Moving reef tank!!

[JackerVenom]

Hey everyone, just wondering how people have moved there tanks in the past and what they did to make it successful? I’m moving 4.5 hours away and my nano reef is coming with me? Just would like some tips and suggestions before I move it to allow all inhabitants the best chance of survival!

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

Well first of all be glad you have a nano! I would get a couple brute trash cans or large containers, at least 2 battery powered air pumps with stones, and extra water With you or at your destination if possible. Consider if you will need to heat or cool the cargo space. You may want pvc pipe and a bunch of 90 fittings to build around your rock work to keep anything from tumbling. As long as temp stays reasonable (72-82) and there is circulation, you should be fine

 

[Cflip]

Hey everyone, just wondering how people have moved there tanks in the past and what they did to make it successful? I’m moving 4.5 hours away and my nano reef is coming with me? Just would like some tips and suggestions before I move it to allow all inhabitants the best chance of survival!

Wow nice tank. How are you maintaining it? Just water changes or additives?

 

[JackerVenom]

Wow nice tank. How are you maintaining it? Just water changes or additives?

Just water changes once every 1-2 weeks! LPS are starting to grow a lot so might have to use additives soon.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I keep 1/5 of the tank with water to keep bacteria wet and oxygenated and save a few buckets of water for refilling. Its like doing a major water change when you set it back up. Be sure to run good carbon when you fire up the tank

 

[fishguy242]

hi,bag and float all corals separate ,in the water buckets you are saving,keep rock wet, air in fish /invert buckets,last thing to move,first thing to set up as said leave some water in tank for sand,will be dirty when get there from swishing around,mix it around a bit,and dump,be ready to make some new water ,add carbon,corals will release stress toxins,best wishes

 

[brandon429]

dont use any of the old sand unless its rinsed in tap waster for about two hours to perfect clarity, best to start new. I just changed my sandbed out again after 3 years, on a 14 yr old nano, which is why it keeps living to new decades. Moving 4 hours in aerated buckets isnt a big deal to the system, thats easier than how they were shipped to the lfs they came from.

set back up the new tank after rinsing live rocks in saltwater, to cast off waste they've built up from food and waste sticking to them


rinse the new sand, or the old, in tap water for an hour or so until its perfectly clear, input no cloud, not any/ final rinse in ro water, sand is now ready.

if you reset up a cloudless tank you will skip the cycle, we dont need sandbed bacteria at all, we need only live rock bacteria

add all new water to the new tank, and turn lights down dont go full production, ramp up for one week, done, skip cycle transfer. the point of the actions above is to remove all sources of detritus so the new tank cant cloud.

if you are using new sand, pre rinse just the same to remove silt clouding, we dont care what happens to sandbed bacteria because they're not needed in any reef tank, they're just extras/ we rinse to be cloudless, thats the rule of skip cycle transfers

 

[JackerVenom]

dont use any of the old sand unless its rinsed in tap waster for about two hours to perfect clarity, best to start new. I just changed my sandbed out again after 3 years, on a 14 yr old nano, which is why it keeps living to new decades. Moving 4 hours in aerated buckets isnt a big deal to the system, thats easier than how they were shipped to the lfs they came from.

set back up the new tank after rinsing live rocks in saltwater, to cast off waste they've built up from food and waste sticking to them


rinse the new sand, or the old, in tap water for an hour or so until its perfectly clear, input no cloud, not any/ final rinse in ro water, sand is now ready.

if you reset up a cloudless tank you will skip the cycle, we dont need sandbed bacteria at all, we need only live rock bacteria

add all new water to the new tank, and turn lights down dont go full production, ramp up for one week, done, skip cycle transfer. the point of the actions above is to remove all sources of detritus so the new tank cant cloud.

if you are using new sand, pre rinse just the same to remove silt clouding, we dont care what happens to sandbed bacteria because they're not needed in any reef tank, they're just extras/ we rinse to be cloudless, thats the rule of skip cycle transfers

Thank you! I thought there was benefit to bacteria in sand? Hence why people buy lives and?

