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killarsox
01/01/2009, 12:15 AM
I am moving and need to move my aquarium, it's only about a two hour move. I was going to move just over half of tank water in containers. Live rock in either a cooler or rubber maid containers. Fish in a rubber maid container. What should I do about the sand? and I really need help and suggestions about the move and keeping the fish/live rock while I let the tank cycle.
Any help is more than greatly appreciated.

Jaded_Falcon
01/01/2009, 01:23 AM
If you use the same LR and sand and keep most of the water you shouldn't have a cycle. Take your fish out and syphon most of your water into your containers BEFORE you move your LR and sand. It will kick up a lot of detritus and other junk. You dont want that water. I used a $20 inverter and put a heater and airstone in with the fish. Worked pretty well for me.

Shmax
01/01/2009, 01:33 AM
How deep is your current sand bed? If it was more than 2", I would say dump it and buy new. You could stir up some seriously nasty stuff in a sand bed that could wreak havoc on the new setup. I wouldn't worry so much about taking a lot of old water, as much as I would focus on keeping the LR nice and wet, and fairly warm during the move. I moved about 3 months ago, and didn't have any sign of mini cycle at all, but I didn't bring in the old sand. The time between breaking down the old tank and getting fish in the new one was about 7 hours, so you have some time to work with. I didn't hear mention of corals, is this a FOWLR? If so, I would just take as much water as I needed to keep the live rock submerged (after thoroughly rinsing the rock in the old tank water) and the fish in enough to transport them. Best bet is to have some water mixed and ready to go at the new place before you tear down the old one so you don't have to sit around waiting on water very long. Once you're at the new place with your rock and fish in rubbermaids/coolers, set the tank/equipment up, put the rock in how you want it, add enough water to get the rock covered and powerheads running. That's first priority. Then top the tank off with water and acclimate the fish. Try your best to match the new water parameters to your old tank's, but don't rush heating the tank too quickly. I see you're in NY, and it's cold up there, so your fish are going to be much cooler than they are now by the time you're ready to put them in the tank at the new place. Once all your fish are in, I would set the heater about mid-way between what the tank temp is when fish go in, and where you want it to be later, then the next day bump it up where you're going to leave it. You could add sand at any time, it's always best to add sand after doing your rockwork anyway, so you could wait days or even weeks for the sand. HTH
Chris

Flipper62
01/01/2009, 01:38 AM
How big is the tank ?

killarsox
01/01/2009, 10:09 AM
125 Gallon Tank with 55 gallon sump