Moving tank, what to do with sand?

[nano reef]

I will be moving in a few weeks, and while I have a plan to move my fish, corals, etc....what about the sandbed? Should I remove/rinse in RODI the existing sand, or get new sand, and if new, should I rinse first?

Petco has aragonite on sale 50 percent off! Have to prepay online then pick up instore or have it shipped and pay a fee! I went to buy some yesterday and I called the store beacuse it said limited stock at the store by my house but wouldnt let me put in my cart and pay for some reason, so the lady tells me to come in and she would honor the rate but they had 5 bags left, I go in a day later and there all gone! haha. Theres another one about 20 minutes from here as well so I will get it from there and prepay. I actually was looking at the live sand as well and some had sprung a leak and were dry and full of mold....didint realize that could happen. I have someone else's sand they had left from when I bought the aquarium and it was once live and dried out and it looks fine. I plan on rinsing the hell out of it and adding some new bags of aroganite beacuse its a little finer grain than I like.

 

[dmolavi]

Let them ride it out, just keep them submerged in this case. You'll probably do more harm then good trying to remove them from the rocks.

True...the move itself will be stressful enough (for them and me)...no need to add to it.

 

[Paul B]

I moved last year about 60 miles. I don't have sand but a lot of gravel. The gravel had to be in a vat for a week so I couldn't have standing water in there or it would have rotted and become hydrogen sulfide. I removed all the water from the gravel and put the gravel in a vat. When I was ready to put the gravel back in the tank, I rinsed it in old water and threw it in. Most of the old water I dumped but my gravel has been used for almost fifty years and I wanted to preserve the life.

The tank is doing great, I didn't lose anything and all is well.

 

[Sgradito]

Thankfully, this is a local move (15 miles). If rinsing the existing sand til clean is sufficient, I will do that. I know my most challenging part of the move will be to catch my fish :)

I have a rock flower nem that lives on the sandbed that i'll have to jostle loose (shouldn't be hard)...but for my BTAs that live on the rockwork - should I remove them before putting the rocks in buckets (submerged), or let them ride it out on the rock?

I agree with Homer, leave the BTA's on the rock. I've moved Rock Flowers, they can be persuaded to release from the bottom glass with your finger nail (carefully of course). I've done this a couple of times to relocate them to rock again.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Thankfully, this is a local move (15 miles). If rinsing the existing sand til clean is sufficient, I will do that. I know my most challenging part of the move will be to catch my fish :)

I have a rock flower nem that lives on the sandbed that i'll have to jostle loose (shouldn't be hard)...but for my BTAs that live on the rockwork - should I remove them before putting the rocks in buckets (submerged), or let them ride it out on the rock?

What I did was:
1. Fill a few 5 gal buckets with tank water before disturbing anything.

2. Pull all coral I could and put in ziplock baggies with tank water

3. Pull all rock without coral and add to 5 gal buckets, then fill buckets with water. Add rock with attached coral to the top of those buckets so it doesn’t get smashed

4. Fill 5 gal bucket half way up and add rock with bta. Toss other inverts in with it.

5. drain tank 3/4 and catch fish.

6. get to new place and add rocks, coral, inverts, then fish.

I made all new water at the new place and didn’t use any old water. I also thoroughly washed the new sand a week before the move. Prior to both pulling the rock from the tank and again at the buckets I swished it out to get any stuck detritus off. i only moved about 10 miles so it didn’t take too long. No acclimating or anything, just plopped it all right in.

 

[Amado]

You can think what you want, but it's a gimmick, and you have bought into it lock, stock, and barrel as most in the hobby have.

How long ago was that bagged up? How long has it sat on a shelf waiting to be bought? How long did it sit in a warehouse waiting to be shipped to the LFS(or amazon in your case) to be sold? Think if it was shipped on a UPS truck to your LFS in the winter it didn't freeze, or get super high heat in the summer? After all that, how much bacteria do you think is still alive?

Still think it's not a gimmick?

I digress though, and this thread is not the place to discuss this.

of course it’s still alive. When I receive the sand it’s wet. Bacteria stays dormant and be comes alive when you add water.
its the same cost to me as regular sand so I always use live sand. my 220 gallon tank was setup with no fish loss and no cycle.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Petco has aragonite on sale 50 percent off! Have to prepay online then pick up instore or have it shipped and pay a fee! I went to buy some yesterday and I called the store beacuse it said limited stock at the store by my house but wouldnt let me put in my cart and pay for some reason, so the lady tells me to come in and she would honor the rate but they had 5 bags left, I go in a day later and there all gone! haha. Theres another one about 20 minutes from here as well so I will get it from there and prepay. I actually was looking at the live sand as well and some had sprung a leak and were dry and full of mold....didint realize that could happen. I have someone else's sand they had left from when I bought the aquarium and it was once live and dried out and it looks fine. I plan on rinsing the hell out of it and adding some new bags of aroganite beacuse its a little finer grain than I like.

