tank moving

[BlueCoast]

OK, I'll start with a question / suggestion help for moving some tanks. I have 3 that I need to move, a simple 20gal fowlr, a 40B with a monster frogspawn and a 20gal frag tank. The last 2 have a good amount of SPS and the frogspawn is soccerball size and I fear I will have many frags of it trying to move it.

Getting some old water before moving rocks and having fresh salt water is on the list. Having totes ready for the move so the tank can get setup as well...
I have extra pumps, a skimmer and an led light for the temp totes. battery airstone for the few fishies.

Any little tricks or gotchas you learned from moving tanks? Good things to have on hand that made it easier? Ideas on getting the bigger corals over safely (about a 10 minute drive)?

All comments are welcome, I've helped with a few but getting all the tanks and supporting equipment over will be a long day or two.

At least they are all small!

 

[chgries]

Using old water is not that important, beneficial bacteria is in the rock and sand bed. I would use all new water if possible with parameters similar to the tanks. Also having a friend to help would be a good idea.


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[Webmanny]

Since it is such a short move and the tanks are small, I would empty most of the water, but leave the rocks and sand intact (if they are stable and can be safely moved). Try not to disturb the sand and use a 25% or so portion of the old water to go back into the tanks.

The trick is going to be the corals and fish. Here is what I would do.

1. Make twice as much salt water as your tanks volume make sure parameters match
2. put all the corals and fish in bags with existing tank water, as it you are selling them
3. Empty most of the water from the old tanks without exposing the sand and save it
4. If the rocks are not stable, take rocks out and put them in buckets
5. Move the tanks and put the rocks back in
6. Put some of the old tank water into the tanks and complete with fresh salt water without disturbing the sand.
7. Let everything settle and water to flow for an hour or so to stabilize temp
8. Float the bags with fish and corals in the tanks to temp acclimate
9. Then you can start by adding the fish back into the tank and then start putting the corals back into the tank.
10. I would also do a 20% water change after a day or so.
11. Test for ammonia and all parameters at least twice a day for the first few days to make sure nothing is causing a spike.

This is just a recommendation of how I would do it. Good luck and I hope everything makes it across safely. Let us know how it goes.

 

[chgries]

You can also reuse the sand and clean it if you want to save some money. There are a a few videos on YouTube that go over how to do that


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[BlueCoast]

Thanks everyone. Some good ideas to help make sure everything acclimates as best as possible.
The tank water was more a buffer to help keep the parameters closer, obviously just a little clean water before disturbing anything. I'm going to move a bioblock I have to the storage bins prior to moving to help get some bacteria growing on a few pieces of dry rock. It should be a good time to tweak the aquascape a little and get rid of some pest corals.

I have been re-using sand for a while and rinse it like crazy to get all the detritus and gunk out. Pouring the sand back using a pvc pipe I learned helps in keeping the tank a lot clearer as well.

Even with the small tanks I am worried about making sure I have spares of things and extra water.... The little things that will invariable pop up when moving a bunch of stuff.

Yes, I have suckers, er, friends to help. the 40b stand could double as a car lift, it was a little over built and has some granite ledges so some extra muscle will be needed.

I was thinking about running a bead of silicone around the base of the tank. it is going on laminate flooring that is supposed to be waterproof but I worry about little spills wicking under the stand and not evaporating. Has anyone done something like that? Putting tile in its place isn't an option right now unfortunately.