HELP Emergency Move to New Buff. Mich

[jmadison]

Rising flood waters have forced me to move up my move(no pun intended) to Mich. to tonight probably.
I have a large plastic bin and buckets for the water. Plan on putting the criters in their own little tubs. Leaving a bit of water to cover the sand. The move will take me anywhere up to 6 hrs.
Any suggestions must do/donts? If the sand bed is stirred is that a bad thing?

Thanks to all in advance, I am having to really make this quick as the flooding is not allowing me to stay any longer.

Also if anyone in the New Buffalo, Mich area has any recomendations where to get supplies or help thatd be awesome. Im gonna need some RO water soon after arriving, I wont have enough room to bring any with me.
j

[jmadison]

ANYONE??!?!?

I'm under the gun here. Should I expect a cycle? Should I not place livestock in for X hours?

[Doahh]

If you disturb the sand take it all out

[jmadison]

what if I leave water(enough to cover it) and take special care not to disturb it. I mean a bit might get slowly moved but not deep aggetation. Will I be ok?

[rjsilvers]

How deep is the sand? If its a DSB, I would just take it all out and start anew. Disturbing it is going to poison the water.

Any LR? I would transport the LR in trash bags wrapped in newspaper. It will make your move a lot faster and easier.

Once you are in Mich, you won't have the vehicles movement agitating the water anymore so make sure you are equipped with enough powerheads or at least air pumps to keep the water moving in the buckets the fish (or corals) are in.

[jmadison]

The sand is only about 2-3" max. I was gonna put the LR in buckets with the water. Will I have a cycle? Can I put them back in the tank once its set up and sand has settled?

[rjsilvers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12741787#post12741787 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmadison
The sand is only about 2-3" max. I was gonna put the LR in buckets with the water. Will I have a cycle? Can I put them back in the tank once its set up and sand has settled?

Disturbing the sand shouldn't matter too much, then.

You probably would have less die-off if you put the LR in buckets like you plan on doing. I did a similar move 5 hours and wrapped them in newspaper and didn't have a noticeable cycle, but your mileage may vary...

I would add the sand, the LR and whatever water you brought, and then fill the tank with new saltwater as fast as possible and test for ammonia over a day or two before adding the fish.

[jmadison]

New saltwater? I was told/thinking that keep all the water I can.

So i will leave the sand in the tank for the move with a bit of water. Do all my rock work, then fill with my water. Leave the fish(and coral?) in the tub with a small powerhead until sand settles and ammonia looks good?

[rjsilvers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12741871#post12741871 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmadison
New saltwater? I was told/thinking that keep all the water I can.

So i will leave the sand in the tank for the move with a bit of water. Do all my rock work, then fill with my water. Leave the fish(and coral?) in the tub with a small powerhead until sand settles and ammonia looks good?

Well... Wait. How big is the tank? I was just trying to relate this to how I did my move... But I moved a 180g... So it wasn't feasible to move 180g of water. :D

But it sounds like you've got the idea. If, after you add the fish to the tank, you detect ammonia you can still do water changes to remove it from the tank which should keep them alive.

[jmadison]

I just have a measly 29 gallon :D I was gonna try to take most all the water with me. So if all the sandstorm settles and everything when i get this reset up(prob bout 4 am) The critters can go in? I was gonna leave the nassarius snails and sandsifting star during the move. Shrimp/fish/corals goin into tubs.

[rjsilvers]

Ohhh.. In that case. Yeah, as long as you're keeping most of the water and everything remains wet you shouldn't have a cycle or any problems at all.

[jmadison]

RJ, really appreciate your timely help!!

[rjsilvers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12741990#post12741990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmadison
RJ, really appreciate your timely help!!

No problem. :)

Let us know how it goes and be careful.

[jmadison]

any tips with placing the livestock back? or any dos/donts? common mistakes or the like?

[jmadison]

ttt

[rjsilvers]

I'd still acclimate them like you would any new fish you get. There are going to be differences in temperature and oxygen levels that you'll need to acclimate them for.

Make sure you don't put them in while the sandstorm is still going on or sand can get lodged in their gills and kill them.

Other than that it should be pretty straight forward.

[jmadison]

again thank you RJ!

[Playa-1]

I would use a power inverter in my car, powerhead, and heater.
The fishies would be right at home.

Good Luck dude. I feel for ya.

[Doahh]

How did the move go?

[jmadison]

Sorry finally got on the world wide web again just now. EVERYONE made it!!! Upon putting the snails back in, a large posse of hermits took one out and ate him :( they mustve been hungry, but otherwise all is well on the new home front. Will post more later, big thanks to all again! New black occelaris is diggin his new digs!

[Playa-1]

[otrlynn]

Congrats! I would monitor water closely for a week or two to see whether you have any changes in parameters due to moving the sand. Probably not since it does not sound like you had any die off, but it pays to check

[Denbf58]

way to go hope your settled in on higher ground good luck

[Aydee]

Good stuff. Been reading this thread. If you have any excess water, you can send it to our dams. (Sitting at approx 45% now.. :( )

AD