Moving a Tank

[KeMiKiLL]

Tomorrow I will be purchasing someone's Fluval Sea Evo 5 setup and moving it 2 hours away to set up at my home. I will be purchasing the same lights (AI Prime 16HD) and powerhead (Jebao SW2) from the local LFS so I can duplicate the original setup as closely as possible. There are no fish in the setup but there are some LPS and softies.

How do I go about moving this? I will be getting the live, mature rock, with corals attached, the current water, OEM lights and return pump, and and existing CUC. I was thinking that I could get it broken down into buckets but leave a bit of water in the tank to keep the coraline algae a bit wet. My vehicle has a built in inverter so, if needed, I can run a small heater to keep temps consistent. I think, when I get home, I should just have to reconstruct the setup by putting in the rocks and substrate, CUC, then topping up the water slowly with a small airline siphoned from my mixed saltwater to the tank before turning on the pumps. The original owner, who has been in the hobby for 9 months, says to leave WaveMaker and lights off for a couple of days after setup.

I just want to make sure I get this right to reduce stress on the corals as much as possible.

The intention is to run this tank until my Biocube 32 is matured and ready for fish. Once that is done, I'll move some corals and the CUC to my biocube and remove the substrate from this tank to use as a QT.

 

[Espino963]

Get a bin with a lid. Put the rock and heater in there with the original water. Add a heater and power head when you get home. Close the lid and you can basically let it sit until your tank is set up. That’s what I did with a set up I purchased.
Left the rock and livestock in a bin for 2 weeks in my garage

 

[KeMiKiLL]

Get a bin with a lid. Put the rock and heater in there with the original water. Add a heater and power head when you get home. Close the lid and you can basically let it sit until your tank is set up. That’s what I did with a set up I purchased.
Left the rock and livestock in a bin for 2 weeks in my garage

Wow! So they aren't as super delicate to move as I assumed?
How do I stop the rock from shifting in the bin during transit and potentially crushing corals against the side? I'll drive carefully, of course, but some shifting is to be expected, especially with crazy drivers on the highway cutting you off and such.
Should I get a smallish bin so the water level keeps the rock submerged, or does that matter?

 

[Espino963]

Depending how big the rock is, I would say throw it in a 5 gallon bucket and do the bin thing when you get home. I drove about an hour for mine and nothing shifted or broke. Just don’t be a crazy driver

 

[zukihara]

I just did this very same thing preparing for a new tank and it was about 25 degrees outside. Nothing died. I will say that after the move, the tank was incredibly dirty so the one advice I would give is try to clean it a bit while the contents are out.

 

[brandon429]

Rinse the sand in tap water until clear, then lastly RO, before you set up the tank. See this recently completed job

HURRY

Might be a dumb question but, how do you rinse sand without killing beneficial bacteria? Swapping aquariums and wanted to use my sand from previous tank. Putting it together now. I saved a 5 gallon bucket of the aquarium water and have the sand in the bottom of the tank outside with about 2...

www.reef2reef.com

any concerns about bacteria are directly addressed there, there aren’t any concerns, all details covered with pics there.

do not use any degree of old unrinsed sand, not even a handful.

post #30 in that link shows what can happen if we try and customize a move without rinsing.

 

[KeMiKiLL]

Thank you all for your help with this. A small update and some questions.

When I arrived home I set up the new Prime 16HD on the 5 gallon bucket with the rocks and corals and put in the WaveMaker. While preparing everything else I would peek in occasionally and I'd see the hammer opening up, GPS "hairs" appearing, and the zoas opening slightly too. I thought everything was going much better than expected.
Tank was reassembled and brand new substrate rinse very well with my tap water (from the well) and then a final rinse with Seapora RO.
I added about 2 gallons of original water to the tank and allowed it to settle a bit before moving the rocks and CUC into the tank. I would alternating add 2 cups of new water (matched temp and salinity) and 1 cup of the old water until the rocks and corals were submerged. I imported the lighting schedule from the original owner and set to 70% for acclimation.

I'm about to do parameter testing but Im not seeing the progress in the tank that I saw in the bucket. The hammer has slightly expanded and the xenia are pulsating but zoas, gsp, ricordias, and everything else are closed up tight. I don't have the powerhead running in the tank at the moment as I can't seem to find a position or setting where it's not absolutely blasting the corals. It's a Jebao SOW3.
Is there anything I should be doing to help destress? Any anti-stress additives for corals (like there are for fish)? All CUC seem to be behaving normally.

I did a feeding earlier hoping to make everything happy, but no such luck.

What are my next steps? Should I not feed for a few days? Get a powerhead in ASAP? Should I expect grunos corals for a few days?

Just not sure what needs to be done (if anything) at this point, especially since the corals seemed to be opening up in the bucket.

TIA

 

[brandon429]

Those corals aren't harmed they're in holding. Make sure lighting is ramped down if any.


What we track is water clarity that's key. You prepped well to avoid false flag clouds

And any clouding will be linked to ammonia

Don't add prime or bottled bac, oxygen saps

 

[brandon429]

Merely circulate clean water and change water you've done well in this mix it's safe good approach. Closed up but in known clean water is no harm. Back at home they'll open

 

[KeMiKiLL]

Merely circulate clean water and change water you've done well in this mix it's safe good approach. Closed up but in known clean water is no harm. Back at home they'll open

Great to hear. I did set the AI Prime 16HD to 70% intensity for 5 days for acclimation. Should they be lower? They were in the buckets without lights for maybe 4 hours or so.


I also put a drop of Bio S in due to the ~50% new water when the tank was full. Forgot to mention that in the update post...

Water looks pretty clear at the moment and I just did a set of standard tests. Trace amounts of Ammonia and a tiny amount of Nitrates (maybe 10ppm) with no Nitrites.

I've target fed small amounts twice today hoping to make these little guys happy. Should I stop feeding if they aren't eating?

 

[brandon429]

Yes all good calls. Or, keep feeding and just be exchanging water like cpr pumps then you can siphon out leftover food


Its ideal to offer them some feed not a problem. Lights need ramping down, whatever would be far less than current. Back up over five days