Need Tips on moving a reef tank

ReefDude716

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I will be moving 15 min away in November just bought my first house. I'm in buffalo ny so it will be in the 40s by the time i move. I have a 30 gallon reef tank with an eshops rs100 sump. I have alot of equipment such as neptune trident ,dos, apex , powerstrips, ato , protein skimmer, ato , ato resvoir, fleece roller. echotech battery backup, two mp10's 2 radion pro xr15 gen 4 , vectra return. like 5 heaters. two extra 10 gallon tanks. RODI. A bunch of extra supplements and chemicals. uv sterilizer. a extra jeabo doser. I have like at least 5 5gallon buckets. Extra powerheads. extra return pump. BUnch of testing equipment.
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I have a tank filled wall to wall with coral. Should I get foam pads and fill 5 gallon buckets. and put a large rock with coral in the middle of the bucket with the foam around it. Or should i try to get coral off the rock that isn't crazy encrusted and bag them. I feel like the foam bucket idea might be easier and less work and could keep the coral safe. The coral on the wall is only gsp on back wall so i think if i remove almost all the water except like an inch on the bottom where the sand is. I was going to keep an inch of water in tank and the sand and remove everything else. I believe the gsp would be find out of water for at least 30 min to an hour. Should i replace my sand its 2 and a half years old ? i'm just worried about a recycle if i try to change it. I add a small amount of bacteria from brightwell aquatics every time i do a weekly 10% water change. I think the whole process from tear down to putting it back up would only take 2 hours
 

blaxsun

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I think the whole process from tear down to putting it back up would only take 2 hours
Yeah... I think that might be a tad unrealistic, as it doesn't really allow for any eventualities (of which there are always some). If this were me, I'd invest in a 40-gallon rubbermaid tub (the black ones that they use for livestock) and plan to move your water, rockscape, corals, fish (etc.) there along with heaters and wavemakers. Then you can take down, review and re-setup your aquarium again at your leisure, make any outstanding changes, etc. They'll be more than fine without any filtration for the short duration of the move.

You certainly could replace or re-use the substrate (including rinsing). Most of your bacteria is going to be in the rock and not on the glass or in the substrate anyway (although there will be some). @brandon429 has an entire thread devoted to this subject, so I defer to his expertise.
 

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