Moving a 150 Gallon Reef

[phish guy]

I am in the process of waiting for a short sale approval on my hopeful home to be and I've been thinking of the entire moving process. I've moved a friends fowlr which was pretty easy but never a 150 packed with corals. Most of my corals I have been keeping on the frag plug since I don't want anything spreading before I move so I think I'll be okay wi th baggie the corals individually. I have 2 wrasses, clown pair, little goby/pistol shrimp pair, and a 4 inch purple tang.

I'm wondering if anybody could give me some advise on how to move everything without killing anything and starting another cycle. I have about 160 lbs of sand In the tank which I plan on getting rid of and just going bare bottom. Any issues with going barebottom when there was that much sand in the tank before? Should I put some of the existing sand in the fuge after the move? I have pvc plumbing underneath the tank going into a custom fuge/ skimmer Return tank. I think I would have to cut the pvc and add unions. Any other advise for the move would be great. Thank you
Andrew

 

[Sk8r]

If you're not keeping the sandbed, much easier. Just de-water the tank, put the corals and rock into white polystyrene buckets (Lowe's paint dept) ---they're light enough to carry even loaded. Reassemble: your choice whether to use old water or not, but if it's a straight transfer, only an hour or so down-time, i'd use the water: it'll have bacteria. If longer than a couple of hours, I'd use new water.

 

[phish guy]

If you're not keeping the sandbed, much easier. Just de-water the tank, put the corals and rock into white polystyrene buckets (Lowe's paint dept) ---they're light enough to carry even loaded. Reassemble: your choice whether to use old water or not, but if it's a straight transfer, only an hour or so down-time, i'd use the water: it'll have bacteria. If longer than a couple of hours, I'd use new water.

If I use new water, wont it cycle the tank all over again??

 

[boyer]

when I moved my tank, I bought rubbermaid containers. I transfered all the coral and fish into 1 container, all the rock into another. drained as much water out the tank as possible. once i moved the tank i then took a shop vac and sucked out the remaining water and top layer of sand and slowly put everything back, trying not to stir up the sand and reusing as much water as possible. Don't even think my tank cycled.

 

[phish guy]

If the tank does cycle again, is it not as drastic as the first tank cycle is as when the tank is first set up?

 

[smedlin]

If you're not keeping the sandbed, much easier.

out of curiosity (and to learn), why would keeping the sand make it harder to do?

 

[intyme]

Following.... Could you thoroughly rinse the sand?? Not to hijack OP sorry, i'm moving in a month or so, having lots of anxiety about moving the tank. So I'm going to follow along in this thread

 

[julie180]

Consider the time involved in rinsing sand. Yes, its possible to clean, but you will basically have dead sand again unless you have enough saltwater to rinse it in.

One thing people forget to plan for is time. You may plan 2 hours, but it will end up being a long stressful day, no matter what. The easier you can make it on yourself, the better. Get as much done ahead of time! Have LOTS of extra premixed and heated water!

Once the tank is setup again, plan for a mini cycle. An ammonia alert badge is great, have enough water on hand for emergency water changes and some type of ammonia detoxifier also.

 

[Chevre]

The hardest part about reefkeeping is definitely the move. Its so stressful and time consuming just the move itself and than you add a reef tank on top of that! I've done it several times and all i can say is make it as easy as possible for yourself. Have extra buckets and bags. Also just wake up and start as early as possible because it takes 4 times longer than we usually imagine. By having that time you won't stress as much. Also you may want to look into renting a good dolly, capable of handling stairs if need be. If you can get into your new home before you break down your tank maybe you can start mixing and heating your water in preparation?

 

[fizzlefish]

I moved my 90 gallon. I went against everyone's advice of replacing the sand bed. It was fine and had a small cycle but did i have nothing but problems after that. I ended up replacing all the sand anyway which was a lot more work after it was already setup. Also sweating bullets about knocking over rock work. Other than that i just used Brute cans for water, fish, and rock. I used about 70% of my old water and the rest was new water. The fish actually lived in the Brutes for a day. The move took me 2 days to complete. Longest part was getting the tank level on old *** hardwood floors in a crooked house. :blown:

 

[SLOW1]

A few years ago I moved my 90 gallon tank.
I had two brute trashcans. I mixed up about 50 gallons of new salt water at the new house.

When I broke the tank down I placed rock with corals in smaller rubbermade containers. I think they were about 20 gallons.
Then all the rest of the rock in another of those 20 gallon rubbermade buckets.

When I got to the new place I cleaned the old sand bed with saltwater trying to get all the detritus out.
I still made a huge cloudy mess as I put it back in the display tank.
I decided to throw a heater and pump in each of my little 20 gallon totes and left my fish, corals and anemone in there for almost a week.

When everything went back into the display everyone seemed happy. I just eased them back into full lighting since they had been without for a week.

I used about 50/50 new/old water.
Im not sure what others would say but dont rush it. If the display isnt ready the stuff can live in buckets with a pump and heater for a few days.

 

[coralsnaked]

Use Igloo Ice Chests as they hold temps better than plastic tubs

 

[phish guy]

I think going from a sandbed to bare bottom may be the best bed as far as cloudiness and stirring up detritus.I wanted to do bare bottom anyway. One question tho, should I paint the bottom outside of the tank to prevent the light from shining into the sump?

 

[intyme]

What about all the coralline on the back glass? Scrape it? Leave it? Wouldn't it be best to get as much off? Or if you lay the tank on its back cover with a wet towel?