Moving Established Reef Tank questions

[Ian Baxter]

I’m looking at buying a 190g established reef tank that I will upgrade to from my 65g. I live about 30 minutes away.

He uses Ocean Crystals orange bucket and I use Red Sea Blue bucket. My alk is about .7-1.0 higher and mag about 100ppm lower. Trying to make this as easy as possible, so could I only keep the water from his tank that I use to keep the fish and rock/corals in. Then use new saltwater (blue bucket) to fill it back up at my house? There are not a ton of corals (mostly softies and 2-3 huge chalice colonies).

How should I transport the fish?

Will I need all new sand? Would I need to Wait to add everything back if I add it? I definitely want to add more new sand to it for my goby.

Stocking:
Sailfin Tang - L
Purple tang - M
Schol Tang - S
Blue Tang - L
Yellow Tang - L
Angel - S
Stripey - M

I would move my stuff over about 1-2 weeks after.

Here are some pics of the new tank.

 

[vlangel]

If you have totes, buckets, and even a brute can with a dolly you can use those for fish, coral and rock. I would not transfer fish and rock in the same container as I have heard of fish getting crushed that way. Tangs should have some sort of aerator as they have higher respiration than other fish.

I think you can wash the sand that in it or add new if you prefer. Either way you need to rinse sand. If you add biospira and if the rock gets transferred quickly I think you can transport everything, set it up at your house and fill tank up with pre-made saltwater (at the same or close salinity) and move fish and coral back in. Keep an eye on the ammonia to make sure it does not rise to dangerous levels. If it gets a little high do a 50% water change to dilutes the ammonia, but honestly if you get everything moved into the tank in 1 day, i would not expect that to happen. I helped my son move tanks from a state away and it always was fine.

 

[Ian Baxter]

If you have totes, buckets, and even a brute can with a dolly you can use those for fish, coral and rock. I would not transfer fish and rock in the same container as I have heard of fish getting crushed that way. Tangs should have some sort of aerator as they have higher respiration than other fish.

I think you can wash the sand that in it or add new if you prefer. Either way you need to rinse sand. If you add biospira and if the rock gets transferred quickly I think you can transport everything, set it up at your house and fill tank up with pre-made saltwater (at the same or close salinity) and move fish and coral back in. Keep an eye on the ammonia to make sure it does not rise to dangerous levels. If it gets a little high do a 50% water change to dilutes the ammonia, but honestly if you get everything moved into the tank in 1 day, i would not expect that to happen. I helped my son move tanks from a state away and it always was fine.

Thank you. That’s kind of what I was thinking. How long do you think it might take for the sand to settle or would it be an issue to put everything in before it completely does?

 

[vlangel]

Thank you. That’s kind of what I was thinking. How long do you think it might take for the sand to settle or would it be an issue to put everything in before it completely does?

If you put the rock in first, then the sand and then pump the water into a big bowl and let it run over the sides of the bowl onto the sand, it wont stir it up as much. Of course don't pump it in with too much gusto, use a slower pump. Then there is a good chance that it will be mostly cleared up the next day. And yes, I would put fish and coral in as soon as the tank is filled high enough to have a powerhead aerating the tank. I did that with my new transfer a month or so ago and it was fine.

 

[dwest]

Great advice above,

For those fish, I would use at least five 5 gallon buckets, filled to about 3 gallons with lids and aerators on all of them.

I moved my 30 year old 180 gallon reef about 4 months ago.

Good luck!

 

[Ian Baxter]

If you put the rock in first, then the sand and then pump the water into a big bowl and let it run over the sides of the bowl onto the sand, it wont stir it up as much. Of course don't pump it in with too much gusto, use a slower pump. Then there is a good chance that it will be mostly cleared up the next day. And yes, I would put fish and coral in as soon as the tank is filled high enough to have a powerhead aerating the tank. I did that with my new transfer a month or so ago and it was fine.

Thanks!