Moving my tank into another room.

[leighton.bingham]

How much water do I need to keep or put back in the tank to keep the bacteria alive?
Can I scrub my LR before i put it back in? Without running into issues?
Should I rise my sand before putting it back in?
Last but not least should i clean everything? aka skimmer sump power heads etc.. before putting back in with fresh water.

I should add I have a 110.4 waterbox. 79 gallon display and 31 gallon sump.

Thanks in advance.

Im planning to add cheato and a Neptune Gro light when I move it as well. The reason im moving the tank is to to make room for another display tank that is larger.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

The bacteria are growing on the surfaces in your tank, not in your water. (rock, sand, bio media)

Moving the sand may cause some issues,, depending on how deep it is.

 

[leighton.bingham]

The bacteria are growing on the surfaces in your tank, not in your water. (rock, sand, bio media)

Moving the sand may cause some issues,, depending on how deep it is.

You're saying keep the sand wet and in the tank? Its about 1.5 inches deep

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

I'd try to not disturb the sand bed as much as possible. It can hold a lot of detritus buildup that can be toxic when released back into the water. I'm not sure what the added weight is or how well your tank would handle it with the moving though. So it may need to be removed.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I agree with trying not to disturb the sand. This can inevitably nuke your tank if you are not careful.

 

[leighton.bingham]

What do you guys think about cleaning the skimmer and sump at the same time?

 

[Dburr1014]

If your taking out the rock to clean, wouldn't it be better to take out the sand and give it a rinse also?

Most the bac is in the rock, keep it wet. Use dirty water to scrub. Rinse the sand use old water for finale rinse on that to. Personally, I would try to save half of the old water to reuse.

I would wait to clean the sump/skimmer. You already did a lot of cleaning. Wait a couple weeks for the bac to multiply back up(if it was damaged).

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

What do you guys think about cleaning the skimmer and sump at the same time?

It would be a good time to do it, for sure.

 

[Dburr1014]

It would be a good time to do it, for sure.

I definitely disagree.

But we all have our opinions.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

I definitely disagree.

But we all have our opinions.

True! but I wasn't looking to rinse the sand either.

 

[leighton.bingham]

How do you rise sand? Just with discarded tank water and like a filter like a towel or something?

 

[PharmrJohn]

True! but I wasn't looking to rinse the sand either.

I was thinking just replace the sand. I did that with my last tank swap out. But my sand was pretty dirty and I didn't want to clean it. Took too long.

 

[cngh]

Is the old stuff going into the new tank? or are you setting up the old tank in a new room and just making it lighter in order to move it?

either way, i say may as well clean all/as much of the equipment while the tank is broken down.

if time is not an issue, may as well also scrub the rocks. use a bucket of discard water and scrub the rocks in it, then put the clean(er) rocks into another bin/bucket of good water so it stays wet until ready to put it back into the tank.

keep most of the old usable water (take out and store to make moving the tank easier). if you're battling some high nutrients, this may also be a good time to discard some of the old water and use fresh saltwater. but it depends on what you have as the ph, alk in the fresh may differ a lot from the old. whenever i've moved/upgraded tanks, I make a bigger batch of new water and I just think of it as doing a larger water change than normal once everything is where i want it.

sand is a trickier issue. if you've never cleaned it ever during regular maintenance, then it's probably really dirty. (as a side note, i try to clean a different small section of sand periodically during tank maintenance to remove detritus build up. I've not had any ill effects from doing that.)

if it's deep or really dirty and you intend to leave it in the tank, then i'd try to disturb it as little as possible. i'd remove as much water as I could, then pull the rocks out of the sand which will get disturbed and nasty and that may be as much as you want to do as far as messing with the sand. with the rocks out and the water low, i'd siphon out that gross disturbed water and toss it.

or, if you're feeling really adventurous and time is not an issue, once you've removed the rocks and most of the water, you can disturb the literal crap out of the sand. Siphon out that nastiness, then add some old tank water, swirl rinse and repeat, till the water is much less nasty (it will never be clear, or close to that). Then put your tank back together with good water, skimmer and filter sock (or filtering material). I've done this a couple times without major issue, but i run a softies/lps tank so nothing's too sensitive.

as usual, opinions/experiences will vary. best of luck!

