Moving tank

[canania]

I will be moving my 3 yr old FOWLR 72 gallon tank in a couple of weeks. I have about 6 fish, 80lbs or so of live rock and a deep sand bed. I need advice a couple of issues. Is this a good opportunity to replace my sandbed. If so, I have a smaller tank I can move some of the livestock to and I thought I'd set up another rubbermaid container for the remainder of the fish. What type of filter can I use for the rubbbermaid tub until the tank is setup and the sandbed settles down? I will also move the live rock, I assume in their own buckets and I'm assuming I can put them right into the new tank? Should this water be heated since its now cold in the northeast? I'm also assuming I will take all the snails I can find and transport them with the rocks? Lastly, since the back and sides of the existing tank are covered with coralline algae, will this be able to take the shock of no water for a little while and colder temps? Sorry for the long post. Any advice is appreciated

 

[Anonymous]

First of all moving a tank is a pain, good luck. First thing I suggest is make sure you have a helper. One person helping out will make a big difference. I would ditch the sand bed like you suggested. Rubber maids will work fine for the move. I would suggest not trasporting any of the live things with the rock if you can help it. Throw the snails in with the fish. If you are not going to be long setting up the new tank just a power head or two in each container will be fine. I store stiff this way for a month. I did a water change after 2 weeks. Yes you can put the rock right in. I would suggest keeping them wet to keep anything from dying. If you are getting cold weather make sure you have heaters. Just scrape the coraline off. It will grow back. One other tip would be to get one more container than you think you will need. At some point you may need to stage something or just need a place to put something that is wet.