Help - moving advice please

[paddyob]

I am moving in two weeks and want to know how to safely move my tank ( a 20 gallon and a 10 gallon) to my new house.

I need them to be functional as I would like to keep some of my coral and not sell everything.

Has anyone got a "fool proof" way to move and set up without crashing the tank???

It has happened to me before.

Should I keep the sand... toss the sand... keep half the sand? I don't know. :question:

[Seamazter]

Im not going to offer much advice on this one.
But yah toss the sand else you gunna pay bigtime, keeping half is gunna be bad.
If anything keep a few cups and place on top your new sand, a 1mm or 2mm of your old sand, preferably rinsed in same tank saltwater.

I hear alot of clients who have had nothing but troubles on this topic of tank moves.

Keeping a bit of the old sand helps seed the new sand, but keeping 1/3 or more of the old sand will cause an ammonia spike so bad u may loose in the end.
Spend 50$ and save the life's of your corals and fishys.

[paddyob]

Someone told me that by removing the sand will make me re-cycle the tank all over. If this is true... wont it make my tank unsuitable for anything?

[Seamazter]

the only benefit of keeping some old sand, it to reseed the newer sand you will add.
Keeping all or most of your old sand will introduce old dead food and fishy poo.
This will do more to cycle your tank then you want.(high ammonia spike)
Adding new sand with some old sand 1mm to 2mm will seed it, your live rock does most of your cycle regardless of a system with sand or no sand.
Sure sand helps, but after moving it, it does more harm then good.

You can super wash 90% of your old sand till your rinse water runs clean, but that's hours and hours of work even on the medium size tanks.

Anyone else have ideas to add regarding old live sand?

[reefwars]

when i moved into my new house i had to move my reef tank i didnt get new sand i had everything out and back in its new lacation with in 8-10hrs if i recall , had no major problems didnt move fish for week later . i just recently moved all my tank into a new tank and decided to go with the new sand bed it is better for sure i didnt see any cycle really. :) new sand looks nicer and gives you a reason to go to the lfs:) i also tried out a product called prodibio check it out they have a few different products to look at in your case one for moving an established aquarium i used the start up for a fast cycle:) worked great:)

[paddyob]

I dont have a week to move. 2 DAY at end of month. Sooo thats why I need best option to set up and go.

[Wingin It]

I just moved all my old sand to my new tank, BUT I only had about 40 lbs to move at best AND it had only been in the old tank for only 4 mths. I also have 2 Sand Sifting Starfish and an Orange spot Goby constantly sifting through it so when I siphoned the sand into the bucket, I used some of the tank water to swish through it and kind of rinse it and then added it to the new tank. The new tank was cloudy for a bit, but it wasn't as dirty as it could have been had my old tank been running longer i'm sure.
If I have to move again, i'll probably only take a small bucket of the old sand and then just seed the new stuff. I agree it's not worth the headaches of running any spikes. Sand is "cheap" enough, compared to some of our fish and corals ;)

[paddyob]

My sand is 4.5 years old

[Wingin It]

Ooo...Save yourself some anguish and buy mostly new sand. :) It's not worth the hassle.

[bignose]

1 or 2 bags of sand vs. possible loss of corals. Losing all the time and effort put into your corals isn't worth it and sand is cheap.

[kodadad]

I've heard this before... how old of tank is too old to keep the existing tank's sand?

[Wayne]

I've heard this before... how old of tank is too old to keep the existing tank's sand?

+1

Mine sand bed is from Feb this year. If I don't want to cycle the tank again I should just go new?

If I did resuse the old sand bed I just need to cycle it till its free from ammonia,nitrites and nitrates correct?

[SmallFry]

First the disclaimer.. :biggrin:

My tank is FOWLR, so no corals, and I was only moving across town (a small one at that) so if your journey is longer this may not be an option. I also have relatively few fish, and I reckon they're pretty much invincible.

I moved my tank (27 gallon) about a month ago, and kept the old sand without problem. I removed all but the sand and the bottom layer of rock to a rubbermaid, and bagged the fish. I left enough water in the tank to cover the rock and sand. By that point it was light enough to lift all the bits into the back of the truck and drive across town (late at night to avoid traffic). If you got stuck behind a truck going around traffic circles really, really slowly, it might well have been me - I apologize.. :lol:

Once there I reversed the process and everything worked out just fine.

I reckon I got away with it because of the short (10 min) journey and the fact the sand was undisturbed throughout. I may be wrong, but I believe is the problem with re-using old sand in that when you disturb it you release all kinds of nasties or kill off stuff which then causes an ammonia spike when it decays.

Hope this helps,
Rob.