Best way to move my 29 gal cube

Gaines69 · Apr 20, 2018

I know my tank isn’t big but my question is what is the best way to move my tank to my new 3 rd floor apartment? I can’t afford movers and at this point I don’t have anyone besides my 11 year ild son to help me. I plan on putting water and live rock on in 5 gal buckets with lids and bagging fish and inverts in fish bags and putting them in an ice chest. The move is only about 10-15 minutes so I’m not wanting to disturb my sand bed. I was thinking about wrapping the tank in a thick blanket/comforter and bungee cording it to a dolly and getting it upstairs that way. I’m just scared to death I’m going to break it. I haven’t had my tank at home for over 7 months because Garvey had us live by in a hotel so I am so ready to get my tank back. Any suggestion from experienced tank movers would be great.
Thanks
Virginia

K. Steven · Apr 20, 2018

Use enough 5 gallon buckets to move everything. Drain water into 2 or 3 buckets, then place rock in them. Put corals in another bucket or two and fish in the coral buckets. You could probably leave the sand in the tank or remove if you want to change sand. A 10-15 minute drive shouldn't cause temperature fluctuations, so a heater shouldn't be necessary. I would have new saltwater ready at the new location for any emergency or if you don't want to take all the old water.

Gaines69 · Apr 20, 2018

BTW I have a FOWLR tank and I have enough 5 gal buckets to move all the water. I don’t want to disturb the sand bed so I’ll be moving tank with sand and a tiny bit of water still in. My issue is getting it up to the third floor. No elevator just narrow stairsways.

saltyfilmfolks · Apr 20, 2018

It’s not a super heavy lift but you’ll need a buddy.

Drain it down to as close to the sand as possible.
Have bottled bacteria ready. New salt water too. If you take 10 gal of old tank water with you and have new mixed water waiting you’ll probably be pretty happy.

Honestly, it’s probaly worth the cash to replace the sand. If you’ve never transferred tanks , removed a sand bed or such. It’s nasty. It will stir stuff up.

dbl · Apr 20, 2018

I would echo @saltyfilmfolks regarding the sand. If you can fit it in to your moving budget I would also recommend replacing the sand. The most important reason is for those mentioned above. But a side benefit is it will be lighter for you and your son to get the tank up three flights of stairs, and potentially less stressful on you and the tank.

Gaines69 · Apr 20, 2018

I always thought it would be best to preserve the sand bed because of the micro organisms. I also plan on getting a mandarin and I want to keep my pod population that is in my tank. I have a large cup and my sand is pretty clean. No algae etc. I kept the sand when I moved the tank after Harvey but I wasn’t moving the tank upstairs. I do have a 47 gal cube sitting empty. Guess I could move them into that tank and let my friend keep the 29 gal so she can start a tank or restart that one later. Decisions decisions.

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

So would it hurt to take sand out of tank and put in buckets with tank water and the put it back in after I move the tank. I’d like to add more sand so I have a deep sand bed. At this time I have had no problems with algae etc. my sand is super clean because of my CUC. I also have a healthy population of bristle worms that come out and eat along side my fish. My sand bed has been undisturbed since I sat the tank up over a year ago. I really want to move fish into my bigger 47 gal tower aquarium and I want a deeper sand bed for my pistol shrimp. His goby buddy disappeared so I’m hoping to get another one as soon as I get the tank home and settled. It’s been a long 8 months without my babies and I’m ready to have them back home. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Virginia

saltyfilmfolks · May 6, 2018

Hey Virgina

If your going pretty quickly , put the Sand in the buckets with as little water as possible. Put it in the tank and then “cap” it with the new sand.
You’ll want to have a bottle of good bacteria on hand. Also some seachem prime. Use both. (The tiny bottle of prime is cheap.

Sadly , I almost guarantee your sand is yucky. Just how it goes.

It’ll stir up a lot of nasty stuff. The bacteria will take care of the ammoina, the prime will to as well, and bind a few other things that might blow around.

You can also rinse the sand , yes , I used tap water and the garden hose.
Flush it till it’s clean and drain the best you can.

I don’t reccomend this fast, but we all know it’s sometimes unavoidable.

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

Will putting new live sand on top of the old sand kill off all my microfauna. I want to add one more fish, a aquarcultured blue manderiam and I don’t want to kill all of my copepods. I’m working on starting a copepod culture in a 5 1/2 gal tank. I had it going but it crashed because I have been moving and it was not topped off. I’m sure they are all dead and salinity is super high. I’m also going to set up a brine shrimp hatchery. I have lost several fish since Harvey because I wasn’t checking on the tank daily because it was at someone else’s house. At this time I have a pair of clowns, a pistol shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, three peppermint shrimp, a feather duster, two brittle stars, and various snails and hermits. I just want to do what’s best for my babies. I use prime with every top off or water change. I just heard that it was best to not disturb your sand bed. Oh I also have a HOB fish breeding box that I use as a refugium for pods. ( it’s also jail for naughty hermits that try to kill my snails lol). Thanks for your input. Oh I have a FOWLR tank.
My clowns host the pink round cave. I tried a bubble tip anemone and it only lived for three days and I had to do two large water changes etc to keep my tank from crashing.

saltyfilmfolks · May 6, 2018

Capping the sand won’t kill the microfauna.
Rinsing will.