 

[leighton.bingham]

Is the old stuff going into the new tank? or are you setting up the old tank in a new room and just making it lighter in order to move it?

either way, i say may as well clean all/as much of the equipment while the tank is broken down.

if time is not an issue, may as well also scrub the rocks. use a bucket of discard water and scrub the rocks in it, then put the clean(er) rocks into another bin/bucket of good water so it stays wet until ready to put it back into the tank.

keep most of the old usable water (take out and store to make moving the tank easier). if you're battling some high nutrients, this may also be a good time to discard some of the old water and use fresh saltwater. but it depends on what you have as the ph, alk in the fresh may differ a lot from the old. whenever i've moved/upgraded tanks, I make a bigger batch of new water and I just think of it as doing a larger water change than normal once everything is where i want it.

sand is a trickier issue. if you've never cleaned it ever during regular maintenance, then it's probably really dirty. (as a side note, i try to clean a different small section of sand periodically during tank maintenance to remove detritus build up. I've not had any ill effects from doing that.)

if it's deep or really dirty and you intend to leave it in the tank, then i'd try to disturb it as little as possible. i'd remove as much water as I could, then pull the rocks out of the sand which will get disturbed and nasty and that may be as much as you want to do as far as messing with the sand. with the rocks out and the water low, i'd siphon out that gross disturbed water and toss it.

or, if you're feeling really adventurous and time is not an issue, once you've removed the rocks and most of the water, you can disturb the literal crap out of the sand. Siphon out that nastiness, then add some old tank water, swirl rinse and repeat, till the water is much less nasty (it will never be clear, or close to that). Then put your tank back together with good water, skimmer and filter sock (or filtering material). I've done this a couple times without major issue, but i run a softies/lps tank so nothing's too sensitive.

as usual, opinions/experiences will vary. best of luck!

Thank you first of all for all the information everyone. The old stuff is staying in the old tank its just going in a new room.

(keep most of the old usable water) - this answers one of my questions.
Sand i was thinking of getting like cheese cloth and running water over it so it would act like a strainer. When i heard clean the sand.

Time really isnt an issue i figured it would take a day or two at the most. Im buying 4x32 gallon trash cans with lids. A neptune gro fuge light and adding cheeto. So that should make for a nice upgrade when i get it moved and everything all set up.


Thanks again everyone

 

[leighton.bingham]

here is the tank im moving

 

[brandon429]

the tank transfer thread

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

above, we force rip cleaned each sandbed into total compliance and then every tank we reassembled in another room, or home, or state there above was compliant. it's because of what could be in the sandbed, that you'd take this rare forced disassembly series to instate safe clean sand grains, it's a total benefit long term for your system we show. it's the one chance to de-age your tank, that nobody would undertake in a large system if they weren't forced to physically relocate it.

then when you move the tank it's so clean that it will let you target feed corals really well, without building up gunk and invasions, and this renewed protein push can be a growth spurt for your corals.

a tank move can be changed up in steps to be refreshing, invigorating, and like a steroid run for anabolic coral building. that's no joke, it's what we aimed for in every job above. we make the tank 100% clean then run a bunch of targeted feed through it, two months after our moves your corals are fatter than before the move.

the benefit of rip cleaning before the actual move is you will skip cycle--> transfers no waste=skips cycle in new tank. detritus causes the recycle, not loss of bacteria. the uber clean tank at the end accepts lots of new protein cycled through without causing outbreaks...powerful start for any new reef tank vs the hesitation mode.





