Advice for moving tank

[Bluecrabber]

Hi All

In the process of moving out of my house and I'd like some advice on the best thing to do with my tank. I have a 40 gallon breeder tank with a couple coral, 3 fish (2 clowns and a gramma basslett) and some live rock. I had planned to save half the water in buckets and then keep the fish bagged for the drive up to where were going (bout an hour and half away).

My concern is I have been struggling with a cyano problem for the last several months and I would to seize the opportunity here with moving the tank to squash it. If I rinse out the sand after the tanks been emptied, hookup the canister filter, and pour the water I kept back in can I keep from going through a whole cycle? Im sure I'll at least have a mini-cycle but I was hoping to add some bottle bacteria to speed that up.

What do you guys think? I've had the setup running for a year and a half where we're at now. I did move the setup to the basement for when we were selling the house and were having people come through and that worked out okay but this is a much bigger hurdle, I would gladly appreciate any comments / suggestions.

Thanks

 

[oscarinw]

Sounds like a decent plan. I would get a couple or 3 of the rubbermaid 20 gallon brutes and transport everything in them. I wouldn't try to rinse the sand during the move. Instead live only the sand at the bottom of the tank, put the water and inhabitants in the brutes and refill. There will be time to address the cyano later. You will get an algae bloom from the move anyway so leave this as undisturbed as possible.

 

[DDon]

I moved 2 tanks, a 240g and a 50g, a couple months ago. Large tank I got rid of the sand and smaller tank I rinsed it in fresh saltwater. Replaced 100% of the water with fresh and rinsed all the rock in fresh saltwater (fresh as in new but aged). No cycle and no losses. No reason to keep the old water, except to transfer the livestock in. Just match the new water parameters to the old, especially temp and specific gravity.
Rubber maid totes and 5 gal. buckets are useful. Best if you can have new saltwater mixed and up to temp at the new house before moving the tank. Have more ready than you think you will need. It really isn't too bad, just always takes longer than you think it will.

 

[Bluecrabber]

Good ideas.

I would like to replace some of if not most of the top layer of sand to give cyano the boot. Oscar I know you said there's time later for that but I still think it would be easier to work on it now seens as how everything will be out of the tank

The sandbed is only 2 inches maybe 2.5 in some areas so this isn't really a dsb, still I want to avoid as much of a cycle as possible. Do you think it would just be better to suction out as much of the cyano as possible and deal with rest later?

 

[adambom]

I moved my tank a couple months ago and it went great. It may not be an option for you, but if you can, I would suggest setting up a new tank ahead of time (hey, it's an excuse to upgrade).

When I moved, I scrubbed all the rocks in the plastic bins I transported them with a plastic brush and removed as much algae as I could manually, then took a toothbrush to the stubborn bits. Finally I dunked the rocks in the old tank water a couple times just to flush away all the leftover algae and detritus. It really did a number on all the algae that I hadn't been able to get at while they were in the tank and I'm glad I did. You should have seen how dirty the bucket was when I was done.

I basically did a 100% water change. My tank has never looked better. I think a periodic refresh like this is really healthy for the system. I might have to make it a routine.

 

[adambom]

I would add that I think you should just replace all of your sand. You'd be surprised how much crap gets trapped in there and all it does is fuel the cyano. As long as the biofilm on your LR stays intact you should not observe a cycle.

 

[Reef908]

I relocated from NJ to Atlanta recently and I saved as much water as I could, put the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with battery powered air line, live rock in a big cooler filled about 1/2 way with the tank water and then with several large towels on top soaked in the tank water so the rocks stayed wet and water in the cooler. I drove the 12 hours, had the tank set up by the movers perfectly timed so it was there waiting for me and added the water, rock and fish pretty quickly once I tested parameters. Didn't lose a thing and saw no signs of cycle.

 

[Bluecrabber]

Okay so I think I'm set on just replacing all the sand. In the past though it seems like even after doing several rinses, the water still clouds up a bit. As long as it's not totally opaque it should be safe to add the fish right? I've got a decent canister that does a pretty good job of clearing the water up.

 

[snorklr]

had some 12x12 milkcrates, folded towels in the bottom and put in 5 gallon buckets...my original empty salt buckets and a couple new 6 dollar food grade ones from tractor supply....the crates stabilized the buckets so they couldnt fall over in a panic stop....put plastic down under the crates ,tank and sump...all the live rock pieces fit in the buckets totally submerged,lids on all of them...only softies,they retracted and i stacked the rock so i didnt crush anyone...after filling the buckets i used the rest of the tank water to rinse the substrate a scoop at a time with a strainer...in retrospect if i had any money at the time i would have just bought new live sand and dumped it in.., i forget the brand,...the kind that comes bagged in water that says not to rinse it...used some of the transport water but mainly new...fish in another 5 with a battery bait bubbler from a boat supply store...my move was 14 hrs from NY to north carolina...everything was fine....one hour is nothing....thats how long the trip is from my "local" fish store now

 

[Bluecrabber]

Thanks for the help guys. All the advice/stories makes me feel a lot better about the move. 1 1/2 hrs seems like nothing compared to what you guys have done. I dont have much now but I dont want to lose anything after what I already did. We had 4 chromises we lost but it was all at once and the other fish were fine so I think they may have just been sick.