moving soon.

[reefNetWork]

i am moving in about a week or two and i want to know how this plan sounds on moving my tank. luckily the house we are buying is like one minute away from where we live right now.

LR- buckets with wet news papers keeping it damp
Fish- bucket
Corals- tote with a crate on the bottom to put all LPS into and rest of corals to keep them from moving around
Sand- leave in tank with a couple inches of water keeping it wet.
Rest of water- buckets and jugs

is it fine to leave the sand in the tank with water?
will i lose all of my coralline algae during the move?
any suggestions?
thanks

 

[reefNetWork]

bump

 

[flfirefighter13]

In my experience its best to either drain all the water and try to disturb the sand as little as possible, rumor has it stiring it up can release ammonia and nasty stuff thats accumilated over time. Ive moved 6 tanks in the past 4 monthes and have had the best results with replaceing the sand for the most part. I would siphon it real well, then keep about 1/4 of the sand and replace the rest with fresh live sand. If you dont replace it be prepared for a slight cycle of sorts. I find a small hair algae outbreak often follows a move.
As far as the coraline goes I had a guy recomend spraying it with saltwater often and he claims his survived, I never tried and actually used the oppurtunity to scrape all glass clean while moving most of the tanks. Hope that helps!

 

[reefNetWork]

wouldnt adding fresh live sand cause a small cycle or is it already cured? i have dry aragpnite sand.

 

[jasob]

I think it all sounds like a good plan, except for the sand. I'd replace the sand with dry new sand to avoid any possible cycle starting or releasing toxins by disturbing it too much.

Also I would try to have as much water mixed up a ready to go just in case you are in need of emergency waterchange water. Not to mention if I were just moving my tank 10 ft away into my kitchen I'd probably spill 50% of the water...

 

[leeweber85]

If you're not upgrading tanks, you might as well keep the sand, just drain as much water as possible, and when you fill it back up, puts some trash bags and plates over it so it doesnt stir it all up. If you keep everything wet you shouldn't have any cycling problems. When I upgraded to my 125 in 1 day, I was amazed that everything made it after all it had gone through.

 

[flfirefighter13]

The araglive sand Ive used has never really caused a cycle. If I use have live and half dry I get some weird stuff, but nothing major. Another thing that may help a bit is to run a canister filter for a few weeks before the move, then for a few weeks after the move. Not sure how much it will help, but in theory it will be abother place for beneficial bacteria to live. Just make sure to remove the canister one piece at a time overa few weeks to avoid overloading the system when you take it out of the loop.