URGENT - Advice need ASAP on tank move !

[Lesley]

can anyone who has ever moved a tank before please let us know any secrets or tips that may help our big day tomorrow ?
hoping for some advice on the actual move (never done this before)

1. Would you remove all corals (64) and place in plastic tubs with air hose & heater while moving rock ? Worried about chemical warfare in such a small space ?

2. Would you remove all fish into pastic tubs or leave in the tank while moving live rock etc ? What would be less stressful for them ?

3. Obviously the water level of current tank is going to go down as we remove rocks etc. would you keep topping it up to keep it running while moving everything over ?

4. Would you start scaping the new build with it full of water or half water level. ?

5. Would you start all corals on the sand in the new tank and move up over a couple of days, or will they be alright being placed as we are running the same lighting.?

6. Any other tips or tricks that may help us would be greatly received.

7. We have about 180kg of rock in current tank & 100kg of rock been seeding in the sump for the last 8 weeks or so, would you move all the sump rocks/chateau first or make that last thing.

8. We have a large bottle of Prime & stability so will start dosing that immed.

9. here is a picture of what we are having to move from and to ....urghhhh !!!

Thanks in advance !!!

 

[RalphsReef]

I moved my large tank a couple years ago. I had pretty good luck but learned a couple things along the way.

1) I had numerous small-medium rubbermaid style tubs to place corals in. Just like in the tank, I kept the ones that would battle away from each other.

2) It's easier to catch the fish once you have your live rock out of the tank. They will be stressed simply from their environment changing and them being caught and put into tubs. Here's a lesson I learned. Even on a short move (25 minutes) I lost some fish from not using an airstone. They quickly depleted the oxygen in the water.

3) I wouldn't bother topping the water off.

4) If your tank is full of water and you add rocks, you will have a flood.

5) I'd do my best to keep the corals in the same general location as they were in as long as the new tank is the same height and you're using the same lighting. The coral will be stressed too.

6) Not sure where you are located, but for this time of year you should probably consider some sort of heat source during the transport.

7) As far as the rock, sounds like you have plenty between both (if I am reading this correctly). I'd try to get the rockscaping set up first. You will stir up a lot of sand and likely have a cloudy tank. Mine sure was, but it settled in just a few hours.

8) I have never used those products, so I can't speak to that.

9) Nice setup. Good luck with the move.

 

[Lesley]

I moved my large tank a couple years ago. I had pretty good luck but learned a couple things along the way.

1) I had numerous small-medium rubbermaid style tubs to place corals in. Just like in the tank, I kept the ones that would battle away from each other.

2) It's easier to catch the fish once you have your live rock out of the tank. They will be stressed simply from their environment changing and them being caught and put into tubs. Here's a lesson I learned. Even on a short move (25 minutes) I lost some fish from not using an airstone. They quickly depleted the oxygen in the water.

3) I wouldn't bother topping the water off.

4) If your tank is full of water and you add rocks, you will have a flood.

5) I'd do my best to keep the corals in the same general location as they were in as long as the new tank is the same height and you're using the same lighting. The coral will be stressed too.

6) Not sure where you are located, but for this time of year you should probably consider some sort of heat source during the transport.

7) As far as the rock, sounds like you have plenty between both (if I am reading this correctly). I'd try to get the rockscaping set up first. You will stir up a lot of sand and likely have a cloudy tank. Mine sure was, but it settled in just a few hours.

8) I have never used those products, so I can't speak to that.

9) Nice setup. Good luck with the move.

Fantastic advice, thank you. I knew someone would have done this before.


The reason I ask about keeping the tank running is because these 2 tanks are actually virtually back to back, just upgrading, I probably didnt explain it properly but we are not physically moving house but tanks only.
Would you still bother with rubber maids for the corals and fish etc ?

Or would you now chose to say perhaps keep the tank running.
You can see the old tank in the picture, we removed a wall to custom fit the Peninsular ?

 

[RalphsReef]

Ah, I see. I would still get a few tubs to keep the fish and corals in, along with airstones for all of them. I believe it would due less stress for them to be in there, since you won't have your hands in and out a bunch of times while you remove/add rock/sand/corals. Now that I see what you're doing, I would get a sump pump and pump as much water from the old tank into the new one so your water parameters stay as close as possible. When you get to the bottom where you'd be sucking up sand, you would obviously stop pumping in hopes to minimize the cloudiness in the new tank. So, have some new saltwater ready also. Are you shutting the old tank down after the transfer?

 

[Lesley]

Yes. The old tank has been sold already. We have transferred about 1200lt of water between the 2 tanks over the last 10days so everything is pretty close parameter wise. We have been lucky enough to be able to run both tanks for the last 2 weeks all bar a skimmer as wanted to keep it with livestock. . Good point on fish being stressed with hands etc. I hadn't thought of that !!! This is so bloody scary. You hear so many horror stories with everything dying !!!! Thanks for your help. P. S we are in Australian summer so it's quite hot today probably be running aircon all day so heating tubs prob won't be to much of a problem. Lol. Thanks once again appreciate it a ton !

 

[RalphsReef]

Anytime! Other than making the water cloudy when adding the live rock, and fooling around with the corals, it should go fairly easy. That's probably the "shortest" move in terms of travel that I know of. LOL.

 

[rayn]

Stability should/could help. You are moving the existing rock, so there shouldn't be a loss of bio filter, but the stability will just give it that added push. It is one of the few bottle products I do believe in, and use it on any tank move or build just to help.

Good luck with the move!

 

[Lesley]

Thank you @rayn RalphsReef Well jut thought I would follow up, thanks to everyones advice and help it went very smoothly. Although the scaping was harder than we had anticipated urghhh !
The scape took just over 15 hours to complete and get both sides looking nice.
All the fish and corals stayed in the old tank overnight, next morning they all moved over without loss !
We started using Stability straight away and prime also. We had a very small spike of ammonia by day 2 was completely gone by day 4, nitrates were at the worst 1ppm but last 24 hours dropped to 0.05 by themselves, so I am assuming the bacteria is establishing itself very well.
The tank looked very milky for the first 5 days, was a bit concerned it was the 2 foot overflow and wasn't going to clear up, but woke up day 6 and the water was crystal clear.
Very happy with results, am still dosing stability for the next few days as recommended by Seachem.
I have put some pics of the clarity & scape.
Comments on scape would be very much appreciated as its very different to the last tank and the first time weve done it.
Thanks everyone for you help.

 

[rayn]

Sounds like a good move! I like the scape, with the caves formed through it.

 

[Lesley]

Sounds like a good move! I like the scape, with the caves formed through it.

Thank you once again. Its forums like this that really help us newbies to even try things like this.
We have quite a few tangs so the caves are important, they each have a good sleeping spot now. thanks

 

[RalphsReef]

That is a sharp looking setup! Glad the move went as easily as possible.

 

[Lesley]

Thank you. Much appreciated !