**your system isn't so packed and old with a spotty sandbed it couldn't move unrinsed. you likely can. but, it's not the safe way, it makes your tank dinos-susceptible / cyano / gha and lastly avoiding the rinse for biological reasons does not match the outcomes above.

if it was just flatly too much work to rinse that many # of sand, plus you'd already been siphon-cleaning it all year and the stock bioload is low that might be a reason to transfer without the rinse work but you risk invasions that way we never risked in the clean rip sets above.

its simply better in every way to 100% rinse out your sandbed, as crazy as that sounds, if its at all practical for your setup.

 

[leighton.bingham]

the tank transfer thread

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

above, we force rip cleaned each sandbed into total compliance and then every tank we reassembled in another room, or home, or state there above was compliant. it's because of what could be in the sandbed, that you'd take this rare forced disassembly series to instate safe clean sand grains, it's a total benefit long term for your system we show. it's the one chance to de-age your tank, that nobody would undertake in a large system if they weren't forced to physically relocate it.

then when you move the tank it's so clean that it will let you target feed corals really well, without building up gunk and invasions, and this renewed protein push can be a growth spurt for your corals.

a tank move can be changed up in steps to be refreshing, invigorating, and like a steroid run for anabolic coral building. that's no joke, it's what we aimed for in every job above. we make the tank 100% clean then run a bunch of targeted feed through it, two months after our moves your corals are fatter than before the move.

the benefit of rip cleaning before the actual move is you will skip cycle--> transfers no waste=skips cycle in new tank. detritus causes the recycle, not loss of bacteria.





**your system isn't so packed it couldn't move unrinsed. you likely can. but, it's not the safe way, it makes your tank dinos-susceptible / cyano / gha and lastly avoiding the rinse for biological reasons does not match the outcomes above. if it was just flatly too much work to rinse that many # of sand, plus you'd already been siphon-cleaning it all year and the stock bioload is low that might be a reason to transfer without the rinse work but you risk invasions that way we never risked in the clean rip sets above.

Amazing!

 

[Dburr1014]

Thank you first of all for all the information everyone. The old stuff is staying in the old tank its just going in a new room.

(keep most of the old usable water) - this answers one of my questions.
Sand i was thinking of getting like cheese cloth and running water over it so it would act like a strainer. When i heard clean the sand.

Time really isnt an issue i figured it would take a day or two at the most. Im buying 4x32 gallon trash cans with lids. A neptune gro fuge light and adding cheeto. So that should make for a nice upgrade when i get it moved and everything all set up.


Thanks again everyone

I just switched tanks 3 months ago.
I completly cleaned all my sand and added more because I was moving to a bigger tank.

The best way I found to clean the sand is to do it in a five gallon bucket with about 8 to 10 pounds of sand at a time.
I ran a hose and got right in it. Multiple times, probably an hour each load. You can now grab sand in my tank and there will be no cloud.
I did this with the old sand and the new sand. It's totally worth the work upfront.

 

[leighton.bingham]

I just switched tanks 3 months ago.
I completly cleaned all my sand and added more because I was moving to a bigger tank.

The best way I found to clean the sand is to do it in a five gallon bucket with about 8 to 10 pounds of sand at a time.
I ran a hose and got right in it. Multiple times, probably an hour each load. You can now grab sand in my tank and there will be no cloud.
I did this with the old sand and the new sand. It's totally worth the work upfront.

You ran a hose? Like sucked the sand right in the bucket? Cause mine is super cloudy and brown. That’s what I don’t want when I move my tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

You ran a hose? Like sucked the sand right in the bucket? Cause mine is super cloudy and brown. That’s what I don’t want when I move my tank.

Sorry, no.
If your removing the rock, water, to move the tank, just scoop out the sand. Rinse, use some tank water for final rinse.
The majority of the rinsing is out on the lawn with a hose and tap water. You can clean the tank if you want.

Your doing all the work anyway. The sand is the dirtiest part and doesn't make sense NOT to rinse it if your cleaning all the rest.