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Moving established tank lessons learned?


jeffvt1999

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Hey, upgrading and purchasing an established 34 gallon Red Sea Max from somebody online.  Going to pick up and wondering if anybody has gone through this and learned anything enlightening.  

 

Luckily the guy is about 10 min from my house.  I’m taking all his contents, currently just sparse rock, sand and Fish.  I’m planning to leave all sand in place along with whatever amount of water I can leave in and still manage lifting it.  I will also bring buckets for all his water, since 34 isn’t too unmanageable. I don’t have anywhere to rehome the fish during transition, maybe could cram them into 10 gal with other inhabitants.

 

not even sure what I’m looking to hear, just anything that I won’t think of until it’s too late.

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Here's how I'd do it.

 

Bring a few 5g buckets.  The rock can be dry in buckets for the short trip.  I wouldn't bring all of his water, just what you can comfortably move.  There is not a lot of good stuff in the water.  If you're going to run a tank you should have the capability to make enough saltwater to replace it.  Put the fish in a few inches of water with a few fish in each bucket.  Don't put rocks in with them or they might get squished on the ride home.  Put lids on the buckets if you have them cause they might jump.

 

It's a good idea to leave the sand and a few inches of water in the tank.  There will be a lot of gunk in the sand if it has been up for a while.  When you get home you may want to rinse it pretty well by stirring and siphoning.  

 

Then reassemble the rock in the tank when you get it up on the stand.  Add your water from home, add the water from the fish buckets, and add the fish.  They can do fine in there while you get the rest of the equipment running, probably.

 

 

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I moved our 75g last May when we purchased a home. I removed all of the rock and inhabitants, placed them in a tank I temporarily set up at the new house, removed all of the sand and placed it in five gallon buckets, and drained all of the water. Do not attempt to move the tank with sand/water in it, this only leads to bad things happening (i.e. split seams leading to leaks).

 

The only thing I had in the transfer tank (equipment wise) were a couple of powerheads, a heater, and the lighting. The transfer tank can be anything large enough to hold the rock/fish/corals/inverts. It will give you adequate time to get the original tank set back up properly without rushing into inadvertent mistakes. Five gallon buckets can work but it shortens your time-line. I completed the process over the course of three days (one day spent refilling the tank with RO/DI water) with the transfer tank and didn't lose any of our corals or fish. The only loss was our peppermint shrimp, no idea what happened to them. 

 

There was no "mini-cycle" or other adverse effects. 100lbs of sand sat in two five gallon buckets for about two and a half days. 

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Since it’s only a 34g, the move will actually be manageable (plus I’m guessing it’s the AIO model).  After breaking down the system, you’ll want to set it back up as quickly as you can to minimize stress on the inhabitants.  Make sure you have filter floss cause the tank will be cloudy, so be prepared.  Your main goal will be to break down, move, and set it back up as quickly as you can.  If you are able to make and store ~20-25g of RODI water beforehand that would be good (and even better if you could mix in the salt). 

 

Sand

I’d also leave the sand and a few inches of water in the tank when transporting. 

 

Rocks

If you have totes, bins or even spare buckets, put the rocks in there.  Since it’s 10 mins away I wouldn’t stress keeping them submerged in water as the rocks will already be heavy and the bacterial die-off will not have much of an impact.

 

Livestock

Fill up one of your 5g buckets 3/4 full and throw all of the fish in there with a lid on top.

 

Water

After you have everything else packed for transport, I’d fill the remainder of the buckets with water from the tank.  This should reduce the stress on the fish a little.

 

Equipment

A box or bin would work well to help move the lights, powerhead, heater, etc.

 

If you’re not too far from 20737 I can lend a hand.

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Thanks so much, I got lots of buckets to split things up, with lids to keep fish in, and prevent any spillage in our new car.  I have a dolly to help me move with minimal disassembly or physical stress on the tank, and less lugging of 5 gallon water buckets.  Thanks a lot.

 

I like the filter floss idea, I have on hand, and will add to top of media basket.

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8 hours ago, AlanM said:

...

 

It's a good idea to leave the sand and a few inches of water in the tank.  There will be a lot of gunk in the sand if it has been up for a while.  When you get home you may want to rinse it pretty well by stirring and siphoning.  

...

 

 

 

This and of course rinse it with tank water not fresh.

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