Moving A 75 Gallon tank

[scarson61]

I am about ready to move my 75 gallon tank that is in the living room into a spare bedroom and I wanted some advice on keeping stress down so I don’t lose my corals.
I plan on draining and saving about half my water and have the other half made up and ready to go in. I will take out the live rock and fish, but leave the sand undisturbed. Now if I can move the tank get the fish, live rock and water back in within the hour how much stress am I looking at?

 

[bshumake]

Next to none. I say drain off clean undisturbed water into buckets and put your corals and fish in there. Then drain the rest of the water. reverse once the tank is moved.

 

[bshumake]

Oh yeah. And just to be safe I would recommend running carbon for the first week or two.

 

[Siffy]

The chance of you moving a tank without disturbing the sand bed at all is slim. You'll have really murky water for several hours after adding water back to the system. If possible hook your skimmer back up and let it work on the tank for a while before putting rock and corals back in. They'll be fine in buckets or a large rubbermaid for an hour or two. I'd recommend the rubbermaid to give you only 1 set of water to watch while you work on the tank. Just throw an extra heater and a powerhead in there. It'd would also be a good time to run a canister filter if you have one or know someone who does that you can borrow.

And you'd be surprised how much water chemistry can change during a tank move in only a few hours. Try to acclimate somewhat before adding any delicate/touchy corals back to the tank.

As with anything else in this hobby, patience. Don't get in a hurry.

 

[gflat65]

You'll be fine, Carson. I've moved too many tanks to mention (a lot further than from one room to another-10 or 15 times around Oxford, then several time in Nashville on my own tanks, not to mention others tanks) and had no issues. If you more much around, it won't be as deep as the top inch of sand, just the stuff on top. Mixing deeper than an inch or so is where you run into problems. My engineer goby moves sand constantly and there are no issues (and he excavates to the bottom)...

 

[scarson61]

thanks everyone, I've been dreading moving this thing! Well I already have a phosban reactor (set up like jays) so when it comes time to change it I will move the tank. Now I have to Tom Sawyer my friends over to help move this thing full of sand. Any other folks have any ideas or experience I'd love to hear it.
Sanford

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

When you get ready to put water back into the tank, try laying a clean trash bag on the sand bed to reduce stirring up the sand.

 

[gflat65]

Not sure what you plan to drain to, but I use 35 gallon tubs, then pump it all back in with th eoutlet stuck in a hole in the rock with a low throughput pump, like a MJ 1200 or something (takes a little longer, but doesn't stir up as much).