Nano Tank Relocation

[sahilchaddha]

Hey fellow reefers,

I am a dumb noob with a AIO nano reef tank of 25 Gallon. Due to Movement Control Order here in Malaysia, I was unable to maintain my tank for 2 months and hence have a bad case of green hair algae.
Due to some personal reasons, I have to urgently move to a new home which is an hour away from my current place. I was planning to drain 70% of the water and lift the tank myself (assuming it's not heavy) and drive to our new home and make sure there is freshly mixed saltwater available at the destination.

I have a single big rock & a shy bi-color blenny who just loves hiding inside a small cave (in the rock) most of the time. I am worried I am not skilled to take out blenny from the tank while lifting this heavy LR. Hence was thinking to leave the LR and corals/livestock in the tank with 30% water only.

I have a small chiller attached to the tank and it's almost 32C here in Kuala Lumpur. I am worried I will have a temperature spike from 25C to 30/31C during relocation.

How can I make sure there is minimum temperature change and the least stressful for livestock?
Any tips on relocation?

Livestock :
2x ClownFish
2x Green Chromis
1x Bicolor Blenny
1x Blood fire red shrimp

Corals :
Kenya Tree
Pulsing Xenia
Zoas
Toadstool
Some GSP on the backwall

Chiller : Hailea HS-28A
Light : Kessil 160 Tuna Blue

 

[glb]

Hey fellow reefers,

I am a dumb noob with a AIO nano reef tank of 25 Gallon. Due to Movement Control Order here in Malaysia, I was unable to maintain my tank for 2 months and hence have a bad case of green hair algae.
Due to some personal reasons, I have to urgently move to a new home which is an hour away from my current place. I was planning to drain 70% of the water and lift the tank myself (assuming it's not heavy) and drive to our new home and make sure there is freshly mixed saltwater available at the destination.

I have a single big rock & a shy bi-color blenny who just loves hiding inside a small cave (in the rock) most of the time. I am worried I am not skilled to take out blenny from the tank while lifting this heavy LR. Hence was thinking to leave the LR and corals/livestock in the tank with 30% water only.

I have a small chiller attached to the tank and it's almost 32C here in Kuala Lumpur. I am worried I will have a temperature spike from 25C to 30/31C during relocation.

How can I make sure there is minimum temperature change and the least stressful for livestock?
Any tips on relocation?

Livestock :
2x ClownFish
2x Green Chromis
1x Bicolor Blenny
1x Blood fire red shrimp

Corals :
Kenya Tree
Pulsing Xenia
Zoas
Toadstool
Some GSP on the backwall

Chiller : Hailea HS-28A
Light : Kessil 160 Tuna Blue

I’d be very careful lifting the tank with that much water in it. It could break. I’d try to remove the fish from the tank and put them in a bucket with an air stone during the move. If it will fit, you could put in the live rock and corals too. Then you can empty the tank and move it safely.

As far as temp goes, how will you be transporting things and how long will your trip be? If you put your bucket in a car with A/C, it should be ok for a few hours. If the trip is longer, I’d add some Prime or other ammonia neutralizing agent to the water. When you get to your new place, make sure the temp doesn’t fluctuate as you transfer your livestock back into the tank. Good luck!!

 

[Jib]

There is tons of good information in this thread about tearing down tanks for a variety of reasons. I used it as a reference when I tore down m,y tank to replace the sandbed.

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

 

[Reefing_addiction]

You don’t want to move your rocks and fish together. You could accidentally hurt the fish. I’d remove the live rock to a bucket . IMO I think just the fish in the tank will be ok. But make sure to remove any rock

 

[brandon429]

agreed. Plus the rocks can cast off a bunch of detritus causes a cycle in the fish holding container. Hold rocks separate agreed

A neat way to summarize that thread:


if you don’t deep clean the reef during the move, out of fear of destabilization, that’s the greatest chance of killing it during the re set up due to all the waste being mixed about


but if you deep clean it, use all new water, and rinse all the sand in tap water, opposite of what any reefer would advise, you get five years of tank moves that have zero losses. Irony.


*there are for sure move examples where no deep cleaning was done, there are just no threads to see more than one job like that being worked


there’s a 10-20% loss rate if we get several people moving reefs without sandbed rinsing. when deep cleaning is effected the loss rate is zero per above


when the rocks are taken down and cleaned and ready to move, scrape the algae off them by using a knife tip to dislodge the algae and use saltwater to rinse it all off. Then put peroxide on the former spots, the clean spots and that kills any algae cells leftover.

 

[sahilchaddha]

Thanks guys. Undestood on the point to take out fishes & rock seperately. My drive will be less than an hour. I hope everything is safe. I will share pics of my move in this thread.

@brandon429 Thanks for deep cleaning idea. I also wants to reduce the amount of sand i have to half. Will that be a risk of a recycle ?
My sand collects lot of bad stuff and i would prefer to reduce the amount of sand.

 

[sahilchaddha]

I’d be very careful lifting the tank with that much water in it. It could break. I’d try to remove the fish from the tank and put them in a bucket with an air stone during the move. If it will fit, you could put in the live rock and corals too. Then you can empty the tank and move it safely.

As far as temp goes, how will you be transporting things and how long will your trip be? If you put your bucket in a car with A/C, it should be ok for a few hours. If the trip is longer, I’d add some Prime or other ammonia neutralizing agent to the water. When you get to your new place, make sure the temp doesn’t fluctuate as you transfer your livestock back into the tank. Good luck!!

I will be transporting via my rented car. I am planning to buy a small icebox for my fishes and corals to reduce temperature fluctuation. My wife wants to sell the tank but i am trying to move it safely secretly.

 

[sahilchaddha]

You don’t want to move your rocks and fish together. You could accidentally hurt the fish. I’d remove the live rock to a bucket . IMO I think just the fish in the tank will be ok. But make sure to remove any rock

Thanks for the tip. I will take the rock out. I hope i take out the blenny safely from rock.

 

[brandon429]

It will not harm to reduce by half, or all of it. In every case, live rock is enough to run the whole system with or without sand, or without sump bricks, people add all this extra surface area to feel well but it’s not tied to preventing a cycle. We are able to reduce surface area by rinsing out, removing by half or removing all the sand because removing extra area doesn’t make the leftover area less able.


a system not using live rock such as a frag tank might need alternate planning but any nano sandbed is instantly expendable if we isolate all sensitive animals from the waste in the sand while working and re install a decent degree of live rock


the single greatest bacterial misconception in reefing is that removing sand or bricks or canister filters means that same mass of bacteria must be given time to ramp up on the rocks in order to carry fish. It does not work like that to any degree, that’s a made up concept from forums. Purely made up, doesn’t occur. Live rock is full of bac already, no room for more or it would have already taken on more even with sand in place. Stacking more bac on top of bac wouldnt help anyway, that reduces surface area vs increases it.


The reason it’s handy to know that surface area subtraction rule is so that cleaning jobs can be done thoroughly and without losses. If we’re hesitant while cleaning out of concern for bacteria, the temptation is to leave waste in place which is the hidden danger.


the portion of sand u put back needs to be blast rinsed clean