That’s the stuff I used. It was like $4/bag. It took forever to get it clean though.

 

[dmolavi]

of course it’s still alive. When I receive the sand it’s wet. Bacteria stays dormant and be comes alive when you add water.
its the same cost to me as regular sand so I always use live sand. my 220 gallon tank was setup with no fish loss and no cycle.

Off topic, but a good off topic....it would be interesting to see what bacteria the live sand vendors claim to have in their sand, then go to peer reviewed literature on the survivability of those strains to see if they could actually withstand transport/heat/cold. I don't doubt that some bacteria can (stuff lives in the geothermal vents in Yellowstone), but those aren't necessarily what we rely on in our reefs.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Off topic, but a good off topic....it would be interesting to see what bacteria the live sand vendors claim to have in their sand, then go to peer reviewed literature on the survivability of those strains to see if they could actually withstand transport/heat/cold. I don't doubt that some bacteria can (stuff lives in the geothermal vents in Yellowstone), but those aren't necessarily what we rely on in our reefs.

No, but there are also a bunch that hang out in volcanic vents in the ocean. Yellowstone bacteria might not be in our tanks, but maybe some of the stuff from those undersea vents is?

 

[Amado]

Off topic, but a good off topic....it would be interesting to see what bacteria the live sand vendors claim to have in their sand, then go to peer reviewed literature on the survivability of those strains to see if they could actually withstand transport/heat/cold. I don't doubt that some bacteria can (stuff lives in the geothermal vents in Yellowstone), but those aren't necessarily what we rely on in our reefs.

I also use fritz start. That’s a bacteria in a bottle. They also have a product that stays dormant and is not effected by temp.

 

[brandon429]

***nobody has ever bothered to proof wet caribsea sand for nitrification abilities and post it***

we're all theory battling, someone, please do :)


I vote heck yes it'll work. bag, bottle, purple bioshellac that activates in 12 days underwater liferock...songs that don't take 40 mins to download a 4 meg file....we're all techy nowadays and the bac better be too.

 

[Softhammer]

How did you get through multi-day moves with a reef tank? I’ve got another one coming up next year some time and I’m contemplating selling all my livestock and starting over, but I’ve got some things I’d really like to hold on to.

Buckets Lots of buckets. I bought about 20 with lids from U line. Not cheap but if you know it’s coming start buying instant ocean or whatever that comes in a nice bucket with lid. I’ll start with my mistakes. 1. Don’t ever ever put fish rock or corals together. If possible put all fish in one bucket that you can keep an eye on and aerate. No rock or coral. Separate corals into their own buckets and rock in another. The big lesson I learned was above with the sand and fish consume O2 much faster than anything else. All my corals and clams lived for 2 days in buckets-as long as there were no fish with it. It was a painful learning experience. Other than that plan out your water. I’ve done tap out of necessity every time without issue. Swap it out with RO when able and buy plenty of salt. I also broke a tank too on one move when I nailed a pothole in the Uhaul so have a Rubbermaid back up plan. Lots more I could add so hit me up if needed but it’s not an impossible feat.

 

[brandon429]

Agreed to that procedure it’s the sole arrangement that works across tanks, across reef tank conventions, isolation of oxygen consumers is a really neat way of classing the storage mode

 

[Softhammer]

Thank you!

 

[cesar6261]

I used all my existing sand, transferred sand to new tank around 7 AM ran the tank with a 100 micron sock for about 10 hrs before I transferred my live stock into display tank which was mostly clear by that time and complete cleared by the next day. Kept life stock in a large bin with a heater and power head.

 

[SR Reefing]

I would also replace sand completely.

 

[dmolavi]

I should followup to my post...

I moved the tank almost a month ago. I had my water station already set up at the new house with salt water and top off water ready. I rinsed all my sand, put my rocks in buckets, corals in tupperwares and fish in buckets. I brought the sand and water in buckets as well.

After a careful 20 minute drive to the new house, unloaded it all, set up the tank, and it's doing very well :) Thanks for all the tips and advice :)

 

[dmolavi]

Post move FTS...

 

[fishybizzness]

Nice! I'm planning a move soon from a 55 gallon to a 50 cube but it's only across my living room so I should be fine!! Lol