Request for advice on moving a tank.

[BillyN]

I'm moving my tank in mid January from MI to KY. I have room in the cab of my pickup for the water, fish and coral but the tank and stand will ride in the bed. What is the best thing to do about the sand bed - put it in a 5-gallon bucket and keep it the cab or keep it the tank and be exposed to likely freezing temperatures? I'm guessing it best to put the sand in a bucket in the cab of the truck. Anyone's guidance on this topic is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Snookin]

I’m in the throw out the sand boat. It’s heavy to transport and if it is disturbed it has a chance to cause a cycle. It just adds another heachache to worry about imo. Some people will tell you to keep and reuse and a good rinsing will help but I don’t risk it. Moved multiple tanks and always used new sand with no issues.

 

[BillyN]

Thanks. Did you have any issues with a new sand bed - i.e. the diatoms or algae that show up in the early phases of starting a new tank?

 

[Snookin]

No. I personally didn’t have any issues like that with adding new sand after a move.

 

[Newstead]

We moved our tanks 3.5 hours, dumped the old sand and put new in without problems. Be sure to put only fish in buckets, corals in others. Made the tragic mistake of putting a softball sized sun corals in with two fish since I was scared a rock would roll over it, it rolled and killed my favorite fish, a mysis eating mandarin.

 

[BillyN]

We moved our tanks 3.5 hours, dumped the old sand and put new in without problems. Be sure to put only fish in buckets, corals in others. Made the tragic mistake of putting a softball sized sun corals in with two fish since I was scared a rock would roll over it, it rolled and killed my favorite fish, a mysis eating mandarin.

Thanks for tip. Sorry about that - a mandarin is a nice fire and as I understand to keep so unfortunate loss.

 

[Homebrewer]

+1 for the "dump the old sand" camp

Done this twice without issue. Save as much of the tank water as you can, think of the remainder as just a giant water change, you should be fine!

 

[nezw0001]

When I moved my tank - albeit only 9 miles i dumped the sand bed, only keep a small buckets worth that i kept warm. used that to re seed the new sand. I did have some issues with mild 'new tank' algae blooms but they were quiet mild and I had minimal losses. I did move a fully mature colony level 220g system to a new 450g system so there was so tissue loss on the big sps colonies.