How to move a tank.

[Cheebs]

I have a 75 gallon reef tank that's been set up for roughly 10 months now, and it looks like I innevitably have to move it at some point in the next month to my new home. It's got a fairly shallow sandbed, about 95 lbs of live rock, along with a few powerheads and a skimmer - no sump.

The livestock includes:

-Xenia
-Toadstools
-Frogspawn
-Zoas
-Buttons
-2 Crocea clams
-Large Elegance coral
-GBTA
-Mushrooms

-Medium Yellow Tang
-2 Firefish
-2 Chromis
-Maroon Clownfish
-Cleaner goby
-Sandsifting goby
-Dozens of hermits and snails of all kinds


So I guess I'm just wondering how I should apraoch this.. my main questions are:

Should I bring my more fragile corals to a friends tank for the move, or jsut stick them in buckets with a powerhead?

Whats' the best way to transport live the live rock? If there's a way to avoid major coralline loss that would be cool.

Can I keep the sand in there while I move it or should it go into buckets? I imagine if I stirred it up it all might take a long time to settle in the new location.

How long should I wait before I add my corals back into the tank? I'm not too concerned about the fish being in buckets.


Thanks ahead of time for any help. The new house is about a 20 minute drive from this one. Unfortunately I have no QT tank running at the time, so my options are limited as to where I can stick my stuff during the move.

 

[tmantaylor18]

I would give the fragile ones to your friend untill the water has settled. For the live rock i would but it in a large trash can or something similar for the transfer unless you can get them back in the water fairly fast. I think you would be better off leaving a little water in there for the move with the sand if you can. I would siphon any detritus/other crap off the surface of the sand at the same time. I would let the tank settle for a couple hours till it is a little more clear to add the corals. Just make sure to get the water to the same temp before dropping them in.

 

[useskaforevil]

when i moved i kept all my water and moved it in 6 big tubs (80gallon total) with all the rock and coral inside those tubs. the more fragile corals were put in big ziplocks in a styrofoam conaitner along with all the bagged fish/crabs. i kept all of my sand in the tank when i moved it, regretted that a bit, i'm a small guy and we had to get this thign up a flight of stairs. there was a big storm cloud when i set everythign up but it seemed to work out just fine. no losses