Moving and need advice

[robbous]

Hello everyone i am closing on my new house this week and will be moving into it next week 22-24th, here is my problem i currently have a very well established 90 gal reef tank lots of corals 6 fish and about 150lbs of live rock. i just purchased a 150 gal tank yesterday and will do my very best to get it up to the new house by friday. my question is what is the fastest way to cycle the new tank so i can put all my critters fish coral and rock from my old tank into the new tank?? any advice all you wonderful people could give me on doing this would be awesome. i am nervous as hell as i dont want my hobby dying off on me. so please try to give me the best advice on how to accomplish my goal of making this move thanks.

 

[maxfischer]

move everything , i would not try to cycle a tank in a week

 

[robbous]

so your saying bring the 90 gal to the new house? wouldnt that be like a new cycle too?? taking all the water out of it and putting most of it back in the 90

 

[robbous]

i was thinking of adding about 30 gal of water from my 90 gal to the 180 when i do a water change the night before i set up the 150 in the new house and keep adding 30 gal from the 90 to the 150 every day for a week then add all the creatures to the 150, maybe even take some of my live sand from the 90 gal and add to the 150 to seed the new sand

 

[Bobbofin]

If you move the rock, sand and critters you will have a mini cycle but nothing like starting a tank from scratch. Ideally if you could put new sand in the new tank and move stuff over slow that would be good. But often you can't have two tanks running at the same time in the moving process. I have moved twice in 7 years so I know your ordeal.

 

[FOXYB]

ive moved my 75 gallon reef twice in the past year if you take your time u should see little to no re-cycle

 

[robbous]

just ordered 140lbs of "Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand" should be here by thursday ill seed it with some of my established live sand from my 90 gal tank and will add some of the 150 lbs of live rock too, i think ill also add 70 gal of my used water from tank that is up and running and add 70 gal of new fresh made saltwater, run powerheads and a magnum 350 delux filter with carbon and also use my gunked up lifeguard filter that has been running in my 90 for the last month

 

[JayM]

I've moved my 92 and my 72....twice. make up your water-change water in advance.

bag your corals, put the LR and water in totes, transfer your sand, and leave the bottom 5 gallons of water (full of crap) out of the tank.

When you get to your new tank, put the old sand on the bottom, the new sand on the top, put a trash bag down on top of your sand (no sandstorm) add your water, then add in your rock. Top off with fresh mixed water, re-scape your corals, run fresh carbon and skim wet.

You will get some die-off, and a little algae bloom, but you should be fine.

 

[stingythingy45]

I've moved my 92 and my 72....twice. make up your water-change water in advance.

bag your corals, put the LR and water in totes, transfer your sand, and leave the bottom 5 gallons of water (full of crap) out of the tank.

When you get to your new tank, put the old sand on the bottom, the new sand on the top, put a trash bag down on top of your sand (no sandstorm) add your water, then add in your rock. Top off with fresh mixed water, re-scape your corals, run fresh carbon and skim wet.

You will get some die-off, and a little algae bloom, but you should be fine.

+1

Jay's right.There should be no cycle if the LR is moved into the new tank.You will be effectively moving your biological filtration with the rock.Maybe just a nitrate spike that can be corrected with a water change later.You most definitely will get a cyano bloom and diatoms.But that wont be too severe.Those should dissipate once you get the skimmer pulling wet.

 

[robbous]

Thanks for all the help any other recommendations??

 

[Cherokee_Dude]

Don't try a school of damsels to speed up the mini cycle! lol!

Oh and make sure the temp is stable in the tank before moving anything.

 

[Aquaman_68]

sorry this was late...was away on vacation.....You might want to consider a little live sand on the top of the sandbed...(purchased from a reputable source online that is collected from the carribean) You can still do it even if the tank is up & running to minimize the nitrogen cycle...we can talk by phone as well so I can give you some pointers...pm me I'll send you my number...


B

 

[robbous]

Ok here is the deal i have been very lucky the seller of the house (which is empty) is allowing me to go into the home before i close to set up my 150 tank, this is my plan on sunday i plan on going up to set up the tank i bought 140 lbs of ocean direct caribbean live sand to use in the tank, i made up aprox. 50 gal of freshly mixed saltwater to be used in the new tank i also made up 66 gal of freshly new saltwater (all RO AND STORE BOUGHT DISTILLED) i took 66 gals of water from my 90 tank and saved this in buckets and jugs and then replaced the water back into the tank with the 66 gal of fresh saltwater i made up. i plan on using the 66 gal of old water and the 50 gal of fresh saltwater to add to my 150 tank using a heater 2 maxi jet power heads and a magnum 350 filter that is gunked up from filtering from the 90. now i hope by doing this it will help when i go to move the fish corals and live rock into the tank this comming friday. please all tell me your thoughts on this and if there is anything else i should do. i am hopping i dont get much die off or a cycle.

 

[arvincito]

I too am in the process of transferring stuff from one tank to the other, but I have the luxury of having about 3 weeks, but I also did the same as you: store bought distilled water, and collected some in jugs. It was a pain carrying those around, but it is working well.

Congrats on the new place!

 

[robbous]

Well update on my move of the fish corals and 150 lbs of live rock from my 90 gal to the new 150 gal 2 hrs away from my apartment to my new home, all went very well tank is up and running now for 2 weeks everything but my yellow tang made the trip, all readings from water look awesome fish are eating well and corals are looking sweet, ill try to get some new photos of the new tank up and running tonight. hummmmmm i should go into the fish tank moving business............

 

[robbous]

150 gal

here is the new 150 gal setup were i moved this from a 90, the move was 2 hours away with only i fish loss, total time corals,fish and rock were out of 90 gal tank was approx. 4 hours

 

[arvincito]

Great job. Tank looks great. Thanks for the update.

 

[SaltCreep]

So what happened to the Yellow Tang?

Squished by a rock? To stressed by the move? Jumped out of the bucket?

 

[robbous]

Tang was stressed that is my quess