Moving an Established Setup

[Noah's Shark]

Good morning,
I am going to be conducting a move of a rather large (120 gallons) reef tank here in a few days and, while I'm confident in my abilities, I want to get your opinions on one major thing:
There is a possibility that EVERYTHING will have to come out in order to fit it through the door way, and there are some concerns about disturbing the sand bed too much by removing it and replacing it. I have seen some videos where the movers replace the old bed with a new one, others where they just switch to bare bottom, and even more where they just place the old sand back. What are your opinions on this?
Thank you and have a wonderful day.

 

[Kryptonian]

If you have to remove the sand in the move, reusing old sand is fine but since your system is established, I'd recommend rinsing. You can rinse in tap water until it runs clear then do a rinse in RODI.

 

[MnFish1]

There is no real right or wrong way to do it - When I did it - I removed everything - tossed 1/2 of the sand - and replaced that with Live sand. Note - I have a very thin sand bottom - perhaps 1/4-1/2 inch so there was little risk of hydrogen sulfide, etc. If you have a deep sand bed -I might replace the whole thing - and not rinse. I just took the sand out - rinsed it quite well with Fresh water - multiple times - then with a final saltwater rinse - then put some of the old sand and the new 'live sand' in the tank. Most of the 'bacteria' -will be in your filter - and presumably your rock. Sorry Long answer - I considered a bare bottom tank - but dont really like the look - and with a shallow as compared to deep sand bed its quite easy to clean. Good luck with your move

 

[Noah's Shark]

If you have to remove the sand in the move, reusing old sand is fine but since your system is established, I'd recommend rinsing. You can rinse in tap water until it runs clear then do a rinse in RODI.

Excellent, thank you.

 

[DaneGer21]

Have plenty of new saltwater on hand. Extra buckets. Tons of towels. Air bubblers, heaters. And worst case, a bottle or two of bacteria.

I’d spend the extra few bucks and replace 99% of your sand bed and then seed it with a few scoops of your old sand.?

 

[piranhaman00]

It’s stressful and more issues arise than anticipated , be prepared!

Use completely new sand and load up on bacteria in a bottle, also prime on hand, have towels extra salt water and extra rodi,

good luck! It’s very possible but it really does get tough!

 

[Ribo15]

I recently moved a 180 out placed everything in buckets and put in a new 240 fish and everything lived in a few 30 gallon buckets. Had lots of saltwater mixed up and ready to go. I reused the sand and rinsed it with the old saltwater as I was draining the tank just to get most the gunk our. I had about a 1-5-2” sand bed. Got the new tank and stand in place. Added in a foot or so of water then all the sand. Did rock scape and filled. Added polyfill to my sump and circulated the water for a day it pulled a lot of the floaters out of the water and then the next day added all the fish and everything has been happy and never looked better. It’s only been 2 weeks though since doing that.

 

[MnFish1]

PS - I was also going to suggest save 50% of your old water as well - replace the rest with new.