Cali Kid Corals

Moving established 40b reef

mediumrare

mediumrare

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So, I have a very simple situation.

I have a well established 40breeder with healthy mature size SPS colonies (for a 40b) and a handfull of fish. We're moving into a new house this month and I plan on moving the whole tank this saturday or sunday. The travel time between old and new place is only ~15 minutes.

Here's what I have planned:

Prepare ~30 gallons of salt water, at current tank temperature. Tank will be set up with 50% old water, 50% new water.
Keep all live rock and corals in 5g buckets, dispurse fish among those buckets as to not crowd.
Tank will have new substrate post move, I will be tossing the old sand as it is gross. I plan on cleaning the sand for 2 days through a few water washes.
I plan on using some sort of aquarium probiotic to help deal with any loss in bacteria from tossing the live sand and any water.


Any tips/suggestions or lessons learned from past moving experiences. Unfortunatly I can't set up a tank at my new location and do a slow move, and my fish are so hard to catch that i cant move the fish to a holding tank.
 
Consider big water changes before you move. It moves your tank water closer to what the
new water will be, since it is hard to make the new water exactly match the old tank.

The main advice is to have a whole lot more pre-mixed water on hand, ready to go.
Tank cycling issues, mistakes, cleaning, etc.
You ALWAYS need way more water than you think.
 
I think you've got it planned well. I'd say put fish in buckets with no rock. It can go wrong if the rock moves at all. I've got tons of buckets if you need any. Also, I'd use some carbon upon completion of the move.
 
Coral reefer said:
I think you've got it planned well. I'd say put fish in buckets with no rock. It can go wrong if the rock moves at all. I've got tons of buckets if you need any. Also, I'd use some carbon upon completion of the move.
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Thanks! I plan on having 30 gallons premixed and warmed, and definitly running carbon.
 
Depending how much substrate you're having, consider doing so in small batches, you will trigger a cycle with new substrate and due to the size a relatively small amount can have quite a large surface area compared to that of your rocks. Your live rock might not be able to handle the recolonization process.

But yeah as mike said, move your fish alone, don't put rocks there. Also if you have any bubble wrap put some pieces of that between your corals so they don't go crashing into each other, doesn't take too fast of a turn to get them flying.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Depending how much substrate you're having, consider doing so in small batches, you will trigger a cycle with new substrate and due to the size a relatively small amount can have quite a large surface area compared to that of your rocks. Your live rock might not be able to handle the recolonization process.

But yeah as mike said, move your fish alone, don't put rocks there. Also if you have any bubble wrap put some pieces of that between your corals so they don't go crashing into each other, doesn't take too fast of a turn to get them flying.
Click to expand...



Do what in small batches?
Im tossing all of my old substrate and re-starting with dry substrate.
I think to prevent a mini-cycle ill just do water changes every day or every other day for a week or two.
 
I got a 40 gal from another member about a year ago. The move went well but I can tell you that the cycling process took a toll. I've been fighting hair algae in that tank for a good while and it is a "nice" challenge. So, my only advice is to go very slow once you get it going again, and keep on top of it at bit more than you'd normally would.
 
Update:
Move went well, although it took for EVER. 6 hours for my gf's 28g biocube on Sat and 13 hours for my 40b on Sunday. Nice to have a clean tank, new substrate, cleaned sump. Ahhh...




ow my back....
 
Update:
Unfortunatly the stress of the move got to quite a few of my fish. I ended up loosing quite a bit of fish livestock but corals all seem to still have survived. Its sad, but its a good opportunity to really plan my vertebrate live stock plans. Also re-doing the rockwork. Will post pics in my tank thread soon.
 
how come so long? I have moved a 90gallon 30minutes away before with livestock and we did it in like 5 hours to set it back up again. about 3 people and 2 cars
 
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