tips for transporting an "established" tank?

T

TheMick75

New member
Hi everybody!
I'm very excited about getting my first reef tank next weekend. A friend of mine is moving, and is giving up the hobby and thus giving me his 75 gallon tank. He's told me it's all top grade equipment (and knowing him, I believe it, he usually spares no expense in his endeavors). He's had the tank for about 7 years, it has all the live rock and live sand, but at this point all he has is a pair of clowns (he used to have the cast of "finding nemo",which have slowly died off over the years, leaving only the clowns and various inverts).

I'll be picking it up from him next weekend, does anybody have any tips on transporting? It's about a 45 minute drive. I'm thinking of picking up a bunch of 5 gallon buckets to transport the rock and sand, filling them with water from the tank, and trying to "save" as much water from the tank as possible to re-add to the tank when it gets home. The clowns and inverts should be easy enough to transport, he only has a few corals, so i'm not too worried about transporting them either.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
I think you're in for an adventure.

Best thing I can recommend is to have plenty of fresh mixed salt water on hand. Transferring and transporting the Live Rock will almost assuredly stir up some nasty crud. You're likely to have at the least, a mini-cycle.

You'd probably do the clowns a service by setting up some temporary holding tank for them to keep stress to a minimum. It'll also allow you to aquascape the tank in a manor that's pleasing to you without worrying about crushing your clowns.

In the meantime, I'd suggest reading as much as you possibly can on RC.

Oh, and ........WELCOME!!!

The fresh mixed SW will help you to make up any difference in water that is lost or un-useable. Also, you'll likely have to do some frequent water changes in the coming days/weeks after the move.
 
Congrats!
Set up some qt for the clowns, inverts, corals. This tank is going to cycle, but it will be a short cycle, prob abt. 5 days, and they need safety from that. Use clean new saltwater: make in buckets at 1/2 cup salt mix per gallon, and acclimate them carefully re salinity going in. Use a refractometer for accuracy. Use floss/carbon filters for them, and they'll be fine for a few days: just watch evaporation and top off with fresh water. NOTE: where I say "water" read: ro/di. Do not start with conditioned tap: the algae penalty is a bear. An old tank will have some phosphate unless it is exceptional, and the more you can use ro/di, the happier you will be in the long run. You can get bottles at the Walmart kiosk, not off the shelves.

For the tank itself: move it empty, totally empty. Discard all old sand, or at least wash it in its old salt water, hauling it out of rinse water with your hands to let it drain: what gets left behind will be goshawful crud. If you use new sand, wash it in the same way to get rid of dust. Keep rock submerged in the old salt water, but work fast: its going to get nasty and the less dieoff the better: do not leave it overnight.

Set up your tank, being sure (use a spirit level) that it is sitting evenly. Shim to correct.

Leave enough room behind it so you can reach to clean. Do your plumbing.

Now cut a piece of eggcrate to fit the bottom, place it in the tank, if one did not come with it: this steadies your sand and prevents your rock from rolling and breaking your glass.

If you have a sump with this rig, toss water in it and clean all equipment with white vinegar. It removes lime deposits like crazy. If you don't have a sump now would be a really good time to install one if you possibly can. It can be done later, however.

Set your live rock into the tank in the arrangement you hope it will preserve. Set it directly on the grid. Add your sand second.

Then start watering the tank. Lay a garbage sack over sand and rock as you pour water in and it will prevent the sand and surviving muck or dust from kicking up all over everything. (There is no real benefit to keeping the old sand except cost and MAYBE saving a little time: depends on your washing it quite well---because if you save too much crud it can actually slow down your cycle and make hair algae worse.)
OK. Now you have water. The critters are in 5 dollar Lowes' polystyrene buckets (paint dept) with adequate bubblers and you have marked their water level so you can tell how far to top off with fresh water as it evaporates. Use spare lighting grid to cap the one with fish in it to prevent jumping. Don't bother lighting these: they'll survive without it.

Let your tank run full-bore, put your lights on timer, and start adjusting the temperature: try to have ita stable 80 degrees; and never believe a heater thermostat! and be careful of the temperature of your buckets, too. You may need a traveling heater (put in various buckets) and you will need to test 2x a day to be sure everything is ok.

You want: 8.3 alk, 7.9-8.3 ph, and 80 temp. 1.024 salinity

Test all for nitrate (use test strips)---your tank will get a lot, and then start cycling as bacteria eat the crud and start cleaning up the tank. Ideally this tank would NOT have a filter. Rely on your live rock and sand and if you have a filter, run it empty for right now.

