Anyone ever moved a reef before?

[awesomefrog]

There's a chance i might actually have to move my 180 reef accross town. the good news is that it's only a couple of miles accross town. the bad news is that it's been up and running since January, and things are looking nice and established.

fortunately, all of the coral i have are still fragment size from the Fragfest. so it shouldn't be too difficult to move them. but a lot of my rock is pretty big, and is full of life. i also have a BTA that was a hitchhiker that i nursed to health and a 5-6" DSB that is nicely established.

I know just stirring up the sandbed will likely kill off a lot of nice bacteria. but i don't know how long it would take to clean itself up and be healthy enough to put things back together.

there are only 4 small fish at the moment. so they could be fine in a 10 gallon tank temporarily. i would guess the few shrimp and all the crabs and snails would be fine with the rock. but i don't really have anything big enough to keep the rock in while the sandbed gets reestablished.

so...do any of you have any experience moving or have any good advice you can lend. i sure would appreciate it. i'm planning to be at the meeting at Rob's next week. so feel free to share your thoughts there too.

thanks everybody!

 

[synofreak]

Your biggest problem is the sand bed. While its prolly far from "well established", therefore lies the problem. Too many nasties in there. Keep the LR in tank water fully submerged for the trek(5g buckets), use a bit of sand, and clean remaining sand and add periodically to your tank. The LR will keep you afloat, as you add the "clean sand" weekly or so. Your best bet is the LR, the sand will only replenish the bed depth in time. If you can move the tank with the sand in it, do so but I doubt that tank can handle the weight of that much sand with it being submerged. As long as you keep the LR in water, there should be no dieoff, and the small load you have in your tank should not be a problem. Do as quick as possible to keep temps steady(not a problem in Rockford nowadays with the weather). You should be able to add all livestock to the tank with no I'll affects.

 

[RobTop]

I say the club should/better help with this move. While I do not have the best back, I am there for you!

Here is what I would do.
1st is plan a small tank for the live stock, coral, and fish. I have a couple that you can barrow.
Do it bare bottom, with some live rock and the live stock.
The 180 will need to be completely torn down. Pull the sand bed out, and redo it. DO NOT try moving the 180 with sand in it, way too heavy. If it is a short ride the live rock can be covered in wet towels and be fine (short being this way for no more than a couple hours), use a large hose to pull the sand out into buckets, use styros to move the live stock.

Load up and role.
At the new house while a couple people set up the 180 and someone sets up the smaller temp tank. The temp tank will need to be up for a couple months due to a new cycle of the 180. This cycle will be shorter then the 1st one, but you will have a cycle and not want to run the risk of a major issue to the live stock.

As for the temp tank there may be a spike type cycle, but very small. I should be able to set you up in a way that the equipment will over power any spike.

Once you have the dates set I would post another thread here, and let Tom or myself know so we can e-mail the club and use the thread here to work through the help.

 

[BenjieC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12818413#post12818413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RobTop
I say the club should/better help with this move. While I do not have the best back, I am there for you!

Here is what I would do.
1st is plan a small tank for the live stock, coral, and fish. I have a couple that you can barrow.
Do it bare bottom, with some live rock and the live stock.
The 180 will need to be completely torn down. Pull the sand bed out, and redo it. DO NOT try moving the 180 with sand in it, way too heavy. If it is a short ride the live rock can be covered in wet towels and be fine (short being this way for no more than a couple hours), use a large hose to pull the sand out into buckets, use styros to move the live stock.

Load up and role.
At the new house while a couple people set up the 180 and someone sets up the smaller temp tank. The temp tank will need to be up for a couple months due to a new cycle of the 180. This cycle will be shorter then the 1st one, but you will have a cycle and not want to run the risk of a major issue to the live stock.

As for the temp tank there may be a spike type cycle, but very small. I should be able to set you up in a way that the equipment will over power any spike.

Once you have the dates set I would post another thread here, and let Tom or myself know so we can e-mail the club and use the thread here to work through the help.

+1, I was going to say basically the same thing, just at the meeting.

 

[synofreak]

Sounds like a great idea guys, but alot of work for little gain IMO. DSB is the problem here. We all know once you disturb it, any nitrAfing bacteria will die(too much oxygen). So all this extra work and tank/s to keep stable, to save critters in the sand? Tank has been running for 6 months. LR will keep him just fine with his very low bioload. I would not suggest towels over the LR, fully submerged in tank water is best = no dieoff unless "sponges" that cant handle any air(tank to bucket). Your LR will reseed the sand. I would use the top layer of sand, via Robs suggestions, but no deeper. Bottom line is your tank should not "recycle" at all, barring a nitrAte bump. Its all about the bacteria. Your LR contains all you need to keep ammo and nitrItes away, and some nitrAtes, but the LS will loose all power to break nitrAtes to harmless gas,no matter what you do. Bag the fish/CUC, have extra water at the new place(salt/temp/PH as you would for water change), and get it done. Easy move based on the details of your tank(barring lifting the darn thing). Not trying to step on toes, but nowadays, if you have the "means", there is no such thing as a "cycle", point blank. PM me if you need help on the move, I'll pitch in if I'm open. BTW as an additive, I've been doing FW for almost 7 years, start and stop tanks up to 125g, never had a spike( with 100% new FW on most), and have upgraded SW 3 times and started 1 new SW, all with NO spikes to speak of. Just gotta be smarter then the water your working with LOL. Sorry to rant, sometimes this hobby is way overdone,in my opinon(just like oeverdriven T8's cannot support corals/nems),thats another paragraphless page you cant read, =).

 

[awesomefrog]

Thanks for all the input guys. It's very helpful.

Rob it would be great to borrow some tanks to hold the critters while the big tank get's moved. I wonder if it would be helpful to start moving fish and corals a day or two before the big move.

There are definitely at least several pieces of rock (if not most of them) that i'd like to move in water--some of them have critters or corals on them.

Is it safe to use rubermaids or unused plastic trash cans for moving that kind of stuff? I have several rocks that won't fit in a 5 gallon bucket.

Can we reuse most of the water? I can make extra saltwater, but i've only got about 40 gallons worth of water containers.

Does anybody have a big resevoir i could borrow for moving (or making) enough saltwater?

I will be taking a group of high schoolers to New Orleans on Sunday to help with continued Katrina restoration. I'll get back on the following Sunday and leave the next day with a group of Jr. Highs for summer camp in Wisconsin. It's typical summer life for me. I should be home in time to make the picnic at Tom's. So that would be a great time to start getting set with borrowed tanks or anything else i need to set up ahead of time.

Thanks so much for all the help everybody. I really do appreciate it!

 

[goat585]

I have 10 gallon rubbermaid tubs you can use. I have 4 10's and a 15-20 gallon one. I use them to transport my freshwater fish to shows.

 

[awesomefrog]

PS. I meant to ask: After the 27th, is it better for most people to try doing this during the week or on a weekend? I will definitely flex around the schedules of people who can come help.

Depending on what works best for you, I can adjust things to make a move during the last week in July or the first weekend in August.

 

[awesomefrog]

That's awesome Tom. Probably with something like this the more containers, the merrier.

 

[awesomefrog]

I just had an aha moment, and thought I'd check with you all to see what you thought. Since a group of people will be in Rochelle for the meeting on Sunday, would anybody want to stick around and help move a tank? It's only a few days away, but I thought it might be easy if people were already in town.

If that works, I could try to get as much as I can done on Saturday to prepare.

By the way, thanks Rob and Tom for the use of containers. I've been making space and saltwater to get ready for the big move.

 

[goat585]

I can help on Sunday