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Moving Advice


Mattis

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I was hoping to get some advice on an upcoming move. I currently have a small 15 gallon that's been up and running for about 1.5 years. It is pretty heavily stocked with 2 clowns and a orchid dottyback plus tons of Coral (really tons not much space left for anything) 

 

That said I do have access to the new house and a old 20 aio that I could set up as a holding tank for everything or maybe just use it like a qt tank for the corals incase the dt has anytype of mini cycle 

 

The move isn't far but I do have some nice pieces that I would really hate to lose so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

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A mini cycle is not likely to occur if the transfer is done correctly.

 

Keeping old disturbed sand is the reason for most mini cycles as well as causing nutrient issues.

 

Have new water made

Siphon tank water into buckets/containers.

Place corals in containers of tank water, place fish another,

save any water you want to use before removing rock.

 

Last step is removing rock and placing in a bucket of water.

 

Any remaining water is garbage.

 

Remove sand- either replace with newly washed sand or completely and thoroughly wash old sand before reusing.

 

Clean tank

 

Move to the new home.

Add air hoses/pumps to the containers. If they are smaller container I use my battery air pumps with gang valve and have an airstone in each container.

For bucket with rocks I use a powerhead

 

Set up tank, add rocks, sand, water(saved and new), start tank up.

 

Once it's pretty clear, temp, sg, and alk is where it should be you can add everything back in.

 

Get an ammonia alert badge and have Prime on hand just in case.

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Thanks for the quick detailed response.

 

Do you think it's even worth setting up the 20 then bare bottom and with water from my current tank (from water changes leading up to the move) to place corals or fish in while setting up and letting the water clear up? 

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4 minutes ago, Mattis said:

Thanks for the quick detailed response.

 

Do you think it's even worth setting up the 20 then bare bottom and with water from my current tank (from water changes leading up to the move) to place corals or fish in while setting up and letting the water clear up? 

No - but have it at your new house just in case you break the tank moving it. I had a tank crack in the back of a U-Haul while driving it cross-country and was extremely happy to have an extra 10g tank sitting around to put my stuff in while I got a new 20g.

 

If you are going to take more than 3 or 4 hours to move and set up your tank, use an air pump. If it's chilly, toss a heater in there as well while you are setting things up. My entire tank lived in styrafoam coolers for 3 days during an x-country move, twice.

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Just now, Mattis said:

If I replace with new sand is live sand or dry sand suggested and would that have any effect on a potential mini cycle? 

Well rinsed dry sand soaked in RODI to pull as much crap out of it as you can. No mini-cycle.

 

You can also clean your existing sand really well. I rinse it off in a bucket in the tub with tons of water, constantly mixing it up, until the water is clear and then soak in RODI. I suck out a ton of sand from WCs - after I start getting bald spots, I wash it off and put it back.

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@metrokat just gave a talk about this a few weeks back at Frag Farmer’s Market. She had some good advice based on a tragic event helping a friend move and struggles from her last move.

 

If you have the ability to start moving into the new place before you are moving out of the old place, setting up the 20 in the new place will help reduce the stress of the move, ensure that you have clean water and a clean system to move everything into, and let you take your time getting the 15 set up.

 

Corals out first, rock second, then fish. Get the buckets, or what ever you are using to transport, set up with water before you start trying to remove corals from the tank. Once you start moving rock or trying to catch fish, debris will start getting kicked up and the water will be dirty in a hurry. Not prepping water beforehand and planning on bagging the fish with tank water is what lead to the issues in Kat’s story. Once the water was dirty, everything went down hill. They lost almost every fish and a large portion of the corals.

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28 minutes ago, Beer said:

@metrokat just gave a talk about this a few weeks back at Frag Farmer’s Market. She had some good advice based on a tragic event helping a friend move and struggles from her last move.

 

If you have the ability to start moving into the new place before you are moving out of the old place, setting up the 20 in the new place will help reduce the stress of the move, ensure that you have clean water and a clean system to move everything into, and let you take your time getting the 15 set up.

 

Corals out first, rock second, then fish. Get the buckets, or what ever you are using to transport, set up with water before you start trying to remove corals from the tank. Once you start moving rock or trying to catch fish, debris will start getting kicked up and the water will be dirty in a hurry. Not prepping water beforehand and planning on bagging the fish with tank water is what lead to the issues in Kat’s story. Once the water was dirty, everything went down hill. They lost almost every fish and a large portion of the corals.

First I remove enough water from the tank to fill up my move containers (usually disposable styrofoam coolers) so they have pristine water. Then I remove the corals and the rock, which should only take a few mintues and not make a mess. Then I siphon out as much of my sandbed as possible while removing all but 2-3" of water. Makes it way easier to catch the fish (especially with a haliochoeres wrasse) and all of the water (except the discard water with your sandbed) is very clean. Anything left in the tank gets dumped out when you move it.

 

With a pico or really small nano - you can just move the entire tank without removing anything. I put my pico inside of medium sized rubbermaid container and ran the wires out the lid. I just tossed the rubbermaid on the seat of the moving truck, buckled it in, and ran the entire pico through an inverter across half the country, two separate times.

 

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5 hours ago, jservedio said:

Well rinsed dry sand soaked in RODI to pull as much crap out of it as you can. No mini-cycle.

 

You can also clean your existing sand really well. I rinse it off in a bucket in the tub with tons of water, constantly mixing it up, until the water is clear and then soak in RODI. I suck out a ton of sand from WCs - after I start getting bald spots, I wash it off and put it back.

You got all the points perfectly. Also acclimate livestock before putting them in whatever tank they will be in.

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I've moved with 2 tanks twice.

 

Everything in 5 gallon buckets. Fragile items bagged or in separate plastic containers. I also made sure to keep incompatible corals separated and rocks only one per bucket to avoid anything getting crushed. I mapped each container out ahead of time so I knew how much room and how many buckets to have. Freshly made water at the new place along with new sand. 

 

1 move took roughly 8 hours and was from an apartment to a house 15 minutes away. I had no losses.

 

1 move took over 12 hours and was from one state to another. I lost all sps corals within 48 hours, then two frags of sun coral and a leather the following week. 

 

Both moves happened around the same time of year in similar weather. I also had mostly the same livestock. I did not use heaters or pumps either time and feel this was the reason I lost so much the second time. The water was down in the low 60's. I think I was lucky the first time. 

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7 hours ago, Mattis said:

If I replace with new sand is live sand or dry sand suggested and would that have any effect on a potential mini cycle? 

Reusing old dirty sand leads to mini cycles.

 

Your bio filter is mainly in the liverock unless it's a dsb.

 

I have washed new dry sand until its completely clear in tap water, last rinses with Prime and rodi water.

 

I have also done the same on washing existing sand and replacing in my tank. 

 

Never had a spike.

 

I have used this method for tank transfers and overhauls.

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I've never used dry sand before any suggestions on type? Also aside from rinsing it anything else I need to do? Seed it with some of my current sand?

bottle of bacteria? 

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3 hours ago, Mattis said:

I've never used dry sand before any suggestions on type? Also aside from rinsing it anything else I need to do? Seed it with some of my current sand?

bottle of bacteria? 

No. Just make sure its washed well, the less silt the better only because it makes the tank cloudier and diatoms.

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