Anyone have any advice on moving a tank and corals?

[johnsonpics]

Hey Everybody,

I'm moving to a new apartment in the city in a few weeks, but not very far. Maybe a 10min drive max.
Does anyone have any advice on moving a tank? I'm especially concerned on how to move the corals without getting broken. The only thing I can think of is to bag them all separately so they won't bang against anything and then put them all in a bucket and fill with water to keep the temp consistent.

Also, what are everyone's thoughts on keeping the old sand vs. getting new live sand? My current sandbed is only about 1/2" deep.

Thanks for all and any advice!

 

[theMeat]

Sounds like a good plan. As long as you keep your sand in water and transferred back into tank the same day not a prob. If it's going no to be longer keep the temp, and add some flow to that sand. Also try to transfer as much water as possible to avoid having to re-cycle

 

[edd]

get a couple of plastic tubs from wallmart and put your coral and rock their atatched to in the tub with water, with any other rock to keep them from moving.
like mentioned i would keep the sand.
10 min isnt far but be prepared to set up right away. so have extra water made up.

 

[reefiness]

I have always lived under the assumption to never re use sand. There is generally a lot of nastiness in the sand and when it is disturbed there are usually a lot of toxins released.

Also I dont believe transferring as much water as possible matters much. The reason why a cycle will occur is if the bioload outweighs the bacterial nitrifying capacity. Almost all of the bacteria in your system are within the rock and sand with very little actually in the water column itself.

What I did when I upgraded my tank was keep the same rocks, use new sand, use all fresh mixed salt water, and use an adequate amount of nitrifying bacteria from a bottle. I added 3 bottles of IO biospira which are each rated for 75 gallons into a 120 gallon tank just to be safe, and everything lived.

 

[tunicata]

1. ensure that the temperature is consistent before, during and after. No reason to shock the live stock
2. have as much water prepared i.e. ready and waiting for you to set everything back up
3. I actually think individual bagging is a great idea, but I don't know what kind of corals you have. I typically see folks, simply placing livestock into buckets. I.e. 10g bucket, filled only to the top (1 inch above) of the highest coral/rock.
4. If you dose you should check parameters i.e. alkalinity should not have a drastic change, esp. if you have sps.

 

[johnsonpics]

Thanks so much everyone, greatly appreciated.

I've got mostly low end hardy SPS and the rest are LPS and Softies, so hopefully I can keep the shock of any parameter changes to a bare minimum.

 

[johnsonpics]

I think the hardest part is going to be putting the rock work back together and convincing my wife that I'll need a full day to do it all!

 

[Aquadicted]

ya i would recommend putting corals into separate bins based on family and using new sand... even though 1/2 inch is probably clean you still shouldnt risk it. Also it depends on how old the sand is... but honestly it's just not worth the risk. You'll probably have die offs from your live rock so don't feed your tank for 2 days after the move. Clean socks daily and keep an eye on skimmer. Good luck!