Moving a tank I need input

Gsxkid

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
I’m moving my 8’ tank I found a spot to set it up. I’m planning to move all my fish to a 55 gallon temporarily maybe 3-4 weeks. What’s my best move here?

I’m thinking of doing 2 water changes from my main tank and using that water to fill the 55 gallon tank. New heaters and a Hob filter.

Then leave the 55 bare bottom fill it with as much live rock as I can fit. Make sure the water is the same temp catch all my fish swap them to the 55 and then move all the rest of the sand and live rock. Thinking of putting it in barrels. get my tank and stand to it’s new home. Set it back up and transfer the fish back.


My question would be do you think I need to run it for some time similar to it being a brand new tank?

What risk do I run re using the sand?

I’m worried my mandarin isn’t going to make it because of a lack of food.
Any input is appreciated
 
The sand would be my biggest concern. Storing that up can cause some issues. I would take the rock and water out without disturbing the sand bed.

Toss the sand. Keep the rock live.

Move the tank.

Put in new sand and refill with water and rock.

Move livestock in a couple days later once water is clear.

I have only moved small tanks. But fish did fine coral did fine. I had crushed coral as a substrate so not a whole lot to kick up.

Now we wait for more experienced Reefers to give their input.


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Agree on not adding that sand but if you can move the tank without disturbing the sand you could get away with it. Set it up let it run for a day or two and check ammonia. If it does spike you’ll need to cycle the tank through again. It won’t take long since the rock will take care of that quick but you can’t add fish while there’s ammonia present.
If you could get a breeder net or box for the mandarin , you could just buy pods and add them to the container every day. Maybe hatch some baby brine shrimp as well
 
If the mandarin is going with all the fish in the 55 with all the live rock, there should be plenty of pods there for it imo.
 
There’s a lot of sand in there then the added weight of the water in the sand to keep it wet I don’t know if it would be possible to carry. I believe there’s 200+ pounds of sand in the tank.
 
Maybe you could go aggressive on the sand and rinse it out, bleach it then use prime a few times to kill the bleach
 
Yeah really is a lot of sand. What are my other options I’d rather not re buy all the sand. I’m assuming the concern would be the die off from disturbing the layers ?
 
Just rinse and rinse and rinse the sand before reusing it. At that point it is the same as any other non-luve dry sand. You can scoop out a few cups for the microfauna first if you want.

As noted above, try not to disturb the sand until everything else is out of the tank. It'll release junk and will also make it difficult to see...
 
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