Purchasing a tank that is established.. questions

[legomaheggos]

Greetings,

I am looking at purchasing a 40g tank that is established and comes with fish. I am concerned that if I move the tank from one home to another, that it will need to recycle when I refill it with water, as I don't really have a way to transport 40 gallons of water. Am I overthinking this or overcomplicating it? My main concern is the ammonia spike killing the fish that would come with this if it were to happen, so I would like to prevent it if at all possible.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Greetings,

I am looking at purchasing a 40g tank that is established and comes with fish. I am concerned that if I move the tank from one home to another, that it will need to recycle when I refill it with water, as I don't really have a way to transport 40 gallons of water. Am I overthinking this or overcomplicating it? My main concern is the ammonia spike killing the fish that would come with this if it were to happen, so I would like to prevent it if at all possible.

Your best bet it so pick up a bunch of 5 gallon food safe pails. Transport as much as the water as possible also put your rock in these pails. You'll want to get all new sand, don't use any of the old sand. So put your new sand in, put your rock in, and fill it up. Have buckets of already mixed saltwater at home ready to go to make up for what you wern't able to transport.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

If it has a decent amount of live rock then you should be fine. I would try to transport what water you can though. I would just move it, set it up and run it(fish and all). After about 4 days I would do a decent water change just to be safe and your good to go.

 

[hijinks7]

water isn't the big deal since most of the bacteria is in the rock and sand. People do 80% water changes no issues

I would buy new sand.. You can set it up bare bottom and slowly add new sand in via like a home made funnel with PVC pipe or something. Thats what I did ages ago when I moved a 46g bow front.

 

[BrandonR]

i would add some of this. I use it every tank move( I move a lot)

 

[legomaheggos]

That works out pretty well, I have a 250ml bottle that I just got. I guess I was over thinking it. I was afraid losing most of the water and replacing the sand would cause havoc on the tank and almost reset it. Thanks for the tips and advise

 

[mjlash22]

Take the water! Not sure what your vehicle situation is, but I recently moved a reefer 250 (~65g) and used 5 gallon buckets to transport all the water/livestock.

 

[brandon429]

Today I kicked up the sand rinse thread which has examples of skip cycle moves and preps you take to make it not recycle. Use all new sand for one mentioned above, even the live rock and bacteria on the tank is enough with most rock stacks people use.

Has other people photographing the process plus after pics

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/

Not moving over detritus is all we're doing. Nine pages to get right about just that heh

 

[Jesterrace]

Take the water! Not sure what your vehicle situation is, but I recently moved a reefer 250 (~65g) and used 5 gallon buckets to transport all the water/livestock.

Agreed, while it is true that the bacteria is on the rock, the existing water can help keep the bacteria die off to virtually 'nil for the period it sits outside of the tank. I used this method when transferring from my 36 to my 90 (since I had to move the 36 out of the way and move the 90 in it's place). I got no ammonia or nitrites at all on my tests and partially drained water from the old tank into buckets and then moved the live rock into it and added more water to keep the rock submerged for all but a few seconds that it took to transfer to the bucket and then from the bucket to the tank. Once the bacteria on the rock is out of the water and directly exposed to air things begin to die.

 

[legomaheggos]

I have a crossover SUV I will be using to move it, afraid it will take me a couple trips just to move the essentials, I will take some buckets and fill up what I can in the vehicle with them. Thanks again, everyone

 

[foxt]

What else is moving with the tank (HOB filter, etc)? As was said earlier, you want to move as much bacteria as you can, and eliminate the transfer of as much detritus as you can. Depending on when the move is going to take place, you could also give the seller a sponge filter and ask him/her to run it for you before you pick the tank up. That would help boost your biofilter, although adding bacteria in a bottle can do the same thing. .

All that said, I moved a 55g a while back, and following the same sort of advice you have been given, I had no issues at all. Just watch for ammonia (use a good test kit, don't rely on just the badge), and be ready to take action if needed.

 

[mjlash22]

I have a crossover SUV I will be using to move it, afraid it will take me a couple trips just to move the essentials, I will take some buckets and fill up what I can in the vehicle with them. Thanks again, everyone

If you have a long distance to travel, I can understand how it can be difficult to move absolutely everything. The move of my reefer 250 took about a day and a half from tear down to getting it back up and running. That was with a 35 minute travel time each way. Took about 15 5 gallon buckets. Best of luck!