Input on moving a tank please

[nukieuk]

So as I mentioned in my introduction post I have just acquired an up and running 90 gallon reef setup

The Tank is up and working, the live rock is fully covered in coralline algae and both mushroom and zoanthid polyps. It has a full cleanup crew and 3 fish. Fish are a yellow tang and 2x pyjama cardinals.

I have a truck so I am not so concerned about the actual moving the tank but I really could do with some input on how best to preserve the coral's and live rock. At a push I can put the pj's in my QT tank, the tang I dont think that will fly.

My plan so far is as follows:

Using a set of 33 gallon bins from wallyworld transfer the water and live rock to these, keep heated and oxygenated during the move.

Keep the live sand and around 3 inches of water in the tank.

Fish use a cooler, inverts the same.

Not sure if i will be able to move everything in one shot but the drive should be at the most 45-50 mins.

I have to have this tank moved by Saturday.



Thanks in advance all for input.

Mark

 

[mojo]

What you've detailed out sounds like you've got it pretty well covered- there's not a lot more that I'd add to that list, other than expect it to take all day. If you could have ~90g of new saltwater made up at the destination, that'd be ideal, but not always possible - you'll never be able to transport enough.

Expect a small cycle and to lose some things. While it may not happen, there's a lot happening, which causes stress. The best thing you can do is frequent water changes right after the move - try 20% on days 1, 2, and 3, then back down to 10% a couple days, then back to your normal regime.

Good luck, and I hope you have a friend helping!

 

[nukieuk]

The tank is Marietta,

I was going to take the sand out but have been advised that would probably cause a whole new cycle to start with the amount of coral I am concerned about doing that.

 

[nukieuk]

It will be my Girlfriend and I and her son who will have to sit in the truck being 11 and not very helpfull lol.

Guess I better start taking my vitamins, i am mixing up 20 gallons as we speak

 

[mojo]

I never keep my sand through a move - I'm afraid there's too much detritus left in it, and that alone will start a cycle. To make up for the lack of biological carrying capacity, I do large water changes right after a major event (such as a move). Cleaner and easier...

 

[kwl1763]

mojo;248225 wrote: I never keep my sand through a move - I'm afraid there's too much detritus left in it, and that alone will start a cycle. To make up for the lack of biological carrying capacity, I do large water changes right after a major event (such as a move). Cleaner and easier...

Agree keep a few cupfuls from the top 1/2 and seed but start with new sand, cleaner, easier, less risk!

 

[nukieuk]

Any help is very much appreciated,

The sand is not deep enough I think to be used a DSB so that was my intial thought to basically keep around 10% to seed and get new sand. I was counting on the rock to be functioning as the main biological filter for the tank.
It has a sump with a protein skimmer on it but no refugium.

 

[jason sartain]

FYI
I have moved (3)75 gal tanks from one location to another and then moved them into my 240 display(rock,sand,water and live stock) and only had very small cycles,Maybe I've been lucky??

Some of the corals look like they open up alot so they can eat all the goodies in the water!

The fish went into a QT or my 30 gal for a few days.

I also used a good canister filter to get the cloudy water out ASAP.

Hope this helps!

 

[nukieuk]

Yes it does I will probably put the two PJ's in my QT tank.
I just went grabbed 60 pounds of fresh live sand and have mixed so far 15 gallons of fresh salt water that I am aerating and heating now.

My plan is to drive up saturday morning and get everything.

Hopefully then when i put everything back I will not have too many issues.

Once I have it home and setup my first addition will be expanding the sump to include a refugium. Then a new halide light setup that I will slowly acclimate the tank to.

Thanks everyone for the input so far !

 

[nukieuk]

Update ok so I went and had a good gander at the tank today. Its a nice setup needs a wee bit of TLC but apart from that its in great shape. The sand is the one thing i am a little concerned about as its deeper than I thought looks like he does indeed have a full DSB running in the tank. That would explain why his water changes where only around once a month.

The rocks look great and lots and lots of coralline algae growth, very refreshing to see compared to the green algae I have in my biocube. I think i will rinse out his sand as per barbara's suggestion but i may reuse more than a couple of cups after proper cleaning. I still plan on using the 80+ pounds of new live sand I have. My question I guess is whats the consensus as to the 180+ pounds of live rock being able to handle the bio load through the spike that will probably occur. The fish I now have squared away its just the corals i am worried about. I really dont have enough room for them in biocube right now nor do I feel it could handle the additional biological load so I really hope i can keep the spike to a minimum.

As an aside massive kudos to andre for offering to come and help me with the move and being a patient ear over the last couple of days to my chatter about this tank


Mark:thumbs:

 

[nukieuk]

Thanks Barbara,

We are on the same wavelength, my plan right now is to use my new live sand in the tank, seed with a cup or so of the current sand bed. As long as i retain as much water as I can and using the four 32 gallon bins i grabbed just for the live rock I am thinking I have a reasonable chance of keeping my spike to a minimum, if not I don't really think I could have done much better.

Hope that makes sense I have hardly slept been going over in my mind all my lists of how I am doing this lol.

Mark

 

[nukieuk]

Update on the Tank Move,

Well the tank is now moved

First a huge thanks to Andre for coming along and helping out, without your help man we would have really struggled with even getting the tank out.

We started the move at around 10am and where loaded up by around 2pm. Marineland where awesome we swung by at Andre's suggestion to see if they could help us by bagging some of the inmates (we ran out of cooler/bin space). I picked up so pre-filter material and some live bacteria to help with minimizing spikes. We ended with extra bags and some great insulation which made us all a lot happier for the remainder of the trip.

We retained a good 90% of the water from tank, we broke down the bins into 3 of live rock and 1 of coral. Used styrofoam coolers for the inverts and fish.

Once we got back home, we ordered Pizza and began moving everything back in and setting up.

We added 60 pounds of new fresh live sand and a couple of cups of old sand, its enough to cover for now but I will be adding more sand as my next phase so to speak.

The key large corals we have currently in my cube and they look great. We also moved a couple of the inverts to my cube for now.

We added back in the water bin by bin just laying the live rock for now. We had a lot of cloudy water last night due to new sand so it really was a case of just adding the water and rock just to get everything setup. We had added back most of the inverts and the tang and two corals that where just to big for my cube.

I ran some clarifier overnight and this morning the tank has pretty much cleared up, yay for a decent skimmer and filter.

At this time (touching wood here) everything is alive and doing well so far nothing has died and the fish look good no ick showing or anything, The corals which are mostly soft's have opened up and look in pretty good shape.

Today I will begin shaping the rock and finding spots the corals seem to like I expect some cloudy water again but i see this as just part of the process. I will be testing the tank daily for now and will mix up some more fresh water and will do a 20% change today.

Thank you everyone for your input this week on this move, I have never moved a tank this large before and it has had me up thinking about it pretty much for the last 5 days or so.

Once I have the rocks where we like, Pics will be forthcoming. I am so happy to have joined ARC as without the input and help I do not think we would be grinning like Cheshire cats looking at our 90 gallon setup.

Once again huge thank you Andre you rock man !! I hope you enjoy that sea cucumber :thumbs:


Footnote to Barbara: We moved the tank from Marietta to Stone Mountain.

Mark

 

[nukieuk]

well the tank is doing well, I figured it was about time i posted a couple of pics.

So here is the tank before i moved it

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And here it is after i moved it waiting for aquascaping.

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Regards

Mark

 

[nukieuk]

thanks man could not have done it without you.

We will start arranging it tonight or tomorrow.