Moving 90 gallon established reef tank

[jpsg007]

I recently purchased established reef tank and I am planning to move it in about a week or so.
Drive time is about 45 minutes.

What is in the tank:
90 gallon overflow tank with 20 gallon sump.
Live rock 125 pound.
clown fish 2, star fish 3, engineer gobys 2
corals (leather, galaxia, plate, and hammer)
hermit crabs, snails, xenia, mushroom rock,
Bare bottom tank



Prep:
Prepare RO/DI sea water.
Rinse the 150 pounds of silica free Southdown sand (purchased years ago)


Tear down:
Remove the green bubble algae before moving the tank.
Plan to put coral in individual Tupperware or plastics bags with water.
Put fish in plastic bags.
Put crabs and snails in plastic bags.
Put live rock in plastic bins.
When I transport the live rock should it be submerged in water or putting wet cloth be enough?


Setting up tank:
Setup tank hook plumbing etc.
Pour the sand (I will get about 3.5 inch of sand bed).
Add water.
Add live rock.
Add coral.
Add critters.
Add fish.


Some of the rocks has algae on them, should I scrub it off?
Is there anything else I need to worry about?

 

[kielty]

Just moved my 90 into a 110 with about the same amount of rock. Sounds like you have it under control but certainly scrub the algae off the rocks (perfect opportunity) and rinse them well
Good luck

 

[jpsg007]

Only thing I am not sure about is transporting the live rock. I would like to transfer it without water, I am not sure what sort of effect this will have on the live rock.

 

[jimbo78]

if you dont want to have it in water , cover it with towels soaked in water. that should help alot with the die off.

 

[jpsg007]

Cool, live rock is heavy enough and adding water to it would have been painfull.

 

[indydog1]

yep should be ok. especially if you are going to be scrubbing the rocks anyway.

 

[jimbo78]

yeah just scrub it and get it back in the water as soon as possible

 

[jpsg007]

Only handfull rocks has algae on them.

 

[jpsg007]

Ended up moving the tank this weekend. Since adding the sand, my tank is cloudy as hell, even though I had rinsed the sand very well.
I will post some photos later today.

 

[jimbo78]

give it a couple days the cloudyness will clear up.

 

[CCP]

I don't want to hijack your thread, (an I apologize if I am) but since I am going to be doing the same thing, I thought I'd jump in here.

We'll be moving an established 90 gallon tank also. It has fish in it who have lived together fine for a year. About an hour away, the move is, plus whatever set-up and tear down time we'll have.

Is it better to transport the water they're already in, instead of putting in new? It also seems to me it would not be a good time to scrub and clean everything, since it would mess with the biology going on in the tank... We will be adding sand, live rock and crushed coral, but otherwise all remains the same. Is that right?

thanks!

 

[kyelr]

Cover those rocks with some wet towels... Keeps em' alive with limited weight! I recommend double bagging things to help prevent leaks... Made that mistake before...

 

[lil gramps]

CCp - yes, it is a good idea to transport the water they are in, if you added all new water you would have to let it cycle and that takes weeks!!

 

[CCP]

thanks, Lil gramps. I thought as much.

 

[rjsilvers]

Just did this with a 180g over the weekend... Transported it 3 hours.

I wrapped my LR in wet newspaper and then put them in heavy contractor trash bags.

The inverts (no fish) were transported in their own water in a cooler until I could get them home and drip acclimate them.

The corals were in their own water in another cooler.

They'll stay in my 30g until the 180g is cycled and stable at my house.

 

[jimbo78]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12523680#post12523680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lil gramps
CCp - yes, it is a good idea to transport the water they are in, if you added all new water you would have to let it cycle and that takes weeks!!

yes and no, you dont ned to keep the 90g of water that was in the tank. keep any of the livestock from the tank in water from the tank, keep the LR wet(towels or newspaper) its OK to scrub them before putting it back in the tank. i would replace any sand/substrate in the old tank(it will mess up the tank).

if you are taking cured LR from a tank and keeping it wet for the time its out of the water you will probably only have a mini cycle at most.
if i were you i would keep the live stock in a cooler with a piece of LR a powerhead and a heater for a few hours or over night til the tank is set and running a couple hours.

 

[jpsg007]

The tank has been going for about 36 hours, I have about .25 ammonia. Nitrite and Nitrate are at zero.

I will be checking Ammonia. Nitrite and Nitrate daily.

I guess the tank is going to go through mini cycle.

Here is what I did:
Got about 10 decend size tupperware containers for fish and corals.
Put the live rock in the rummermaid containters, and dozed it few times in the span of about 5 hours while setting the tank back up.

Added 150 lbs southdown sand (I have about 4'' sandbed). Then added the new RO/DI saltwater, added the liverock and finaly the corals and rest of the animals.

I plan to to a 20% water change today or tomorrow.

Only issue I have so far is, that RedSea Berlin Skimmer is not working very well. I will try to clean the venturi and airintake, if that does not work I will buy Octopus NW150 skimmer and remove the fuge.


And water is finally starting to clear up (due to new sandbed).

 

[rjsilvers]

Sounds like you got it all under control. Good job.

 

[jpsg007]

I will post photos in next few days. I am taking photos of my build/move process.

 

[tankjunky]

I know its kinda late but why would you have to replace the sand i helped move a 120 and had to move my 80 from 2 hours away and in both tanks we kept the sand and in my tank I kept the water to and ther wasnt a problem with either tank.