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Moving a 34g tank -- critique my approach please...

tygunn

tygunn

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Hey All,
Sorry I haven't been present as much lately. My family has been busy touring houses in the hope of buying a place of our own.

One thing I got to thinking about in terms of moving is how I'll move my current 34g tank. Of course in a perfect world I could just set up the 90g tank I've got sitting empty in my appt right now, but that will definitely be one of the items we get movers to relocate for us, so it'll go last. Plus there's the issue that I still want to epoxy the inside of the stand, build a sump, etc. Oie.

Here's my current plan, please critique from experiences you've all.
- Relocate RO/DI unit to house and start filling two brute trashcans with RO/DI water, making up fresh heated saltwater.
- Tear down tank, putting rocks and corals into 5g buckets with lids; I'm presume I will want to move these buckets filled with water.
- Leave a few inches of water above the sand bed.
- Transport tank (which is thankfully not ridiculously heavy), buckets with rocks, corals, fish to new place.
- Put tank in new location and replace rocks, corals, fish, doing a 50% water change with fresh saltwater water at the same time.
 
Sounds good though I would scoop a few handfuls of the old sand and toss the rest. Use the few handfuls to seed new sand.

When moving the tank with the old sand, the water sloshing around will jostle the sand around and possibly releasing stuff you don't want to come up and causing a mini cycle.


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Making enough saltwater (and then some) is a good first step.
How far are you moving? Keeping everything completely submerged might not be absolutely necessary, and in some instances could be more of a problem if the water gets stagnant
I would toss the sand bed, and just add new sand, or at the very least clean it out if it's been in use a while.
Using the 34g as a temp tank would work fine until you get your 90 up.
 
Vhuang168 said:
Sounds good though I would scoop a few handfuls of the old sand and toss the rest. Use the few handfuls to seed new sand.

When moving the tank with the old sand, the water sloshing around will jostle the sand around and possibly releasing stuff you don't want to come up and causing a mini cycle.


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Hmm, I hadn't thought about the old sand losing its viability due to being agitated too much. That is really unfortunate as I love all the little creatures living in my sand. I guess keeping a few scoops will help ensure I keep some of the life in there that I like so much. Like, I doubt I'll find my 8" bristleworm. He's been a constant fixture in the tank for a long time!
 
sfsuphysics said:
Making enough saltwater (and then some) is a good first step.
How far are you moving? Keeping everything completely submerged might not be absolutely necessary, and in some instances could be more of a problem if the water gets stagnant
I would toss the sand bed, and just add new sand, or at the very least clean it out if it's been in use a while.
Using the 34g as a temp tank would work fine until you get your 90 up.
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I guess it depends where we move; I suspect it'll be somewhere in the South Bay which is at most a 30 minute drive from Cupertino. So maybe 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs from time of loading to time of putting everything in the tank in its new location.
 
When I recently switched from a 75 gallon to a 120 gallon I did things a little differently after much research. First, I tossed all but a cup full of the old sand and replaced it with brand new live sand. Not only is it the perfect time to get a fresh sand bed, but if you don't you put yourself in danger of a large ammonia spike. I also used very little of the old water, but used a couple of bottles of Dr. Tim's to jump start new bacteria.

I then got anal about the whole thing because I didn't want to move problems from the old tank to the new tank. I r-dipped every coral. At the same time I either switched them to new frag plugs or at the very least, inspected them and used a toothbrush (and in some cases cut way sections) to clean old plugs.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
When I recently switched from a 75 gallon to a 120 gallon I did things a little differently after much research. First, I tossed all but a cup full of the old sand and replaced it with brand new live sand. Not only is it the perfect time to get a fresh sand bed, but if you don't you put yourself in danger of a large ammonia spike. I also used very little of the old water, but used a couple of bottles of Dr. Tim's to jump start new bacteria.

I then got anal about the whole thing because I didn't want to move problems from the old tank to the new tank. I r-dipped every coral. At the same time I either switched them to new frag plugs or at the very least, inspected them and used a toothbrush (and in some cases cut way sections) to clean old plugs.
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Another vote for dumping the sand. Good thing I've got 100lb of fresh live sand that was waiting for my 90g tank. :)

I imagine the rocks in the tank would harbor a pretty decent load of bacteria, so I'm not too concerned about that.

I guess my only thought of using 50-50 new/old water was to try and lessen the shock on everything. The fish would be pretty easy to acclimate slowly to the new water, but some of my larger corals not so much.
 
tygunn said:
Another vote for dumping the sand. Good thing I've got 100lb of fresh live sand that was waiting for my 90g tank. :)

I imagine the rocks in the tank would harbor a pretty decent load of bacteria, so I'm not too concerned about that.

I guess my only thought of using 50-50 new/old water was to try and lessen the shock on everything. The fish would be pretty easy to acclimate slowly to the new water, but some of my larger corals not so much.
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Acclimate the old corals the same way you do when you put new corals in. Presumably a drip system or something similar. Although it may have been overkill on my part -- the water column probably doesn't harbor the stuff you want to get rid of anyway.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
Acclimate the old corals the same way you do when you put new corals in. Presumably a drip system or something similar. Although it may have been overkill on my part -- the water column probably doesn't harbor the stuff you want to get rid of anyway.
Click to expand...

Hmm, guess I could still drip acclimate even the big chalice. Sounds like I will plan to make a LOT of new fresh water and ensure its all heated to the same temperature.
 
You'll also need to plan on a decent water change the next week. Just in case you do get a mini cycle. I did it that way and my tank is now more stable than it ever was before. And cleaner.
 
I would do 50/50 old/new water. That would be the same as doing a 50% water change.

Honestly, I don't acclimate new corals anymore. Dip, rinse, remove plug, inspect and into tank. Unless I know the water it came from is vastly different for some reason, I just put it into the tank. Most tanks are pretty similar in salinity. Alk can be an issue if it was really low or really high but a 1 dkh difference is tolerable. This is why I always ask when I buy from someone I don't know, the particulars of their tank.

If I'm not sure, I test. Alk test is fairly quick and I do it while the frag is in the 1st dip.

1st dip is always with water from the bag. 2nd dip is 75/25. 1st rinse is 50/50, 2nd rinse is 100% water from my tank.


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Your plan is sound IMO. My only input was what Vincent said about the sand. If you need water let me know and I can bring you enough to fill new tank of that helps eliminate one concern when the time comes
 
How much was that phone worth? Generally I don't sell just water. But I've been known to do favors for club members. I figure it cost me about $.40 per gal with cost of water, salt, filters, and power for the booster and mixing pumps. So somewhere between that and a dollar usually.
 
Coral reefer said:
How much was that phone worth? Generally I don't sell just water. But I've been known to do favors for club members. I figure it cost me about $.40 per gal with cost of water, salt, filters, and power for the booster and mixing pumps. So somewhere between that and a dollar usually.
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I would say the phone is worth about $150 but that was purely a gift. If you wanted to give me a gift of about 150 gallons of fresh saltwater when I get my new tank up and running then that's completely up to you, but it would be much appreciated. ;)
 
My tank is 125 gallons minus the displacement of rock and sand plus the sump which isn't built yet. I just figured 150.

Sorry for the thread derailment.
 
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