Cali Kid Corals

Moving tank?

MarcosD

MarcosD

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Need a little advice… so I’m thinking of moving my Red Sea Max E 170 into a different wall of the room and place the new frag tank where that tank currently sits. Problem is, the new tank wouldn’t fit in that spot and the Max E 170 is the perfect dimensions for that spot. How bad would it be to break down this tank and move it spots? I’m guessing I’d have to use new sand? My plan is to drain all the water into a brute, place the rock (it’s one big connected piece) in it along with the corals. After remove the sand, move the tank to its new spot, add new sand, refill tank with 3/4 old water and put everything back in how it was. I’m guessing this would ruin my pod colony?
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
Need a little advice… so I’m thinking of moving my Red Sea Max E 170 into a different wall of the room and place the new frag tank where that tank currently sits. Problem is, the new tank wouldn’t fit in that spot and the Max E 170 is the perfect dimensions for that spot. How bad would it be to break down this tank and move it spots? I’m guessing I’d have to use new sand? My plan is to drain all the water into a brute, place the rock (it’s one big connected piece) in it along with the corals. After remove the sand, move the tank to its new spot, add new sand, refill tank with 3/4 old water and put everything back in how it was. I’m guessing this would ruin my pod colony?
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Not sure how solid your stand is, but my thoughts are, drain water remove rock, get help and a furniture dolly leave sand tilt one side of stand tank and all on dolly repeat the same for other side. If its in the same room should be
managable. Without disturbing your sand much at all.

I googled your tank said 45 gallon? So can't be crazy heavy like bigger ones
 
MichaelB said:
Not sure how solid your stand it, but my thoughts are, drain water remove rock, get help and a furniture dolly leave sand tilt one side of stand tank and all on dolly repeat the same for other side. If its in the same room should be managable. Without disturbing your sand much at all.
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They’re Red Sea cabinets so fairly solid but not solid enough to where I think it would handle that. The tank is fairly heavy empty and I have a decent sized sand bed in there that adds a lot more weight. I might be able to move it with sand but I know it’s usually not recommended since it’s a lot of pressure on the bottom panel when lifted. The system would only need to be relocated less than 10ft in the same room. I just didn’t think about the possibility of a new tank when I placed it there
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
They’re Red Sea cabinets so fairly solid but not solid enough to where I think it would handle that. The tank is fairly heavy empty and I have a decent sized sand bed in there that adds a lot more weight. I might be able to move it with sand but I know it’s usually not recommended since it’s a lot of pressure on the bottom panel when lifted. The system would only need to be relocated less than 10ft in the same room. I just didn’t think about the possibility of a new tank when I placed it there
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Yea I couldn't speak on how much they weigh. What would be your issue with reusing your sand?

If all rocks are out you could gravel vac the heck out of it using tank water. Put the end of hose into a filter sock or something to catcb detritus. Pure water back in and keep doing it until it’s clean to your desire. Than remove it and reuse it. Should still be live sand that way.

Just brainstorming with you. So keep that in mind no expert.
 
Just wouldn't do that with fish or corals still in the tank, but I assume you been doing this long enough to know that.
 
MichaelB said:
Yea I couldn't speak on how much they weigh. What would be your issue with reusing your sand?

If all rocks are out you could gravel vac the heck out of it using tank water. Put the end of hose into a filter sock or something to catcb detritus. Pure water back in and keep doing it until it’s clean to your desire. Than remove it and reuse it. Should still be live sand that way.

Just brainstorming with you. So keep that in mind no expert.
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I’d just be worried of not getting it clean enough and move it to the new tank and having an ammonia spike. Also I kind of want to switch it out and go with a larger grain of sand so it doesn’t move so much. Right now and I only have one MP10 at 40% and my sand likes to make sand dunes in one of the areas.
 
MarcosDelgado0 said:
I’d just be worried of not getting it clean enough and move it to the new tank and having an ammonia spike. Also I kind of want to switch it out and go with a larger grain of sand so it doesn’t move so much. Right now and I only have one MP10 at 40% and my sand likes to make sand dunes in one of the areas.
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Oh well its the perfect time to do that. Depending on how fast you wanna move the tank, get sand you want to switch to and a scoop or two of old sand and let it soak a while In a tote or something with a heater/ cheap wavemaker. I did it that way when I swapped out 80% of my rock work. Soaked it 2 months but I wasn't rushing. I had zero alage or ugly stage.

Even one week with a little dr tim's might help reduce the chance of a new major cycle being you already have well established rock.

I just rinsed and added the calc media reactor to mine no issues either but I was running bare bottom when did it.

I definitely wouldn't over think it as you could just add the new sand and go with it, start without new sand go bare bottom than add it later after soaking it. Plenty of ways to do it but no better time to remove the old sand (thats the actual risk). Just have extra water mixed heated and ready to go.
 
derek_SR said:
I’ve done this exact same thing with the exact same tank. Get a big brute, empty everyone into it, move the tank, put everything back into the tank.

No reason you can’t just reuse the sand. Whether you leave it in the tank or take it out?
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I was just worried about the detritus but I also wanted to move a grain size larger because when I first set it up I didn’t really think how finer size sand would blow around
 
Just pre rinse the special grade sand beforehand with rodi or tank water even the live wet stuff in bags. Drastically helps the cloudiness if you want or need to put everything back immediately!. You should have plenty of bacteria within the live rock to keep rolling. If you can rinse then soak the new sand in old tank water a few weeks before to build up slime coat and bacteria also helps but not necessary. Should be easy Ive moved 30 gallon tanks and stand completely full of water/sand/rocks/stock across the room with furniture sliders.. just takes a while inches at a time pause then another few inches lol just push from bottom of stand but really depends on how solid of a stand you got.
Best of luck..
 
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