moving a tank and fish

robzilla · #1 07-26-2006, 05:06 PM

hi, with the possible acquistion of a 90gal tank, i need to move the tank and it's fish to my home.
what are some of your experiences....
i'll be moving a 5-6" picasso trigger and one large crab. these are the only ones in the tank.
i'll try to save as much water as possible, but it will be tough to save all 90 gallons,
with empting the water, the sand could be left in? after resetting it back up at my house, what's the time frame to put the fish back in?
i'm shooting to save around 30 gallons of water and then putting in new water.
any ideas, experiences would be appreciated.

thanks

Sushiman · #2 07-26-2006, 05:55 PM

Moving a system-even across province is easier than you may think. I've sucessfully moved my set-up four times over the years without a loss each time.
The fact that you are not transporting corals will greatly simplify things. I moved my livesand & live rock in a large cooler with enough tankwater to just cover everything. Add powerheads, a bag of carbon & heater(s) & my rock did fine in the garage for over a week.
The Trigger is a great candidate for transport as well, ensure that your shipping container is insulated & protected from temperature swings.

- I've got to run, I'll add more to the post later.

TheReefGeek · #3 07-26-2006, 08:33 PM

You cannot leave the sand in, the damp sand is VERY heavy you will quickly realize the tank becomes to heavy to move.

Save all 90g of water, use 20g rubbermaids and it isn't too hard.

The tub with fish in it, the cooler is a good idea, or if you are going further, run a small heater and powerhead in it using a transformer for your lighter power.

robzilla · #4 07-27-2006, 12:45 PM

the move is only a 1/2 hour away.
by taking out the sand, am i going to create a cycle? ammonia spike?
how long after putting the sand and water back in the tank, can i put the fish back in?

skylord · #5 07-27-2006, 02:03 PM

If you have the help I wouldn't remove the sand. We just moved one about 2 months ago with a 4 and a 1/2 hr drive and the fish never left the tank(I'm sure they thought it was one heck of a storm). I put the rock covered with water in a container and saved about half the water in buckets. The sand, fish and enough water to hold them raced home to water I had pre-made two days before. I used an inverter to keep a power head and heater going but you wont need that for a half hour. Place the tank on half inch foam for the ride. About an hour after we were home the tank was back up and running. Everyone survived except my wallet($200 for the damn speeding ticket).

TheReefGeek · #6 07-27-2006, 02:28 PM

What size tank did you move that you could keep the sand and some water in there?

Consider that when you move a tank, you are no longer applying even pressure along the bottom of the tank, you are risking busting a seam whenever you move a tank, and that is more likely if you leave a hundred+ pounds in it, plus it becomes much heavier to move.

Your call though of course, let us know how it works out, depends on how deep the sandbed is too.

I would remove the sand, and rinse 80% of it heavily to get rid of the detrius. save 20% to re-populate the loss of life in the rest of the sandbed.

Sushiman · #7 07-27-2006, 03:27 PM

I moved mine-sand & liverock + some water, quite sucessfully, in a 100gal cooler. The whole thing stayed in my new garage until the new set-up was ready. Yes, it was heavy, but it was not at all unmanageble; myself & one other guy moved it around with a little muscle & a flat dolly.
At no time did I advocate transporting within an aquarium.

TheReefGeek · #8 07-27-2006, 03:32 PM

Sushiman, it was skylord advocating not removing the sand, not you, sorry if you missinturpreted.

skylord · #9 07-27-2006, 04:00 PM

I shouldnt respond so early in the morning....the sand bed in the tank I moved wasnt very much. But I guess what isnt known is how much is in this tank. So if it were a thick bed, I would, like Rory said, also toss a large part of it.

TheReefGeek · #10 07-27-2006, 04:06 PM

Yeah it would depend on the tank size, and the sandbed size.

I use DSBs so they have to be removed.

If you do remove the sand, keep some of it undisturbed but the rest I would probably clean/rinse because otherwise you could release a lot of detrius. Of course it depends on how much detrius is in there, which depends mostly on how long the tank was setup for.