Be very very , lol, very cautious of a Mandy in a small tank. Esp with other fish. I have a Mandy in a 55 with big fuge. A pyscodelic in a 30 with two clowns the little tank , the psyco cleaned out the bugs and worms pretty fast.

Might be worth looking into making a hob Refugium. I used a $13 breeder box and air stone. Hung on the back next to my aqua clear. Sounds like that’s what you may have.

The only real concern If it’s a Fowler is the ammoina. And some of the release of nutints growing algae.

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

I have the same hob fish breeder as a refugium. I plan on adding a submersible pump to it to get a good flow through the keto. Plus I add a bottle of live copepods once a month. I only have two clowns and shrimp etc. Plus the aquacultured mandies come eating frozen and pellets. I only want one. That will be three fish in the 47gal.

saltyfilmfolks · May 6, 2018

Gaines69 said:
I have the same hob fish breeder as a refugium. I plan on adding a submersible pump to it to get a good flow through the keto. Plus I add a bottle of live copepods once a month. I only have two clowns and shrimp etc. Plus the aquacultured mandies come eating frozen and pellets. I only want one. That will be three fish in the 47gal.

Nice! Sounds like you’ve got it covered!

I used one of those $4 12v pumps for my hob and some airline.

One word of Mandy advice , they are like cats. Each a different personality and they eat what they want when they want. Lol.
Ask the breeder what they’re feeding too. That’ll help.

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

I had one and he did great for over a year. Before Harvey he was eating Nutramar Ova frozen twice a day. I should spot feed him to make sure he was eating. He was fat and active. Then all of a sudden I couldn’t find nutramar mar ova anywhere. Not even on line. Everyone was out of it. Then I purchased a sand sifting goby without doing research. Didn’t realize he was also a pod eater and since he was fast and was constantly eating and sifting sand he completely depleted my pod populatio. Love that fish. He had great personality and was always out and about. Since I was unable to see my tank on a daily basis I didn’t realize my Kermit was skinny. By then it was to late. I purchased four bottles of pods, frozen pods, frozen fish eggs, and frozen cyclops and rehomed the goby but he was already to far gone. It broke my heart. I felt like a bad fish mommy. Like I said I have a 5 1/2 gal for a pod culture and I’m seriously thinking about starting a white worm culture. I have done tons of research on manderians and my tank was built around Kermit. I’m fine with doing the extra work to make a mandarin a good home. I would have a big tank but I live in an apartment and the 47 gal is as big as I can go. Also have a limited budget which is the reason I have no corals. I have read the articles on this forum about mandarin care and I am also building a brine shrimp eating station.
Thanks again

saltyfilmfolks · May 6, 2018

Gaines69 said:
I had one and he did great for over a year. Before Harvey he was eating Nutramar Ova frozen twice a day. I should spot feed him to make sure he was eating. He was fat and active. Then all of a sudden I couldn’t find nutramar mar ova anywhere. Not even on line. Everyone was out of it. Then I purchased a sand sifting goby without doing research. Didn’t realize he was also a pod eater and since he was fast and was constantly eating and sifting sand he completely depleted my pod populatio. Love that fish. He had great personality and was always out and about. Since I was unable to see my tank on a daily basis I didn’t realize my Kermit was skinny. By then it was to late. I purchased four bottles of pods, frozen pods, frozen fish eggs, and frozen cyclops and rehomed the goby but he was already to far gone. It broke my heart. I felt like a bad fish mommy. Like I said I have a 5 1/2 gal for a pod culture and I’m seriously thinking about starting a white worm culture. I have done tons of research on manderians and my tank was built around Kermit. I’m fine with doing the extra work to make a mandarin a good home. I would have a big tank but I live in an apartment and the 47 gal is as big as I can go. Also have a limited budget which is the reason I have no corals. I have read the articles on this forum about mandarin care and I am also building a brine shrimp eating station.
Thanks again

Your welcome!

Yea , I’ve def made my mistakes in the hobby too.
The first time ova ran out years ago I lost my Mandy. Def try to get them on a varied diet is what I learned. Frozen baby brine , Rotifers etc. oddly one of our members here , his eats LRS reef Frenzy.

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

Well I know I want to see one eating frozen or pellets before I bring him home. I have a good verity of frozen because my clowns won’t touch anything but frozen brine ( only the one that is a flat pack. Won’t touch the ones that are cubed) and flakes. Plus I plan on having a good amount of pods in my culture tank before I purchas another mandarin. Any ideas on how I could set up a filter on my pod culture tank? Lol

saltyfilmfolks · May 6, 2018

This one is a bit dry to read. But it hits all the right targets.

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/breeder

Gaines69 · May 6, 2018

I read that. Well the part on how to set it up. I have mine going with the hob fish breeding box acting like a filter. I have Chaetomorpha In one part then sponge and a charcoal bag in the other part. I have live rock and a small heater in the tank. Is this overkill?? I also have a bottle of Petco pure green water.