Moving - Transferring 6 year old tank - Help!

[Jmunk]

Update: LONG READ!

Bit of a setback - so I thought (before there was a leak I needed to fix) the tank would be ready to go on Saturday after it was installed to add the live rock piece and the ceramic block. So I brought them both in a bucket with saltwater to the new house. I took the hour and 15 minute drive and brought along a powerhead and heater. However, I stupidly didn't think about how a 300w heater couldn't be submerged in a 5 gallon bucket. So for several hours, the water was not heated. So they sat in the bucket all day, and I made the drive back home and put the rock back in my tank. Know what I didn't do? Put the ceramic block back in. It sat in the bucket for another day or so before I realized. There goes that!

Fast forward to today - the tank is all leak free, ready to go. This morning, I go to get that piece of live rock back out of the tank, and in the bucket to be transferred to the new house, again. Except now it reeks, badly. I know what live rock smells like, this smelled awful - like something dead. So I figured, there must've been some die off on the rock from the cold - and I didn't want to introduce that to the new tank. I put it back in my tank (where it can most certainly handle any sort of die off), and grabbed the rest of my ceramic block that I had in the sump.

This time, I had a small 5w heater. Got to the house, added the sand (pictures below), and put the ceramic block in the tank. That's where we're at now. All seems to be going well. What's reefing without some setbacks?

Here's the tank after one bag of sand

And here's the tank about an hour after adding FIVE bags of sand. Rinsing does absolute wonders. Still not perfect, could've done a better job, but in less than a day or so, this should be perfectly cleared up. If I hadn't rinsed, this would've EASILY taken days to get this clear.

Next up: figuring out the best containers to transport the fish and live rock, and the logistics of keeping everything warm without power for the 1 hour 15 min. drive. Got any ideas - let me know. More updates to come!

 

[brandon429]

cheap wal mart totes is what id use

and well done improvisation! we def want to reference this in our sand rinse thread its a huge collective job. One thing that will help is that I cannot recall one time in all of reefing where someone's unexpected challenge left them lacking surface area, even if the live rock is in question for a while, and I believe that assessment 1000% how it smells is true ammonia detection better than color kits.

you have that sand surface area, any extra bac riding in which always seems to be enough, Im not worried here at all. the current plan will work, you earned a cloudless transfer with one challenge on the rocks. their bac are not harmed, it was some other dieoff they'll be back fast and able. couple days I predict max.

and when it smells back to normal, its safe to use, even if api doesn't agree until 2023.

 

[brandon429]

swish-twist the rocks roughly in the holding water before you change it out. this ejects waste even in o.k. rocks its a storm mode, here it will stop your curing once temps are 70s+ saltwater. I bet they smell normal over nite, cures don't last long bet lets see.

 

[Jmunk]

cheap wal mart totes is what id use

and well done improvisation! we def want to reference this in our sand rinse thread its a huge collective job. One thing that will help is that I cannot recall one time in all of reefing where someone's unexpected challenge left them lacking surface area, even if the live rock is in question for a while, and I believe that assessment 1000% how it smells is true ammonia detection better than color kits.

you have that sand surface area, any extra bac riding in which always seems to be enough, Im not worried here at all. the current plan will work, you earned a cloudless transfer with one challenge on the rocks. their bac are not harmed, it was some other dieoff they'll be back fast and able. couple days I predict max.

and when it smells back to normal, its safe to use, even if api doesn't agree until 2023.

Hopefully now the bacteria from the ceramic block is multiplying and spreading to the sand!

That's what I was thinking too. No way the bacteria died, must've been something else. Maybe by Friday when I'm ready to move everything over, it'll smell back to normal. In any event, I have all the other live rock that should be good to go. Just hoping on the big move day with all the rock that there will be no more die off - just don't know how to really prevent that. I wouldn't think that an hour and 15 minutes without a heater would be enough to produce any die-off. I'll definitely be doing a final swish in that tote water before adding them to the new tank.

Think I'm going to go with two of these for the rock and coral, fully submerged in water: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-12-Gal-Tough-Storage-Bin-in-Black-206100/207207157
Then two or three 5 gal buckets for the fish.

 

[Aclman88]

Something like this might work for powering a heater and pump:

another option would be just use a battery powered pump and just crank the heat in the car.

 

[Jmunk]

Something like this might work for powering a heater and pump:

another option would be just use a battery powered pump and just crank the heat in the car.

I actually have an inverter here - definitely could use that. Hopefully the cab of the U-haul has enough space for two buckets and a person though lol!

Here was the tank today. Almost all clear already. We should be money for Friday.

 

[Jmunk]

Update:

Everything went wonderfully. Moved in on Friday. Started the day getting everything else surrounding the move prepared (furniture etc). When it was time for the tank, I made sure I moved as quickly as I could, while still being diligent.

• Drained tank almost full and used that water for the live rock totes
• Got all the rocks fully submerged in two 17 gallon HDX totes.
• Caught the fish with specimen containers (like they use in the fish store) and a net.
• Seperated in two 5-gallon buckets, with battery airstones, and heaters until I was completely done.
• Once I caught all fish, snails, inverts, sand corals etc - unplugged the heaters from the buckets.
• Put the live rock totes in the U-haul, put the two buckets of fish with me in the cab.
• U-haul had an AC plug in the cab, so used a power strip to be able to plug both heaters for the buckets in for the entire car ride.

-------------------------------

• Arrived at new house, put all the live rock in the water.
• Put all the fish in.
• Dump Dr. Tim's bottle in

Since then, no problems whatsoever. Everyone looks nice and healthy, albeit some still getting used to the tank. Actually getting a little bit of brown algae or diatoms that will probably go away soon. Funny enough, every single one of my corals look better than they did in my other tank. Fresh scenery, huh? Anyway, thanks for all the help and suggestions from everyone. While it was stressful, it all really worked out perfectly in the end.