Need advice on moving tank, please!

[AZReefDiva]

We just moved into a new house and now I need to worry about moving the tank. Fortunately it's only a 6g nano, but the inhabitants will be moving into a 5g pico. The difficult part of this is that I need the stand the nano sits on to set up the pico. About how much if the water should I remove in order to move the nano from the stand without the fear of it cracking? There is a YWG and his pet pistol shrimp in there, and he is not going to be happy with me, so any advice on minimizing his stress would be appreciated as well.

I'm planning to put about 75% of the old water and most of the LR into the new tank, and I'd like to change out the sand. Do I need to add any of the old sand, or can I go with 100% new sand without any problems?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tbred]

What I would do with such a small tank is remove all the contents to a couple 5 gallon buckets and move everything. I recently just moved a 29 gallon tank 3 hours. It took a lot of work and planning. It has been very stressful sense the move because I have been battling an ammonia spike. My advice is plan in advance.

 

[Kobashi]

Wait... is this a question about moving from house to house or tank to tank? If this is house to house... The main thing is to make sure to remove all rock from the glass tank (and into a plastic bucket). Roads are bumpy and things shift. I typically try to leave only about a 1/2 inch of water above the sand and usually siphon out all (of the murky transport water) that I can before I add the water back. If you disturb the sand too much, you may go through a mini-cycle.

Even if you purchase "live sand", it will need a little cycle. But here's the kicker... you need so little, I'm not sure how much this applies? I'm not much of a risk taker in this hobby, but because this is so small (and you are used to doing constant water changes... even more so now that you are going even smaller), I suppose it may depend... on how much live rock you have, how often you do water changes, and how deep of the sand bed you're going for?

I think, if I had some decent live rock, I might chance putting just a 1/2 inch of new sand in, using about 60% of the old water (about 3 gallons), and every-other-day doing a 1/2 gallon water change (and adding 1/3 cup of new sand in). Once I reached my desired sand bed height, I would continue this regiment for another week or two, and then reduce it to 1/2 gallon once every 3-4 days, which will probably be the normal maintenance schedule for such a small tank.

Just be very careful (re)acclimating the invert pistol shrimp. He will need the 2 hour drip acclimation more than anything.

 

[AZReefDiva]

It's both: house to house AND tank to tank. I'm apparently a glutton for punishment!

Maybe I'll just move the nano over here and keep it on the counter for a short time until the pico gets up and running.

 

[tatuaje08]

Depending on how much junk is in that old sand, it may be best to replace the sand. Stirring up old sand can wreak havoc. You may go through a small cycle, but its better than the alternative. The most important thing is to make sure your live rock stays live. You don't want die off in your rock.

 

[AZReefDiva]

Yeah, I was leaning toward replacing the sand.

Thanks for the advice, y'all!

 

[vincent92]

Easy, take out most (clean) water in to 5 gallon buckets or wide containers, add corals for transport in them. Take your whole set up that's nearly empty + the water and livestock... then when arrive at the perfect spot, do water change thats left over in the dirty tank to replace and replemish.. may help to avoid any spikes. Ive been successful with simple plans for transport and cleaning in the process.

 

[vincent92]

Idk if I helped but ehh, it may give you ideas! Heh good luck!

 

[Elrodg]

I just finished switching out my 75 no hole to a drilled 75. took me about 5 hours, a lot of buckets and a trashcan for the water.

My reccomendation is that you take out all the livestock and put in buckets or bags depending on what you got. move tank to new stand. set up, and then slowly acclimate the livestock. it will help a great deal to save the water from tank 1 and use at least half to put into tank 2. this will diminish the tank cycle a little.