Transfer--what do you think?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

Here is my suggestion remove the sump and place in the new spot then put the brace back. transfer water from old tank to new tank with basically everything rock sand and livestock..... then do your plumbing on your new tank which should buy you a week and in this time keep adding water like 5g a day to your tank which will give you a chance to fill it slowly as for lights just rig them up so they work and then worry about perfecting them afterwards. oh yea and the question about leaks with the overflow? you can dump buckets through your overflow to see if there
are any leaks..... if youve done plumbing before then you know to do things right the first time, use extra glue so there are tight seals and the rest is history, only thing that might complicate things is if you have a cl system and in which case transfer the sump first anyways do plumbing and then transfer everything over then start filling slowly like 30g every few days and you're golden!

Well the lights are already hung and ready to go basically since they are different from my current ones. The tank is not plumbed completely yet but is about 80% done already. The stand just needs a last coat of paint and is done...so all in all, its all almost there.

I like your idea though of doing the transfer by moving the current stuff over and then adding 5G of new water or so a day. The only thing I worry about is whether the sand will cause a new cycle or not but I am only transferring the top inch or so of sand....this time I really don't want much sand in the tank.

Thanks!

[Skimmerking]

dod what i did man new tank in a different area alot better. i took the rock out and the corals out sucked the sand out and clean it all in the and placed it back in the tank then i ahve clean new sand left about 2-4 icecream pails of old sand to seed it later. in thenew tank i was making about 80 gal of new water same salinity and then took sump off line took the water from the sump and put in new tank.

then what ever water was left in the tubs i had about 50 gal left went back to the new tank now all the old water water was thrown out and the tubs with corals in there were trnafered in to the newtak with the tub water. 5 gal here to the tube as and wait like 15 mins and then switch out all of it and then place the rock in the tank and then the fish and then the corals lost nothing total time 4 hourse from start to finish.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

dod what i did man new tank in a different area alot better. i took the rock out and the corals out sucked the sand out and clean it all in the and placed it back in the tank then i ahve clean new sand left about 2-4 icecream pails of old sand to seed it later. in thenew tank i was making about 80 gal of new water same salinity and then took sump off line took the water from the sump and put in new tank.

then what ever water was left in the tubs i had about 50 gal left went back to the new tank now all the old water water was thrown out and the tubs with corals in there were trnafered in to the newtak with the tub water. 5 gal here to the tube as and wait like 15 mins and then switch out all of it and then place the rock in the tank and then the fish and then the corals lost nothing total time 4 hourse from start to finish.

Yes the new tank is in a different spot and that does make it easier. I am basically doing what you did.

So is it safe to "clean" some of the sand in old tank water then? Should I rinse as much as I can in either RO water or old tank water to get detritus out and then use it again. Not all of it but at least say 3/4?

[Skimmerking]

what type of sand do you have it will depend on your sand ... I have the carib sea select no dust i love that sand and i took it from the RO water and clean it and rinsed it and i had about 5 gal pail of sand took 1/4 of it as dirty cleans the rest and i still had loads of critter's

pm me your number i will call you ok
mike

[tang daddy]

gsp if you're only keeping abit of sand then this should be easy just empty contents of the old tank to the new, leave sand and abit of water in the old then take out what sand you want and remaining water with 3 or 5 salt pails, rinse the sand going from one pail to the other and so forth you know what I mean!

in the end all the detrtious should be minimal then cut off all the flow in your new tank, bag the sand in plastic bags drop it in the tank and gingerly pour them out causing minimal disturbance, alternatively poke a hole in the bottom of the bag and use the bag like a pastry chef piping a cake with icing TA DAH!!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

what type of sand do you have it will depend on your sand ... I have the carib sea select no dust i love that sand and i took it from the RO water and clean it and rinsed it and i had about 5 gal pail of sand took 1/4 of it as dirty cleans the rest and i still had loads of critter's

pm me your number i will call you ok
mike

Thanks Mike...I have the same sand. I think I should be fine.

Originally Posted by tang daddy

gsp if you're only keeping abit of sand then this should be easy just empty contents of the old tank to the new, leave sand and abit of water in the old then take out what sand you want and remaining water with 3 or 5 salt pails, rinse the sand going from one pail to the other and so forth you know what I mean!

in the end all the detrtious should be minimal then cut off all the flow in your new tank, bag the sand in plastic bags drop it in the tank and gingerly pour them out causing minimal disturbance, alternatively poke a hole in the bottom of the bag and use the bag like a pastry chef piping a cake with icing TA DAH!!

Good ideas. Thanks Chris.

I think the only reason I am worried is because with my last tank move, I didn't really rinse the sand and just added it back to the new tank...didn't go so well. I think the sand really messed the tank up. I just want to be sure this time.

[Mrfish55]

When I did the upgrade the sand was the last thing out of the old and the last thing into the new, once everything was moved and most of the water was drained I used the remaining water to clean the sand, I just scooped out 5-6" into a 5 gal bucket and topped up with salt water then hooked up the trusty old Diatom filter, keep stirring the sand untill spiffy clean then remove the sand and add more. It only took a little over an hour to clean up approx 100lbs of sand, then bag it up, lower into new tank and gently pour out. The new tank was spotless clean and clear within an hour and stayed that way. This is also the same method I use to maintain the sandbed, when doing a water change I just siphon the sand into a pail, run the Diatom till clear then dump the water and return the sand to the tank. Good luck with the changeover, when all is said and done you will find it is not as bad as you feared, just make sure you have a little extra water mixed and ready to go.