A few questions on tearing down and moving my reef tank (and

[M.E.Milz]

Because of circumstances beyond my control, I must tear down my 200g reef about 1 week before my new 400g tank will be delivered. This is what I plan to do.

1) I will first move all of my corals, live rock, fish, etc into a 100g tub, which will be filled with as much tank water as it will hold. I will add several power heads to keep the water moving, and heaters to maintain temperature. I will also suspend my lights over the tub to keep the corals and clams happy. Unfortunately, everything must remain in the tub for a week to 10 days.

2) I will then dig up and transfer my DSB to 5 separate 20g tubs. I will top off the tubs with the balance of the tank water. 5-6 days later, I will drain off most of the excess water so that I can move the tubs (with the sand) to my new home, where the sand will be transferred to the new tank (on top of 300# of new SD sand).

3) The new tank will then be filled by adding new saltwater that has been premixed and warmed to the corrected temp.

4) The live rock, corals, fish will then be added to the new tank.

Here is the problem. I would prefer to wait as long as possible after step 3) before doing step 4) so that any die-off from moving the sandbed has been removed by the skimmer and cycles/spikes have run their course. However, that means that the corals, fish, etc would have to stay in the temporary tub that much longer with no skimmer and less than ideal lighting. I may therefore be better off moving the corals/fish into the new tank shortly after it has been filled.

Either choice has drawbacks, but I want to minimize problems and the chance of losses. Any suggestions or comments?

[ April 26, 2002: Message edited by: M.E.Milz ]</p>

 

[reefworm]

M.E.
These articles may suggest some solutions for you, esp. use of powerheads for oxygenation, etc. in the tubs housing your livestock. Hope they help you:

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/j_wiseman_101898.html

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/j_meek.html

regards,
rw

 

[adamsaquatics]

I've done this one, all sounds ok except the sand. Disturbing this by moving it can kill your tank. Better off starting a new sand bed and everyday seed it with the old sand. I was told this and it worked, didn't loose even a snail. George... good luck

 

[dgasmd]

I would move everything live out of the current tank with the exception of the sand. Then, place the sand in the tubs as you suggested. When you fill your new tank, place all the corals and fish and re-seed the new SD sand with the old one slowly. I would not put any water from the sand tubs or even from the old tank after the sand has been disturbed.

Good luck.
Where did you get this 400g from?. Sounds great.

 

[M.E.Milz]

Thanks for the input.

I will have to give some thought as to how I can add the old sand to the new tank in stages so as to avoid problems. But I can probably do this as I add the newly mixed salt water to the tank. It will take me close to a week to fill the tank since I will be pre-mixing and pre-heating water from by RO/DI unit with salt in a 30g garbage can before I add it to the tank. I can add 30-40# of the old sand everytime I transfer the saltwater from the garbage can to the tank (probably 2-3 times per day). Once the whole tank is filled, I can let it run for a few days before transfering the rock and the rest of the livestock.

I do not plan to use/transfer any of the old saltwater in the new tank.

The 400g is being made by Inter-American in Canada. Delivery is scheduled for Firday (woo hoo).

 

[Ben1]

I recently moved my 75 with a 4" sand bed and lots of sps corals in one day to a new house. I scooped the sand out with a dust pan and the scooped it back in the same way.

I didnt have one loss or see any spike from die off in the sand.

I also moved a sand bed from a 55 to a 75 and had to do similiar by moving the sand into a bucket and keep it that way for a week. After I started scooping it back to the new tank 3 " in I found a VERY bad odor and most the sand had turned black, I unforchantly had to trash most of this sand as I feared it would be leaching organics for a long time. I did use some of it for seeding though. I think my problem was the depth I stored it at didnt allow enough of the worms to reach the top when they needed to. I also think the heated water didnt keep the bottom of the sand warm as it was so deep in the rubbermaid container. I think if I was able to spread it out in more or a larger width bucket there would have been less die off. JMO.

 

[M.E.Milz]

Good points Ben. The old sandbed is sitting in tubs at this time. I guess I will have to wait until I begin to place it into the tank to see if I have had significant die-off. If so, then I will just use enough to seed the new sand and toss out the rest.

 

[fishfarmer]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

I recently moved my 75 with a 4" sand bed and lots of sps corals in one day to a new house. I scooped the sand out with a dust pan and the scooped it back in the same way.

Ben,

Did you try to keep the layers of sand in the same place in the new bed? In other words did you scoop the uppermost layers keep them separate, then scoop the lower layers and add them back the same way?

 

[Anonymous]

Just one quick thought on not having a skimmer. You might want to check with your LFS and see if any have one you could borrow while you set up your tank. For the opportunity to help stock a 400 gallon tank it would be worth letting you use one.

Darin

 

[Roach]

I have done what Ben mentioned and it worked great. The key is to maintain the layer in the sand bed. I don't know if it helped but I also put a 1"-2" of fresh sand on top of the old bed when it was finally settled in the new tank. I also borrowed a friends skimmer and ran them like crazy for a couple of days before moving everything over. Also ran a fluval that I had laying around to take car of any excess junk floating around...put some carbon in there as well for good measure. Moving your tank is a little scary...I can't imagine the suppense you'll be in for those 10 days.

 

[M.E.Milz]

It is very difficult to write this, but I do feel an obligation to keep you guys informed.

Most of my livestock did not survive the move. As I explained above, all the fish, corals and live rock were transfered to a temporary 125g pond liner on Saturday, April 27. Pumps, heaters and lights were added to the pond liner to keep things happy. All of the sand was placed in separate containers to prevent any die-off from the sand from harming the fish and corals. Things needed to stay this way for a week or so until my new tank was delivered.

Last Tuesday night (April 30th), everything was doing fine. By the next day, however, most of the sps, clams and fish had died. I still do not know what had happened (I was not there during the night). I did a number of massive water changes to save what was left, but little (some softies, a couple of lps and few hard corals) survived. Since then, everything (mostly live rock) has been moved to different containers and temporary reef tank set-ups, all with freshly mixed saltwater. Things seemed to have stabilized.

My only conclusion is that my reef tank was so heavily stocked (I had several 18" diameter sps colonies), that there was very little capacity for any problems, particularly without the presence of the deep sandbed and skimmer. And once a few colonies started to die off (which was probably inevitable given the size of the move), a chain reaction was started that led to a nearly complete failure in a matter of hours.

I have had a week to reflect on all of this, and have nevertheless decided to start over. It took me several years to build up my 200g reef, and I made many mistakes along the way. It was nevetheless an extremely rewarding experience. Moreover, I hope that I have learned from any of my mistakes, and that I will be able to avoid them in the future.

One thing to note, I don't plan to move again for a long, long time. And if I ever do, I will probably sell (or give away) all of my corals, fish, etc. before moving.

Mike Milz

 

[Anonymous]

Mike,

That sucks! I am so sorry to hear that. I hope the new tank rocks - I know it will. If you want some frags, let me know.

RR

 

[Roach]

God that's a really sad story Milz. Sorry to hear about your loss. Good luck with the new tank.

 

[SPC]

Sorry to hear about that Mike, its a real fine line we walk with the balance of our systems.

Steve

 

[M.E.Milz]

Thanks Roach & Steve.

FWIW, this is a link to some photos of what my 200g reef tank use to look like:

Mike's 200g Reef Tank

[ May 08, 2002: Message edited by: M.E.Milz ]</p>