How would I move my fish tank?

[Marine Man Tom]

Hi, I'm moving my 128L tank out of my room and into a room across the hallway. It's approximately 6 meters. are there any special steps to take when moving my tank? For example, my idea is to put the fish into a large bucket of tank water, then move the tank with about 20% of water left in it into the other room, then placing it on it's stand, siphoning the water back in and then putting the fish back in.

Will this work? Or, will my tank have to re-cycle because of the bacteria in the filtration dying?

I estimate the tank will have no water in it for perhaps and hour to an hour and a half.

 

Thanks in advance

[wav3form]

That sounds like a pretty good plan and I don't think you'd have any cycle issues from bacteria dying. Try to keep the rock wet or damp during this time and you shouldn't have any problems.

[seabass]

If you don't leave the rock exposed for more than a couple of minutes, you shouldn't have much die-off. Which would mean you shouldn't notice an ammonia spike. You can use paper towel soaked in tank water to cover your rocks to help keep them wet.

 

However, I wouldn't move it with ANY water in it. Some people remove the livestock, drain the tank to the sand bed, and move it like that. How deep is your sand bed, and how old is it?

 

While it is empty, I'd clean off the inside of the glass with RO water on a paper towel (microfiber towel if acrylic).

 

If the tank is more than a year old, I'd consider removing a shallow sand bed before the move and rinsing it in tank in tank water (stirring it up with a little water in it, siphoning out the dirty water, adding more water, and repeat until the water is cloudy but not dirty). If it is newer or you don't want to hassle with it at this time, you should be able to move it with the sand in it. Just don't disturb the sand bed. Any water that becomes fouled by disturbing the sand needs to be discarded.

 

No matter how you do it, have lots of heated, premixed saltwater available. I'd make enough to replace it all, but have at least have enough to replace half of your water. A Rubbermaid Brute trash container is perfect for mixing large amounts of water for times like this.

 

[Marine Man Tom]

The tank is coming up to 3 years old now. The sand bed is around 2 inches deep and there is a considerable amount of live rock in the tank, I'm talking around 7 big chunks of the stuff. There are 3 fish currently, 2 clowns and a coral beauty. This isn't including all the creatures I received in my live rock (i've counted more than 20 starfish and at least 2 crabs). How would one go about removing the sand bed? In addition, surely when I have removed the water, I can just re-siphon the water back into the tank? I'm afraid of disturbing the tank. Being there for 3 years and all of the creatures seemingly perfectly comfortable in their home, I'm worried about them perhaps dying from stress.

[seabass]

How would one go about removing the sand bed?

Remove the livestock, first anything that is on the top, then dig through it to find snails which might be in the bed. Everything possible should be removed before disturbing the sand bed. You can just scoop it out with a plastic container and rinse it off in a 5 gallon bucket (or rinse it out right there in your tank).

 

In addition, surely when I have removed the water, I can just re-siphon the water back into the tank? I'm afraid of disturbing the tank.

The will be a little stress, but you can keep it to a minimum. Catch the fish with a container, versus a net. Any water you remove, before disturbing your sand bed, can be put back in. When replacing the water, siphoning (or slowly pumping) it back in should work fine. I place something flat (like a sheet of plastic) on top of the sand to prevent it from being kicked up when filling the tank.

 

This is pretty much how you would upsize or downsize to a new tank.

[Salty_Snack]

Really simple. Take out the livestock and the live rock. Leave the sand bed under water an move the tank. The add it all back and it will be all fine.

[metrokat]

I'm contemplating a tank move, only 10 ft away. However my rocks are cemented/bonded to each other making a removal of the rocks not an option.

I was planning on removing my fish to a bucket with tank water.

Then siphoning out as much water as I can leaving enough for my CUC and the Yasha and pistol that I will not be able to catch.

Covering my LR with wet paper towels, including corals that are glued down.

Moving the entire tank and stand on those EZ mover slider disks to the new location.

 

After which I will put back the water I drained and let it run to filter out the debris and calm down before I add back my fish.

 

I am prepared to loose the corals that are glued down on the rocks, there is no other option.

[holdorf333]

search steviet's posts and read his "moving a tank" thread

 

i'd post the link, but dyoh