I have to move back home for xmas break and currently have a 10 gallon set up in my dorm(chose the 10 gallon because of the moving situation). to keep things short before class, i have an extra 10 gallon with freshies in it, theyre going to a friend and i'm going to set it up at home this weekend with live sand and a filter and let it run for the next month...

then come xmas break, i will take out all my live rock, moving it home, and lastly my clown and sixline.

that's my plan, and my basic questions are, am I going to get another cycle from adding the rock to the home tank? will the home tank properly cycle with just live sand? may i get an amonia spike from the move? and last but not least, should i discard my sandbed that i currently ahve now, i was just informed that i can't keep any power on in the dorm over the break, so keeping a heater with some water is out of the question.

im pretty sure that i know the answers, but i want to make perfectly sure. thanks

Adding the rock to your home tank shouldnt cause a major cycle. your tank should have some rock other then just live sand. so yeah. you may encounter a small but nothing major cycle if you add your rock since its already cured.

well that stinks. i have somewhat badnews for you. due to them turning the power off while your on vacation. the sand which contains organisms will have die off. your water will probley get cold and with that some will die in the sand and it is best. to just simply before you leave empty and take out the sand. you can leave the water, when you return do about a 50% WC or full 100% and just put everything back. but to keep a spike from going on in your dorm tank best to take out the sand before you leave.

thats what i thought, just out of curiosity, am I going to have a "setback" in the age of my tank from swapping everything into a new tank? or is the actual tank irrelevant?

also, should i get a new piece of pre-cured live rock to add to my home tank with the sand to help it stabilize?

Make sure to keep your rock wet during the move.

Get 2 Home Depot ($2.50) buckets and just tank the whole tank with you. Don't for get the lids.

yeah i planned on keeping it submerged at all times



entire tank? glass and all?

You have another tank set up right? Just drain the tank and leave the tank behind. Put the rocks and fish in 1 bucket and the sand in the other. Make sure water covers the rocks and sand. When you get ready to unload everything drain the water off the sand as it will be brown from all the junk that was in your sand bed. Have a little salt water to top off what you are getting rid of.

Step by step
Drain water from the sand bucket(Aa much as you can).
Add sand to tank.
Start drain bucket that has the rock in it.
Add the rock.
Add the top off salt water.
Add the fish.
No need to acclimate them if you are only adding a small amount of top off salt water.

helpful:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...p;#entry2375343

very helpful, im surprised i couldnt find that

@RLC

thats what I was planning on doing, but i stumbled across a thread about keeping sand and it seemed like a bad idea.

i guess my main concern/question is, what may cause a cycle/spike that could be dangerous?

If you take the tank with you you can avoid disturbing the sand. Get Two 5-gallon buckets. Drain the tank leaving just enough water to keep the sand wet. Do your best to not bother the sand bed. Distribute your water, rock, corals, fish, etc. however you see safest between the two buckets. Take the tank with you. Put tank in new place, stack up rocks, pour in some water (still being careful with the sand), add fish, add rest of water. No need to complicate things with a second tank, mini-cycles and all of that jazz... It's a 10 gallon, just move the darn thing!!

Good luck!

Agreed. I did this exact same thing several times during college never had a problem. Even upgraded the tank at one point after moving it moved the old sand into the new tank and added new sand without any problems (ie no new cycle). Moving a tank is a lot simpler than some people think.

that's what i'm learning towards, the only two things that make me want to set the other tank up is the fact that my second tank is brand new, and the live sand i have right now is mixed black and white, and i think i just want white aha im picky. would new live sand from the same place mixed with all my rock and water be a problem?

@arwndsh

what did you upgrade to? and how much more expensive/pain in the butt was it, if you dont mind me asking?

I went from a 3g acrylic tank to a 5.5g glass tank just for the pure and simple reason that I had scratched the crap out of the acrylic tank. Not really more of an expense or pain.

You should be ok switching out just the sand if you use the same rock and water.

For all the other people reading this you can also use the simple bucket moving methods for large tanks we did it with my husbands 29g that he had in college and the 30g he had set up in our old apartment.

Amen.


I agree with all of this. Moves are the best time to upgrade! I've done it twice! 46 bow to 54 corner, and 40 breeder to 125!

I think you'd be fine going with new sand, I'd go dry though, don't bother with the live stuff.

And yes, the bucket method most certainly works for all size tanks. I pretty much did the exact same thing to move my 125 (which I've done twice now!), it just takes a whole buncha buckets!*



*It actually takes about 70 gallons worth of buckets and a few empty tanks to sit waiting on you at the new destination. Take a load of water, fill holding tanks, come back, repeat, this time bring tank, setup just like you would with anything else. I consider myself a pro at moving tanks now, I've moved at least 25 ranging from across the room to across counties and everything from 2.5 gallon picos to 125 mixed reefs.

wait, doesnt all dry stuff cycle? i thought you should always go with cured live stuff?

No, a cycle comes from the die off of bacteria. Dry sand has no bacteria to die off. No die off = no cycle.

If you had a new bag of live sand some of that bacteria inevitable dies, so you'd at least have a little mini-cycle from it. The benefits of bagged "live sand" are arguable at best anyways...save your money, get dry sand. It'll become live shortly from fauna that will come out of your live rock.

ohhhh no way, i was under the impression that the dry stuff needed to cycle because it had no bacteria in the first place.

so heres my plan so far, set up my second tank with DRY sand, add some water to soak the sand in, and also to use for the top off water.

come moving time, i will discard my present sand, i only have a 1/4 of an inch anyways, and move my rock, fish, and coral into the new tank with the 90% of the present tank water... now this should not create a cycle as long as i keep all of the rock submerged in water and up to temperature correct?

No, should not cause a cycle, maybe a tiny mini-cycle (IE a small diatom bloom maybe), but nothing that would hurt anything but your nerves. I would also do a normal waterchange a few hours before the final move. The hard part is gonna be keeping things at the right temp during the move, unless you have a 12V inverter that plugs into a car cig lighter socket, or styrofoam to wrap the buckets with.

A water change is not needed before the move. The water replaced after the move to compensate for lost water is the only "water change" you need.

As for keeping the water the right temp you do not need heater nor powerheads in the buckets. Nor do you need to do anything special. Dump the corals, rock, water, and fish in a bucket put the lid on stick in the car and go. Trust me everything will be fine. Its in your car not the back of some UPS truck where it will sit all night with out temperature control.

Amber is right, no need for anything fancy. Room temperature will be plenty warm enough. Anything under a 6 hour drive I wouldn't worry about.

To add to what Fewskillz said, personal experience has shown that a 13 hr drive plus take down and setup time is fine as well.

I would upgrade to cooler from bucket for that long of a drive, but I trust Amber on that one.

Side note: I actually use a cooler for all of my fish moving, but that's only because I have the cooler anyways. I put the fish all in one cooler, then the water and rocks in buckets. A little added insulation never hurt, but it's definitely not necessary.

I used a cooler for the fish, rock, and corals and 1g jugs for the extra water. I guess it just depends on the size of the fish and corals you are moving on whether a cooler or 5g bucket is more efficient.

Go bare bottom then no worries about sand.

nahh i like the sand
and you guys are getting all technical, i have a 40 minute drive. so i'm just goin to stick with the buckets, probably with some blankets, the only downside is that it's cold as nips up here in north eastern ohio i guess thats why i need this little piece of tropical paradise for my room

Bucket will be fine, just have the heat on in the car. Keep it comfortable for you and it'll be warm enough for the fish. The water will hold it's temperature pretty well for 40 minutes.

Good luck!

thank you! you guys have been tonsss of help, i love this site