Moving an established tank

bored4long

bored4long

New member
There is a good chance I might drop the hammer and purchase a full setup (established tank) from craigslist in the next few weeks. It will most likely be from someone in the Bay Area.

What preparations and equipment should I have on hand prior to the move to make it as successful as possible. I won't have an established system that I will be able to move the corals into. They will have to wait until the system is setup and moved back in.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated.

I'll also do a search on RC for advice, but thought I'd post here since I might need to call on some of you guys for on hand help.

Thanks,
Mark

PS: I currently have a full size truck with 6.5' bed. Will I be able to transport in this, or do I need something airconditioned for the livestock?
 
I would not move the corals personally. I would also not add the sand except a couple cups to seed the tank because stirring the sand will release toxins. You will not need a refridgerated truck.

Is the seller breaking things down or are you responsible for it. I would make sure you have plenty of saltwater made up before you leave. There is no need to use all of the water. Maybe keep 25% of it.

Just my $.02
 
Mark, Do you mean you would sell all the corals prior to moving the tank or leave the corals IN the tank during the move?

edsimmons, still have that 100 gallon tub? Would I be able to borrow it? If not, can you suggest where I could get one?

I have an RO/DI filter in the mail. If I acquire a tub before hand, I can have a temp tub with saltwater waiting for the livestock, but the tub would be in the garage...so temps might be HIGH.
 
Bag the corals, use 20 gallon BRUTE trashcans for the live rock, covered in tank water. Bag the fish, stack the rocks with coral in another set of trashcans very carefully and cover with water.

Drain the tank water to 1" above the sand and move the whole thing. Give me a ring when you're ready to do it and I'll help if I'm free that weekend. Pay it forward.

Pete
 
Thanks, Pete.

BTW, I'm currently trying to pull together the scrilla for this:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/for/356335850.html

010109010206010407200706209a70067fb72128d130002d34.jpg


I'm still waiting on updated pictures from him.
 
Use whatever vessels you have... Toters like those you get to store blankets & hobby stuff. Ice chests. Buckets. Whatever. Give up one of your bathrooms for a few days until you get the tank back up. Store your live stuff there instead of the garage. Try to execute the travel as efficiently as you can and be sensitive to your livestock.
 
I would not add corals to a tank that I have never seen before for personal reasons. You will need a lot of bags if you want to transport them. Remember that corals get shipped so they can live in a bag for awhile. That will allow you drive time and set up time as well.
 
If the tank is up and operational in San Jose, you won't need a bathtub. Have water ready at your house, have a location cleared, powerstrips ready and re-assemble exactly as it was in San Jose. Let it sit for a few weeks while everything calms down and then you can mess with moving this around, etc.

You may want to wash out the sand once getting home and only adding a small amount of livesand from the previous setup. The two things I would have done differently would have been to transport the liverock underwater and clean out most of the livesand before setting it back up. I'm fighting a Cyano bacteria outbreak right now and have a mini algae cycle going on. Seems to be under control at the moment.
 
Stirred up DSB seems to be one of the greater risks with moving a reef setup. (RC search not working right now, so I've read very little on moving so far) Stirred up DSB releases a lot of ?? What would be the impact if only some of the sand is placed back in (remove all on transport and put some back in on setup). Will removing a majority of the DSB equate to less filtering of nutrients (as you can see I don't know anything about the benefits or uses of a DSB - guess there is something else to read up on). If removed and only some replaced, should I try to keep the remainder alive or just let it go dead?
 
From my reading, and in my opinion...

Stirring up the DSB releases bacteria, algae and other nasty stuff (scientific term) that has been trapped in the anaerobic layer of the sand (generally under the top inch). Restarting the DSB means that you don't have an established anaerobic layer in the sand and have to rely on the anaerobic bacteria deep in the live rock until the sand establishes itself again.

Melev recommends taking a large ziplock bag (quart or gallon) of the top layer of the sand from the tank before moving and use that to reseed the tank after rinsing the sand thoroughly at your house in buckets (have a friend do this while you're setting up the stand and sump.

I don't know how long it takes to reseed or what portion of the anaerobic bacteria exists in the DSB vs LR, but you will need to do frequent water changes until it can establish itself and equalize the nitrogen cycle, which is okay because frequent water changes on a new tank are just a good idea IMHO until you get a handle on the water chemistry of your tank.

Also, find out exactly what the previous owner has been doing for maintenance, feeding, etc and do that until you can make an educated decision to vary from his/her practices.

Pete
 
i just recently moved my tank and i just replaced all my sand with dead sand i had from my previous set up. used the same water so i have the bacteria in there still. been about 2 weeks now and its looking better than it did before i moved.
 
Stirred up sand releases a lot of bio matter and waste products that will spike your ammonia levels. Personally, I would drop the DSB altogether. It is used for nitrate removal and is very finicky when moved. The risks are to great to play with it - add it back in later.

I have moved many systems (too many as it would seem), some from all the way up near Oregon. Here are a couple things I picked up along the way:

1. Plan on a friend holding your livestock. There will be a lot of things to do and little time to restablish your tank. I find it works best if you are not doing it under pressure becuase things are in temp holding bins. You want to do this right, not end up with dead coral and fish. Plan on redoing much of the plumbing, reseeding the sand and some die off on the LR.
2. Bring a pump, siphon tube, buckets, plastic trash can, truck tie downs, a hacksaw or something to cut plumbing, Styrofoam containers for the livestock, a dustpan for scooping sand, duct tape, and plastic bins for the equipment. Gloves that can grip wet glass are nice too...
3. Do no move the tank with ANYTHING in it... including sand. You have no idea on how heavy a tank gets with the bottom full of sand or a bit of water. If the tank is glass, it can shatter and trust me - that's not a pretty sight seeing a 125 in pieces all over some guys nice oak floors. Think about it: 8lbs per 1 gal of water, and twice as much for volume of sand.
4. Lives rock will do fine in an trash can, sand can go in 5 gallon buckets. You will end up washing the sand anyhow before adding it back in so you do not need to do much in the way of water.
5. Bag fish and corals (pick some bags up at the LFS on your way out - get extras, they will leak).
6. No need for refridgerated trucks, heaters, or anything coming back from San Jose. Just be sure the livestock is the last to be bagged after you drain most of the water from the tank. The temp will slowly dip as you make your way back. Its gradual enough that most things will do just fine. I am assuming of course the livestock in placed inside the truck.
7. Be mindful that many tanks have glued in bulkheads that you will have to cut to seperate it from the stand. If you leave any pieces of the overflows hanging out the bottom of the tank, be sure you do not rest the tank on it in your truck or it will break.

Oh, and for Gods sake, tape down the canopy doors lest you find how well they fly out the back when going down 80. :(.

If you need any other advice or tricks of the trade so to speak, just let me know.
 
Last edited:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10187614#post10187614 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrMikeB

Oh, and for Gods sake, tape down the canopy doors lest you find how well they fly out the back when going down 80. :(.

Click to expand...

:lol: yes, take it from mike (and paul)
 
I just hoped it did not end up in somebody's windshield. I just picture this poor old lady careening off the highway with a canopy door lodged in her windshield, and then dying of a heart attack from all the comotion. My God what were we thinking... (or not as it would seem).
 
"If the tank is glass, it can shatter and trust me - that's not a pretty sight seeing a 125 in pieces all over some guys nice oak floors. "

Did this by any chance happen you you? I must have gotten lucky with my 90 and moving it with gravel in it... it did weigh a ton though
 
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