Tank Break-down question....

[TarheelFrag]

Ok I know that this has been discussed in depth brefore but I can't get the search to work so here goes.
After a few years without a tank I will be going tomorow to pick up a 75 gallon tank! :D It has been set up for about a year and half and has over 100 lbs of live rock, sand bed, mixed corals a few leathers, polyps, mushroom and some mixed livestock. Now I will have to break it down and move it to my house which is a couple hours drive. I have purchased some new totes (mixed sizes) and I have some battery powered air stones. I wanted to run my plan past you guys to see if you think that it will work.....


I plan to break the tank down. Drive a couple hours home and then put the tank back together. Place everything back into it and call it a day.... oh yeah and not have everything die in the meanwhile. Here is what my plan is....

(please advise me of anything I need to change)
Drain about half of the water out into smaller totes. Saving the water to use when I get home.

Remove the fish and other livestock.
I have a couple of 12 gallon buckets that I can place the fish in. Also I can place the crabs & shrimp into smaller containers seperately. I can rotate the air stones between all of these on my way home.

Place all of the live rock (that does not contain any corals or other growth attached) into the larger totes and cover with water.

Place all live rock with coral growth in seperate totes and cover with water.

All of these will be kept between 70-75 deg on the way home.

Now for the real tricky part! How do I transport the live sand? I don't want to stur up everything in the bed when I move it! Should I replace the sand? Just scoop it out and replace it when I get home? Rinse it before placing it back in the tank? Just leave it in the tank with a few inches of water? (Which I feel like while I am driving it will stir it up anyway).

Any help with this please let me know what is the best way to do this.

[latazyo]

either toss and replace the sand or leave it in the tank during transport...Id leave it in the tank myself

you dont have to cover the regular liverock with water, just put some soaked paper towels over it...thats how they ship it overnight, so for a few hours yours will be fine

other than that, sounds like a good plan

you'll want to have some new saltwater mixed up becaus eyou'll undoubtedly lose some along the way

maybe someone at home can mix some up there for you

[racer69]

Do go ahead and cover your live rock if possible. Having it shipped in wet news paper will not keep the lr completely alive. With a 75, it is not super heavy if you leave the sand in the tank. I did it with a 180, but being a steel fabricator, I built a rolling steel cart the we slid the tank onto and rolled to the truck, than slid the tank into the stand at my house. Just make sure you get as much water out as possible without disturbing the sand.

I have done this a couple of times now and get zero spikes from ammonia or nitrate.

[BillyJoeJimBob]

My experience has been to get new substrate when moving tanks. I have a friend who did this exact same thing (had to move an established tank 50 miles) and he posted here prior to doing so. The responses from posters was to never reuse the sand and that transproting it, readding water, and replacing the LR would disrupt the sand bed enough to cause another cycle.

Well, he opted against that advice and reused the sand. It took over 2 months for the tank to cycle, in which he lost all the coraline and many corals that were on the LR.

[TarheelFrag]

Thanks for the advice! I went ahead yesterday and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of IO mix just incase the worst happen. If it can happen then it will happen to me!

I was planning on taking two 2x4's with me that I could slip under the tank. I could then use them to carry & support it if I left the sand in it.

I appreciate the information! If there is anything else that you can think of please let me know.

[TarheelFrag]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9021957#post9021957 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BillyJoeJimBob
The responses from posters was to never reuse the sand and that transproting it, readding water, and replacing the LR would disrupt the sand bed enough to cause another cycle.


Well with that being said what would the effect of adding new sand and then the LR & Livestock? Would that in itself begin a mini-cycle? :confused:

[racer69]

With the 2X4's you will need to hold them vertically (2" under the glass) and you may want to add a couple nailed in between so you dont have slippage. Also use straps over the top of the tank an secured to the wood.

[BillyJoeJimBob]

Unless it's a DSB (5"+), I would think the impact of replacing the sand bed would be minimal.