Moving a tank... Twice..

[incept]

Soooo, I sold my house the other day, I have some land I'm building on. The kicker is that I need to build a house before I can live there. I ended up getting a mobile home I moved out there to live in while I build. My kicker now is what to do with the tank. I do not want to get rid of it or take it down as it has started to come into itself. The tank has been up for about three years now. Its a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump. I need to figure out the best way to move it to the mobile and set it up and then to the house once construction is completed. I'm looking for some insight and tips/tricks on this. If anyone would like to share some insight I would greatly appriciate it. Thanks in advance.. Possesion date is October 28...

[Myka]

Remove the sandbed and discard it -preferably a week or two on advance and don't add a new sand bed until the tank is in the final position.

Is it possible you could get another 90-gallon tank? The easiest way would be to set up a tank in the trailer for a couple weeks first, then transfer everything, then move it all back to the original tank after the new build is done. Also, I'm not sure if a trailer is structurally sound enough for a 90-gallon tank. I don't think trailers have the same building code requirements as houses, but I'm not sure.

[brisco]

Discard the sand? Really, why is that? Don't you want live sand?

[patpare]

I think it's because the move would stir up the gunk and debris and cause nothing but problems once you ad water.

I'm also concerned with a 90g in a Mobile home.

[incept]

Good idea on finding a different tank and setting up before hand. I'm not sure if this is a viable option though as I would need a whole extra setup. Unless I'm missing something here. The plan if all thing go accordingly is to actually replace the 90 with a 260 once the new house is done.. Then I would only need to move it technically once. See what happens though. You are correct on the trailer floor. I have already prepped and braced it where required. As for the sand bed, I to am curious as to the reasoning behind that. Is it because of potential nitrate release into the water or something different? Please help me learn here, I'm definetely a rookie here!!

[Myka]

Lots of detritus in a typical sandbed so you can have issues with noxious areas becoming waterborne. Also, when you move it the top layers mix with the bottom layers, and aerobic areas suddenly become anaerobic and anaerobic suddenly becomes aerobic causing lots of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to die-off. You'll usually get an ammonia spike when you move a sandbed (not nitrate). Sometimes you can remove the sandbed and clean it really, really well, dry it out, and then put it back in, but definitely don't move it "live". Ammonia is the killer in a tank move.

I also recommend that anytime you do a tank move you have some Prime or AmQuel on hand as well as a SeaChem Ammonia Alert badge ($10). Put the badge in the tank and it gives you live ammonia readings. The readings themselves aren't too accurate in my experience, but I've had 100% success using these badges simply to alert me when there is ammonia present. If there's color on the badges besides yellow, add a dose of AmQuel (or Prime), wait 4 hours, add again if needed.

[brisco]

so when I vac clean my sand bed in my display, I risk the same ammonia spike? I usually give it a pretty good stir.

I also have a tank move in my future, while the flooring gets redone.

[Myka]

so when I vac clean my sand bed in my display, I risk the same ammonia spike? I usually give it a pretty good stir.

I also have a tank move in my future, while the flooring gets redone.

You don't if the sand bed is shallow and you always vacuum it. If the sand bed has been in there awhile and not been vacuumed, then you have to go slow, or yes you risk the same thing. Shallow sand beds (less than about 3/4") won't have any anaerobic areas anyway, except under the rocks. So when you do a tank move and you're moving the rocks and getting into places that never get touched, that's where the risk is.

[brisco]

Yes my sand bed is mostly shallow, except where the goby and pistol shrimp build a condominium! I do a vacuum about once a month and stir up all the areas that I can but really that is only about 70% of the tank floor. The rocks are on the glass bottom.

I can see what you are saying about move time. There will definitely be areas of previously undisturbed sand. I guess that I will replace all the sand then. Live sand would be best, I am guessing.

The aquarium live stock will be temporarily transferred for a few hours while the flooring is replaced, but really the impact to the inhabitants will probably be as traumatic as a full move I would imagine.

[Myka]

Live sand in a bag really isn't important. It's the same thing as using live bacteria in a bottle. It provides you with nitrifying bacteria, but it is not "live" in any other sense, and honestly, the little packet of nitrifying bacteria that is provided with the "live" sand just goes into the water column anyway. I wouldn't waste my money on "live" sand. :) The other benefit I see from using "live" sand is that the tank water clears faster, but that's simply because the sand has been wet for a long period of time. If you pre-wash new, dry sand and then let it soak you'll achieve the same thing. You can even wash the new sand with "used" saltwater from each water change if you really want to.