 

[brandon429]

it doesn’t hurt to have the extra sand bacteria and sandbed worms and pods, but the hobby was wrong about those being required, or even better than not having sand


thousands of live rock only, sps systems without sand show this variation. A cleaned sandbed is neutral in affect to the system but no longer supports waste and invaders, which we show to be more present than awesome delicate creatures. The basic filtration any reef needs is the live rock such that no other sources are needed to handle the tanks bioloading


the fact we all add on orders more surface area (waste catchpoints that need cleaning) is simply a habit we choose or not choose to fulfill. Not everyone agrees with my sandbed method, then again they don’t have example work threads for pages to review for pattern, they just dislike that we are cleaning a once-untouchable zone for the reef tank.

for sure people have moved unrinsed tanks and it worked


and they’ve also failed, to skip rinsing invites variation. See this below for lack of variation, we lose no tanks ever. Over one hundred safe house moves = disassembly cleaning = cyano prevention all same thing below, same order of ops


*the reason removing a sandbed from a system adapted to one doesnt harm anything, is because live rock is always enough. The extra stuff we add isn't required, that's just extra, and you can remove extras.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[jack_aubry]

I just moved my 40 18 hrs away month and a half later I did not lose anything. I think the key for me was: 1) individually bagging the corals and fish and transporting them in really good styrofoam coolers, 2) taking almost all of the tank water plus extra pre-made rodi, 3) having extra containers/tanks for the live rock and corals with a power-head and a heater.

 

[JackerVenom]

it doesn’t hurt to have the extra sand bacteria and sandbed worms and pods, but the hobby was wrong about those being required, or even better than not having sand


thousands of live rock only, sps systems without sand show this variation. A cleaned sandbed is neutral in affect to the system but no longer supports waste and invaders, which we show to be more present than awesome delicate creatures. The basic filtration any reef needs is the live rock such that no other sources are needed to handle the tanks bioloading


the fact we all add on orders more surface area (waste catchpoints that need cleaning) is simply a habit we choose or not choose to fulfill. Not everyone agrees with my sandbed method, then again they don’t have example work threads for pages to review for pattern, they just dislike that we are cleaning a once-untouchable zone for the reef tank.

for sure people have moved unrinsed tanks and it worked


and they’ve also failed, to skip rinsing invites variation. See this below for lack of variation, we lose no tanks ever. Over one hundred safe house moves = disassembly cleaning = cyano prevention all same thing below, same order of ops


*the reason removing a sandbed from a system adapted to one doesnt harm anything, is because live rock is always enough. The extra stuff we add isn't required, that's just extra, and you can remove extras.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

Not only do I love that job, I did it in my vase :) so it’s been modeled already/ done your job is just bigger. I’m going to link a thread where nobody listens regarding aiptasia removal, apply this to your mushroom tank. the sand cleaning is already covered here / ridding newly cleaned rocks...

www.reef2reef.com

So would it be better to just buy live sand and put it in the tank when I get there? Or would I have to rinse that too?

 

[brandon429]

I would rinse it for sure, its silt clouding there, and bigtime. not detritus clouding, but silting/ same mess

 

[brandon429]

in that thread above, we show in first post ten links on what new sand does if you skip the rinse, even though the bag says no rinse needed lol

opaque city.

there is only one sand we dont pre rinse: KP aquatics real live sand. because of the animals in it and the cost

bagged new sand has no animals, blast away. it has adhered bacteria because its wet; tap water is said online in forums to sterilize bacteria, but thats not written by people who work with bacteria for a living. plumbers know tap water is filthy bigtime, chock full of bacteria thanks to pipescum slough.

tap water flowing constantly over internal pipe scum builds more scum, it doesnt starve, sterilize reduce or cut through biofilms very well at all. on wet sand, the biofilters are housing the filter bac on the grains.

tap water is the unlimited rinse source so we use it. *final rinse is in ro, to evac, so that we input only clean sand.

 

[ReefBeta]

When I moved my 42 gallon couple years ago, I just reused the same sand, didn't wash it with tap water or anything. When scooping the sand out of the tank, the sand were completed turned over and washed in the old tank water. Most of the detritus were washed out already. It's basically a complete cleaning of the sandbed, way more efficient than siphoning sand bed. So why wash it again with tap water that only destroy the rest of lives in it? It doesn't make sense to me.

If it's doable, I will ready a setup in your new place, and move the live stock over one or two days before the final move. The final move will only be transferring the tank. This was how I moved mine. I setup a big bucket with wavemaker, heater, and light, and move fish and coral over a day before. But yours are 4.5 hours away, just a bit too far. Maybe stay in the new place over night and drive back the next day. Another recent in doing so is that you're not in hurry in setting back up the tank. You can take your time to settle in the rest of the house first. That's especially important for me for the wife point.