After about 4-5 days, the tank will spike ammonia, then sink back to good readings.

At that point, be sure your salinity matches (acclimation) and put in your fish and corals. Be sure to steady the corals, and use IC-gel or other superglue to fix them where you want them to be.
 
Last edited:
I moved a 125gal established tank 3 weeks ago. What a job! It took 12 hrs! We wrapped the rock in newspaper and covered with the tank water.
Put all the sand in plastic bags. The livestock in an old tank with pumps and had pumps running in the buckets with corals & anemone too. Drove 30 mins in rush hour traffic and came home and set everything up as fast as we could.
Saved about 75% of the water mixed up new and everyone has made it so far.
Piece of advice ......pack a lunch because this is hard work and a long day. The more friends you have helping the better! I am new at this too. Having your friends advice is worth a mill. The guy we brought this from keeps in touch and helps with advice also. Good Luck!
 
Just as a fer-instance, my 54 gallon bowfront weighs 83 pounds totally dry and empty, and its triangluar shape and odd center of gravity makes it interesting to lift. Also---it has fragile pipe fittings on its corner bottom, which have to be protected during transit: in the moving van, we set the stand up and set the tank on it, then braced and strapped it.
If you have underneath fittings, take some wooden blocks to support the tank in the car, so it doesn't break those. Look it over carefully before moving day so you have a clear picture how things are going to come apart and how you're going to solve certain problems unique to that tank.

Having a lifting pump makes life easier. A maxijet 1200 at minimum. Mixes saltwater in buckets, can lift water from tub on floor to tank. Etc. Nobody ever has too many small pumps.
 
Alright, so I went yesterday to pick up the tank. Oh man was it a chore. First i should say that i'm not happy with condition everything is in, as my friend has neglected his tank for a few months now (he's in the middle of moving from his apartment into a new house that he's renovating, which is why he was giving me his tank, he just doesnt have time for it).
Anyway, the tank had a pretty good amount of algae on it, though everything else seemed pretty free from algae, except a piece or two of live rock. The sand bed was filled with crud. He was using a fluval 404 and an eheim 2217 as his filtration, both hadn't been cleaned in at least 3 months he said. The entire back of the tank was covered in salt creep, and the protein skimmer was completely jacked up. I'm going to take this opportunity to switch it to a sump system (i'm thinking of going with this ONE from ORCA, any thoughts?).
I washed the sand, and it's in a bucket, it was only about an inch deep, so i'm going to use it for the sump and get new sand for the tank itself, so i can do 3-4". The rock was still pretty good, with about 80 LBS of it, which currently are sitting in tupperware containers with powerheads and aerators. Should i scrub it or do anything else to it to prepare before putting in the tank, considering there was so much crud and algae in the old setup?
He had a nano setup, so we put the two clowns he had, and the crabs and snails in that, so i didn't have to worry about them.
This is turning out to be more of a journey than i expected, and more of a startup cost. On my list to get are the new sump, sand, RO/DI unit, upgraded lighting, and new stand/canopy, which pretty much means the only things that were salvageable were the tank and the rocks.
Moving it was a chore, but only because of the weight of everything. Other than that it wasn't too difficult, just a long hard day of work.
Thanks so much for all your help! I'm so excited about getting this project off the ground, even if it's starting out a little tougher than expected, and I couldn't do it without the valuable info and insight found here!
 
Ok, so just ordered the Orca refugium i mentioned above, 150 lbs of sand (i hope thats enough, at least for now), some chaeto, an RO/DI unit, reef crystals, and acrylic rods, all should be here the beginning of next week. I still need a refractometer and test kit.
I'm not sure if my live rock is all that live. I mean it has what appears to be green algae on it in spots, and some red stuff as well (not as abundant as the green stuff), but mostly its just clean white. There was a worm crawling through one piece, couldn't i.d. him, but other than that there doesn't appear to be much other "life", at least not that i can see. I sure hope i don't have to buy more rock, as the above mentioned supplies broke the bank. Is it possible to get like another 5 or 10 lbs in hopes that if the other rock isn't "live", the new rock will "seed" it?
 
you should be great. The heart of 'live rock' is its bacteria, and you'll be amazed what comes crawling out of the fissures and holes once it gets good water and a stable tank. Don't be afraid of the algae---if you set up a fuge in that new sump you can get plenty of help from that, yanking out the phosphate, putting in new life, pods, worms, all sorts of things that ride in with the cheato.

