takes very little time.
I do it on my 40g and 20g when I feel it needs it.

Do the same with the 10G all the time. Just treat it like a 100% WC. Super easy to correct water problems in a nano.

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

My 6g loves this treatment. Well, maybe not the fish and shrimp so much.

Pale Morning1 · Apr 13, 2022

I considered that but my concern there is mainly the chalice. As you can see it is touching two rocks. I worry that while carrying the rocks could shift and break it. I think I can lift it straight up without an issue.

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

You should be able to lift up. That particular chalice will heal easily, but I understand not wanting to damage it. Or, just leave that rock in the tank and blow off nicely before empty tank.

Aqua Man · Apr 13, 2022

DeniseAndy said:
Sounds good. Do you have sand? If so, rinse it well before putting it back in. Do not move tank with sand if you can avoid it. Or just dump sand (picking all the snails and such out) and put new rinsed sand in. I do this with my 6g often enough.
Just move the coral and rocks carefully into a nice big bucket of water so as not to break it.

Give the rocks a little shake in the old water (carefully of course) to get rid of debris.

Put it all back together. 100% water changes are fine. I do it often.

This is how I would move the tank too.
Except I’d save majority of the water.

My ALK is 8.0 and RC mixes to 11.0 or higher. @DeniseAndy, is a huge ALK swing like that ok for softy and lps coral?

Falcar · Apr 13, 2022

Pale Morning1 said:
I considered that but my concern there is mainly the chalice. As you can see it is touching two rocks. I worry that while carrying the rocks could shift and break it. I think I can lift it straight up without an issue.

Well if you break it, you'll probably find you'll now have 2 chalices

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

Aqua Man said:
My ALK is 8.0 and RC mixes to 11.0 or higher. @DeniseAndy, is a huge ALK swing like that ok for softy and lps coral?

I would worry a bit for lps depending on type. Then again, I do this in my lps tank regularly with no issues. I do not however test the alk before and after. Lazy! Maybe I should next time and can give you a definitive answer.

My softies could care less - leathers, zoas, rics, discomas, cloves, gsp, stereonepthea, others.

My shrimp are not bothered much either as long as pH is close.

Pale Morning1 · Apr 13, 2022

How long can corals safely be out of water?

DeniseAndy · Apr 13, 2022

For that chalice easily a 15min or a bit more. Most can handle it. Just would not do it with nems or some leathers.

Pale Morning1 · Apr 13, 2022

Ok here is the before pic. I will be making this move either tonight or Saturday and will post follow up. Thanks all for the responses. It is appreciated.

homer1475 · Apr 13, 2022

Nice looking tank!

I think you'll be fine if you just drain it, remove fish, then move it, and refill. I would leave the coral and rocks in it.

The 10 or 15 minutes it's going to take, everything will be fine out of water. Just reuse most of the old water, and there won't be much of a shock. If the parameters match with the new water, then just use the new(depending on mix, the ALK would be the big concern).