nervous - any words of wisdom for a tank move

[sillygoose]

It's finally happening tomorrow! I'm freakin' out a bit. We are switching from our 90 to our 180. The 180 will go into the same place the 90 is now, so we have to unload our reef, swap tanks out, rockscape etc, and move the reef back in. Any words of wisdom from those of you who have done the one-day move?

 

[David520]

I did mine about a month or so ago when I bought the cube from Rich with zero losses. Our process was starting with a water change first if possible to have extra water made up for corals, fish etc.... while in buckets (Did that the day before move). Then started removing the rock and made sure not to disturb the substrate and fish last of course. Still without disturbing the substrate, drained as much water as possible to save. Then it was back to putting back together but the only thing that I changed was the substrate, I bought live sand and crushed coral so it would give me time to clean the old substrate. I almost did not buy the setup for the reason of losses but everything turned out great. Best of Luck!

 

[asbauto]

+1 to David I just switched from a 46 to 150 ... lots of buckets or rubbermaid containers move the rock work then fish then water setup new tank and reinstall live stock. but be careful to not disrupt substrate more than you have to

 

[aquaph8]

I replaced my sand so I wouldn't have to mess with it but if your keeping old sand I would rinse it really well. Make sure and check your alk in the new water and be sure its not insanely higher than your current water. Some of the salt mixes out there are really high and when your doubling your tanks volume it can be a big change.

 

[JMCAquarium]

Home depot has rubber made totes i think 30-35 gallon size for $7 I'd invest in a truck load of them and move everything into them. Like the others said DO NOT DISTURB YOUR SAND. You do that and you will have major issues. I also would get a large male helper or two and just keep them fed to give you help when needed...lol.

You'd be amazed at how heavy that stuffs gets whne you have to move some much in one day you'll be hurten by the end of the day.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Lots of totes and air stones for fish. In the past I've always used 50% new water with no problems. I'm assuming you have enough or near enough water to fill the 180. After you move make another large batch of water just in case something gets unsettled and you need to make a large water change.

 

[sillygoose]

Darn - not happening yet after all.

 

[aquaph8]

What happened?

 

[sillygoose]

We ran fresh water through the system while we were tweaking the plumbing. Where the water came down from the overflow, we of course had some turbulence. Last night as we were draining the new fuge, we saw what looked like skimmate on the walls right at the water line. It was kind of a golden brown that felt slimy when wet but got crusty after it dried. It seemed to be attracted to the silicone on the bubble trap especially.

We hadn't noticed anything like that even though we had filled/drained the tank a couple of times during the last week. It made no sense and we got worried that maybe we had an oil leak. Turns out the two pumps are mag drives so that eliminates oil spill, but we still don't know what it could be. We got to thinking that the water always looked hazy when we looked through it long ways, even with multiple draining/refills. I had added a little bleach to it during the week to keep it from getting slimy, but this last filling didn't have any.

I think the plan is to run the fresh system with carbon and see if the gunk goes away. Hopefully by next weekend we'll have this taken care of.