moving a tank

[runningrandy04]

Hey guys, I'm gonna be moving to a new apartment in 2 weeks. I was wondering what things should I do to move, and what effects can I expect on my tank? Its a 20gal so I can move all the water too if that helps. Thanks

[stagofdoom]

Hey Im doing the same thing with my 24 gal.

What im doing is I have 5 5gal buckets. Im going to take all of my live rock out and put it in either one or two buckets with water and then put my 3 fish and 1 shrimp in another bucket full of water. im leaving some water in the bottom with the base rock and sand. then moving it and putting it back up and getting it running asap. It should take no more than 2 hours.

[stagofdoom]

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[fatman]

Typically any significant tank rearrangement will cause a small spike in nitrites and therefore mixing up water for a partial water change (a day a head) is a good idea. Using your aged water is a great idea and will make a large beneficial difference. The load of sand alone in the tank might be as much as you will wish to carry at one time. Try not to disturb your sand any more than neccessary. Using Amquel when doing a move is a pretty good idea. It detoxifies ammonia and nitrites that will possibly occur due to bacteria die off, rearrangement of rock, plus stirring of detritus. If you have a camping cooler, or a styrofoam box, it would work better than a bucket for your fish. Temperature can change a lot in a couple of hours in a bucket.

[Gooseman]

this article is on Melevsreef.com ... this guy is an expert in all fields of aquariums ... i dont know if it helps you out but its worth a look ... http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

[runningrandy04]

Yea...my plan is the same as stagofdoom's but I'm just worried about sponges crashing my tank and what I should do with the sand. I assume I should scrape sponges off before the move. Also, I was wondering if I should rinse the sand with salt water to get rid of detritus. The only thing i have that eats detritus is an emerald crab, so nothing is dependent on it except the fauna in the sand. I have a 1inch 3 month old sandbed, so I'm not even sure if I have much in the sand. It will only take an hour or two for the move so I'm not worried about temp swings.

[daugherty]

when i moved i put all my rock in a cooler full of the tank water and put the fish in a different cooler than made the move. it was the last thing i moved and the first thing that got set up. and i had no problems with it.

[fatman]

Originally Posted by runningrandy04

Yea...my plan is the same as stagofdoom's but I'm just worried about sponges crashing my tank and what I should do with the sand. I assume I should scrape sponges off before the move. Also, I was wondering if I should rinse the sand with salt water to get rid of detritus. The only thing i have that eats detritus is an emerald crab, so nothing is dependent on it except the fauna in the sand. I have a 1inch 3 month old sandbed, so I'm not even sure if I have much in the sand. It will only take an hour or two for the move so I'm not worried about temp swings.

You could leave a couple inches of water in your tank and stir the sand up real well and then siphon off and throw away that water. You do not want to rinse the sand with plain water as that will kill the bacteria on it. It however will not rinse much of them off and there decomposition will add nutrients to your reestablished tank. Probably not enough in itsef to spike ammonia or nitrates but definitely something algae would like. One inch of sand has very little (nearly none) biological filtration capacity. Your sponges will be OK aslong as the rock spend very little time out of water and that it remains under water affer packed for moving. The majority of the problem will be the life you kill by it being in a diiferent loght after movement and placed differently in tank and phyical damage done to life forms during move and rearranging of tank rock placement. That however can not really be avoided. Just treat your rocks while moving them like eggs, do not just toss them in bucket but be genttle and actually look how they can be set that they will not move once placed in bucket. Every scrape on your rocks is bacteria lost and nutrients added. Temperature swings will of course depend on the difference between tank temperature and outside air temperature an vehicle temperature. Most tank moves seem to take two to five times the lenghth of time we estimate they will take.

[runningrandy04]

OK so my plan is,
-stir and siphon the sand after everything else is out of the tank
-put rocks and water in 5 gal buckets
-put inverts and fish in cooler
Thanks fatman