Advice on moving/upgrading tanks

[jasandenaw]

My wife and I are planning to someday move from our current home and in the process our existing tank would be replaced/upgraded to fit the new house. This makes me very nervous when it comes to the logistics. We currently have a pretty well established 150 gallon mixed reef.

Has anyone worked out a method of swapping from one tank to another AND moved from one house to another with minimal interruption to livestock?

I'm afraid that my only real option would be to sell off all livestock and the equipment I do not plan to use on the future set up and start from scratch in the new house. I don't prefer this option because I've grown fond of my fish and spent several years acquiring and growing out my coral.

Open for suggestions and ideas. Luckily at this point time is on my side, so I should be able to make an informed decision and take necessary preparations. Thanks in advance all!

 

[plantastic]

Dedicate 2 days for just the tank.

Have the new tank put together and ready to go.

Have all new water ready to be used at the new place.

Use your existing water to transport rocks and animals.

You should only have to use approximately half of the water for this, so use the remaing water to siphon out your sand bed into a brute trash can on wheels. When it is full and needs to be emptied, stir up the sand as much as possible, when pumping the water out. Put the sand in buckets and repeat.

This is obviously the cliff notes version, but the more methodical you are about planning it out, the less minutiae you will have disrupting your process.

I have employed this outline more than a few times, always successfully. I have also used new sand, instead of rinsing the old sand. The new sand bed never cycles as quickly and seamlessly as a well rinsed, established sand bed. But, neither has been the downfall to a successful move.

 

[jasandenaw]

My big worry is a nitrate spike with reusing existing sand, but I like the idea of rinsing and reusing to minimize cycle and algae bloom. Rinse with existing saltwater? Or RO?
When I moved the 150 into my house I brought all the water with it from the previous location but I was able to keep my previous setup up and running for a week or two to let things settle/stabilize. I'm nervous to reintroduce livestock too quickly and cause a chain reaction of death.

 

[xanthurum]

It's easier than you think but IMO you would be better off just moving your existing system from one place to the other. Then set up a new tank at the new place and when it's ready you can start to transfer livestock a little at a time until you are done.

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

I did this on a small scale with a 20 to a 40. Having a plan is the most important part. Have your water ready, have your buckets ready, have the new tank in place and as much new stuff in it ahead of time as possible.

 

[Vanpire]

I did this once when I moved and upgraded and it worked pretty well. I owned both properties so I was not time constrained. It is labor intensive, but it worked well.


1. Prepare any new live rocks that you might have so you don't have die off in your new tank.
2. I set up the new tank at the new location.
3. Siphoned some of the sand and some of the water from my old tank - I did this 3 times to remove most of the sand. Replace the water removed with new water.
4. Place the old sand and some of the old water in the new tank. Add new sand you want.
5. Repeated steps 2 and 3 over several days - you can always replace the sand, but....
6. After 4, my old tank was bare bottom and new tank had about 50% old tank water and 50% brand new water.
7. Added the new rocks and ran all my new equipment in the new tank and waited a week for everything to settle.
8. Over another week, I slowly moved my live rocks and corals over to the new tank. You can aquascape but it can be hard with a tank full of water. I did it so it is doable.
9. Move your fish
10. Shut down the old tank.

I didn't have any issues with an ammonia spike or any die off when I did this. When I moved the fish and the corals, both tanks had similar water - partially old tank water and newly made water and therefore, minimal water quality differences.

Note: it takes a lot of water to remove all the sand. I siphoned the sand with the water into a 33 gallon trash bin with wheels. Since it takes a lot of water to remove the sand, I had to pump some of the water back from the trash bin to the tank. This way, I can remove a lot of sand without draining my whole tank.

 

[Nibrown9]

Iv done this multiple times and recently across country, best advice is can give is take your time dedicate one day to transfer live stock to holding system, then move equipment and tank, get as many brute cans as you can and a stock tank if possible, have fresh rodi at the new house waiting for you cause you will lose water in the move. If you plan on reusing the sand, do not disturb it if you can help it. I know it makes the tank a lot heavier but it's worth it. If your gonna start the new tank. Use only a little bit of the old sand to seed the new tank. Try and save as much of the old water as you can since once you start the new tank it's just like a water change happened. These are things that have saved me with moving tanks 4 Times over the years