I'm convinced IMOE, that a set-up fuge helps accelerate the cycle when you're dealing with really live live rock, as you are. never mind the life is algae---they're all part of the great circle of life, to quote the LIon King---maybe you'd prefer it a little around the circle into your fuge, but it will get there, and that is a beautiful set up, that Orca one. wish mine were as good---but mine does fine, with a little drilling. ;)

Just test, warm, light, bubble, take care of your live things, and wait. I can tell by the way you're going about things that you're going to turn this into a very good tank.

Inland Aquatics, BtW, has an absolutely beautiful offering of various inverts, from worms to stomatellas, dove snails, various shellfish, etc, that are ordinarily gotten as hitchhikers...if you're lucky. I plan to get some for myself. DO, however, look up each and every one you order on wikipedia.org and find out if your tank has the food requirements for it yet.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. I've wanted a marine tank for a long while, having a freshwater setup for about 11 years (the first two years i had a pirranah setup, then when they died i got an oscar and a rhino plecco, who i've had ever since, now my oscar is sadly on his way out), i've been fascinated with the marine fish every time i went to the fish store. A few months ago i saw a nano with some corals and thats the first time i learned that you can have a reef setup (the lfs i've been going to has a variety of marine fish, but no corals), i thought it was so amazing and wanted one in the worst way, but didn't have the cash on hand to get one. One of my best friends is moving and he didn't want to have to deal with moving his tank and setting it back up, so he gave it to me (last time i saw it was 2 years ago and it looked awesome, when i picked it up it was sadly neglected as he lost interest). Now (thanks to my fiance letting me dip into our wedding savings) I have the tank and some startup cash and am super excited. I figure I'll let it cycle and get established for about a month, get a clean-up crew and perhaps a pair of clowns or maybe some cardinals, then wait till i can afford to upgrade the lights before diving into the corals (the canopy only has 2 standard flourescent bulbs).

I've ordered the fuge from Orca, and the person i've been in contact with has been a huge help. He's taken his time to explain to me the differences between the fuges and skimmer options, offered to customize placement of bulkheads, advised me that based on my setup, plans and budget that i don't need to upgrade the skimmer (to me that means a lot that he's not trying to sell me upgrades just to make an extra buck), and has offered to help me with any questions i have now or in the future regarding not only his product, but the hobby in general, as he's been in it for like 18 years or something.
 
That's a very good deal.

I know the feeling. I've been in love with the coral reefs forever, but tried in the 80's when you lost half of what you tried to keep, and conscience just wouldn't let me keep at it. Now the equipment is so much better we can keep a single coral specimen dividing and reproducing and being traded on forever: a bali slimer I have my eye on was collected in the wild in 1978, and is now in tanks all over the Pacific Northwest. Corals were designed to be immortal---and they can be that in our tanks, too. While you're waiting to cycle, read all the coral stickies (*) threads in all the forums and just hang out and ask questions. Get your Intended hooked too: it's so much fun when everybody enjoys the tank...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13056141#post13056141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TheMick75
I figure I'll let it cycle and get established for about a month, get a clean-up crew and perhaps a pair of clowns or maybe some cardinals, then wait till i can afford to upgrade the lights before diving into the corals (the canopy only has 2 standard flourescent bulbs).
Click to expand...
Sounds like a plan to me. The fishes and clean-up crew will be fine with standard fluorescent bulbs.

Giving the tank a chance to acclimate to the fish, crabs and snails before adding any corals is a good idea. The bacteria in your live rock and sand need time to adjust when you add new critters (and their waste products) to the tank. Adding too much at one time results in bad water parameters, which leads to big problems like rampant algae and dying animals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
How to safely transport 125 gallon aquarium across town?
2 3 4
Replies
67
Views
2K
ddang
D
R
Sandbed depth question
Replies
9
Views
336
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
S
Tank is not cycling
2 3
Replies
44
Views
969
wvned
wvned
ClownBubbaJoe
Can I trust My Favorite Fish, A Clown Trigger In A Reef Tank ?
Replies
12
Views
408
lebowski
lebowski
A
First SPS coral. Is this bleaching?
Replies
6
Views
607
apavlik2
A
Back
Top