Moving Tank in 2 hours, need advice

[_cpate3_]

I have a pretty good game plan. It is only an hour drive but it’s my first time moving a tank and am worried.

I have a Fluval Evo 13.5 stocked with corals, 2 clownfish, a goby, a pistol shrimp, and CUC.

My plan is to drain the tank but keep the sand (I vacuum it every water change so it’s very clean) and biomedia wet as to not disturb the bacteria.

1 bucket will have my rock, corals, and CUC
1 bucket with have the fish and pistol shrimp with 1 piece of live rock and a bubbler
1 bucket for the rest of the water

I am nervous about putting the fish and pistol shrimp in the same container, will the stress of the environment cause the pistol shrimp to harm the clownfish? Or will it stay with the goby and be fine for the hour car ride.

Also I have a tight fitting lit for the fish bucket, but will that work with the air pump or should I do Saran Wrap in case the fish jump and I can poke holes to let air and CO2 escape.

Is the bubbler necessary for only an hour car ride?

Lots of uncertainty but I hope everything turns out ok!

 

[Rubymoon286]

I personally would ditch the sand in favor of new sand, but I'm extremely paranoid about reusing sand. I don't know on the shrimp, I'd be inclined to use two buckets - one for the shrimp and goby one for the clowns, but I'm overly cautious about a lot of things. As long as the buckets aren't full full, I think a tight fitting lid should be fine, I'm pro bubbler even for just an hour drive.

Best wishes with your move!

 

[brandon429]

there is only danger in keeping your current sand, but people have decided to do it anyway despite the readable threads where that was the sole reason things died. If you keep it, it should be rinsed like we do in the tank transfer thread, and if you get new sand, it should be rinsed like we do in the tank transfer thread just the same. skip that process and I collect 1 of every 20 skippers as a crash example. we link those on page one of the sand rinse and tank transfer thread. it has nothing you need, it's bacteria nor the bacteria on your biomedia are 0% important to the reef whether running or transferring.

that's an importance to freshwater

reefs only need live rock bacteria.

 

[_cpate3_]

I personally would ditch the sand in favor of new sand, but I'm extremely paranoid about reusing sand. I don't know on the shrimp, I'd be inclined to use two buckets - one for the shrimp and goby one for the clowns, but I'm overly cautious about a lot of things. As long as the buckets aren't full full, I think a tight fitting lid should be fine, I'm pro bubbler even for just an hour drive.

Best wishes with your move!

I’ve got some styrofoam coolers I just found!!! So I’m going to do exactly that.

Bucket 1: rock and inverts
Bucket 2: rock and corals
Styrofoam cooler 1: 2 clownfish
Styrofoam cooler 2: shrimp and goby

 

[exnisstech]

For an hour drive and a tank that size I would drain half the water and leave the livestock in. Have a friend help carry it to your ride and refill when you arrive. You could even save the water removed to speed the process.

 

[_cpate3_]

Post move update: everything survived!!!

I had a very small ammonia spike that went down after I added a small amount of fritzyme. Everything seems to be ok and survived so we wait until the morning!