Help! Emergency tank move!

[thesauce]

Hi everyone,

A close friend of mine sprung a leak in his 2.5 year old 90 gallon reef tank. Its a corner tank with the leak in the back, he tells me there is no hope for finding and sealing the leak. Its also an older, second hand tank, so he has gone ahead and ordered a replacement that will arrive Thursday.

My hope with this thread is to gather some advice for him from anyone who has moved a reef or found themselves in similar situations. He is most concerned about micro-fauna die off and the most stress free method of moving the fish.

Thanks guys!

 

[MatthewScars]

just get a bunch of buckets. put the rock in a bucket. put the coral in a container seperate.

Save as much water as you can. Then just drain it and refill it.

Becareful with the sand though when stirring it around. Personally, i would stir it all when there is like 6" of water left then suck all the black crap out.

good luck

 

[mr_X]

i would make ALOT of water, just incase. enough to fill the tank.
i would not even use the sand. maybe a couple cups to seed the new sand, but there's too much junk in there at this point. a simple stir won't remove all of the undesirable slop.

 

[NYreefNoob]

buy a few rubbermaide containers, big as possible, put power head in each keep circulation going, watch temp and everything should be fine, just like a tank transfer, is he using new sand or re-using sand ? lps sps ?

 

[thesauce]

Thanks for the replies guys. He's monitoring this thread from Vermont (where he lives) to gather the advice. I hope that he will use a few cups of the old sand to seed fresh sand as suggested above, that would be my advice. That much agitation of the sand bed will release Satan himself.

 

[thesauce]

Its a mixed reef. LPS, SPS and softies.

 

[thesauce]

Thanks for the input guys, he completed the transfer last night and so far there have been zero losses. He has water standing by for another big water change tomorrow.