Moving Fluval 13.5

[efrainrodz.94]

Hey guys, I have a Fluval 13.5 tank that has been established for more than 2 years. I am moving on Saturday to a place that is just 20 mins away from my actual place. I have some questions. Do I need to empty the complete tank? Should I add new sand? For a 13 gallon tank, what's the best moving advice?

Thank you so much.

 

[brandon429]

This is the exact science for nano moves: your tank doesn't benefit from moving the sand over unrinsed, there's nothing special in two years stored waste in the sandbed. You see people avoiding move rinses because they believe them to be harmful, it advanced- ages your tank to move it, slosh waste around, and set it back up. You're very prone to gha and cyano outbreak, there's no benefit in it

But if you do a rip clean and move only perfectly rinsed surfaces, you're guaranteed a skip cycle transfer, no bottle bac needed, your sandbed is reset clean, and you can immediately begin heavy feeding to bring out corals


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/
It's your chance to de age the tank vs age it

Here's a thread of three hundred rinse jobs they're all doing the same set of moves study a few jobs

You wash the sand out the right way, transport it clean vs dirty and set back in the new place all skip cycle

 

[907_Reefer]

Yep, what you want to avoid is having all of the detritus from your 2 year old sand bed disturbed and mixed back up into the water column. Some have moved plenty of tanks by lowering water down to the sand level and moving it very carefully, but you likely would end up sloshing around enough on a 20 mile drive to provide some disturbance.

I would take the opportunity to replace the sand at this time, especially with a smaller tank - this will restart your 'lifespan' on the sand as well. Otherwise you can re-use, but it is commonly recommended to remove and rinse the sand.

I just moved my tank 300 miles, replaced the sand bed, good as new.

 

[Spare time]

Just put the rock in buckets secured. Take a handful of sand and place in a container to mix with new sand. It's simply untrue that the microbial and plankton life in the sand is useless. Even the guys at aquabiomics agree. At night I can watch tons of zooplankton living in the sand doing their thing. It's also silly to say that old sand beds are bad. It's true that if you have a sand bed where food constantly gets buried and you have no plankton or critters in there that it can become messy but that's like complaining that rock is covered in algae when you have no snails or crabs. However, you will get strong opinions from people here who have internet phds so keep that in mind

 

[efrainrodz.94]

This is the exact science for nano moves: your tank doesn't benefit from moving the sand over unrinsed, there's nothing special in two years stored waste in the sandbed. You see people avoiding move rinses because they believe them to be harmful, it advanced- ages your tank to move it, slosh waste around, and set it back up. You're very prone to gha and cyano outbreak, there's no benefit in it

But if you do a rip clean and move only perfectly rinsed surfaces, you're guaranteed a skip cycle transfer, no bottle bac needed, your sandbed is reset clean, and you can immediately begin heavy feeding to bring out corals


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/
It's your chance to de age the tank vs age it

Here's a thread of three hundred rinse jobs they're all doing the same set of moves study a few jobs

You wash the sand out the right way, transport it clean vs dirty and set back in the new place all skip cycle

Thank you so much for the recommendation!