Moving a 55 gal at 8 months pregnant...

[MalR]

So, my husband and I recently bought a house about 15 minutes away from where we're living now. We won't actually be moving for a couple months (waiting to close and getting some remodeling done) but I've started looking into the easiest way to move my 55 gal tank. I set the tank up back in Sept and I've got about 40ish lbs of sand, 50 lbs of rock (15 lbs is still curing separate from the tank) a couple shrooms, couple of zoas, a couple of clovers, 3 small fish and various cuc. So, not a huge list of livestock, but I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information about the moving process (big surprise, seems everyone has their own way of doing things in this hobby!! :) ) I've read articles that say to keep the tank water, and articles that say to start over with new water. Same goes for sand. I'm just looking for what others have done as far as moving and what seemed to work best for them.... As stated in the topic line, I'm going to be 8 months preggo on moving day, so I'm REALLY interested in ways to make the move go as smoothly as possible....

Thanks!

 

[Neno reefs]

If you use the "liveingreefs" search button, and search "moveing tank". I bet you will get a ton of great threads on how to move a tank.

Good luck:Cheers:

 

[over my head]

just remember when you lift its all in the back take you knees out of the equation

 

[MalR]

Oh, I won't be lifting that far along... my husband has some buddies that will work for pizza and beer :D I'll handle getting the critters out but other than that I'll just be supervising. Just need to figure out if I'm supposed to keep the sand and the water or toss it and start with new..... A lot of the threads in the search seemed to just cover nanos or moving the tank from one area of the house to another. Or long distance trips...

 

[Neno reefs]

Here is a great thread.
https://www.livingreefs.com/my-moving-plan-advice-wanted-t26983.html

 

[MalR]

Perfect! Thank you!

 

[salt_for_brains]

I have broken down and moved many tanks with no casualties. IME, using new sand is a minimal expense to alleviate numerous problems. Contain all the tank water you can, keep the live rock as wet as possible. It is only a 15 minute move but it will be hours before the tank is back running when all is done. Keep the livestock comfortable with a power head and heater if necessary.

 

[Ted]

+1 salt_for_brains....

 

[MalR]

So, use new sand, but old water? Should I keep a couple cups of sand to reseed the bed?

 

[Ted]

Yes new sand old water, not necessary to keep any sand. The rocks will seed the sand.

 

[RollTide15]

I am glad you started this thread. I will be moving out of my apartment eventually and will probably stick with the same size tank. I thought about doing a upgrade in size but I might as well wait until I move into a house I own and will be staying put for more than 3 years.

 

[over my head]

good luck it wont be that bad it is easyer than you thinck

 

[cvcdrk]

I recently moved my 29 gallon...over 3 hours away. It was quite a trip, and right in the middle of winter.
I didn't lose anything.

It's pretty easy really. I stressed a lot about it beforehand but thankfully it went smoothly.

I bought six buckets with lids at Lowes. You'll want to save as much water as you can . Starting over with all new water will be a real pain in the ass and isn't good for the tank. Since you're only moving 15 mins you could even do this in trips and save yourself some money.
I put all of my rocks into the buckets and covered them in water. I tried my best to make it secure and so that no corals were leaning on rocks. Lastly I caught the fish and put them in a separate bucket with no rock. This bucket had the loose frags and corals I could remove from rocks, all my inverts and my fish in it....with no rock...just half filled with water.
You're going to definitely want to throw away the sand. Trying to move the tank with the sand is a pain and stirring up the sand could start a cycle. New (DRY) sand will be fine.

You will also want some new water mixed up. You won't be able to fill the tank with just the old water. Use as much as you can but adding in some fresh saltwater will be like a nice water change for the tank anyway. You'll want to keep an eye on everything when you re-setup.....you'll lose some of the biological filter from the sand but the rock SHOULD be able to handle it....just keep an eye on it and have water standing by for an emerbgency water change.

My move couldn't have gone more smoothly. I hope the same for you! :-)