Moving an established tank plan. Help Please

[jerpa]

I'm buying an established 30 gal tank. the person I'm buying it off of has a new 30 gal I'm going to pick up tomorrow. the livestock is in a separate tank. my plan is to get the empty tank and add dry sand and about 10 gal of new Saltwater to it. Allow the sand to settle and water get to temp then on Monday go get the live rock, coral, Cuc and the fish. I plan on using his tank water to finish filling the aquarium and also use some of his live sand to seed the new sand. I'm only moving everything about 20 min drive away. I don't expect any cycle big enough to harm the fish because the live rock is established and will not be out of water for any significant time and the sand bed is dead except for what I add for seeding. Does this seem right. Just want to get others opinions.

[greech]

Yes, sounds like you have things covered. If the tank setup will take a while and you don;t bag/cooler the fish then you might want to put a little flow and a heater in whatever bucket, etc. you have them in. Take the opportunity to shake out the rock good in some of the old water.

Also make some extra water so you have extra. Always seem to lose water when you move a tank.

[jerpa]

I've got 10 extra gallons ready because I figured I'd lose some along the way. Plus what I use to rinse the rock. Any idea how much sand I should use to seed? And should i rinse his sand or just put it in?

[Daimyo68]

1 cup of the established sand would be enough. Thats how much I used when I setup my 65g and used established rock. I never saw any cycle at all.

Just use sand from the top layer of the old sand bed. You don't want to scoop up anything to deep. You could possibly scoop up some toxins that you don't want.

You got everything else covered from what I read. Make sure to acclimate your livestock as normal.