Tank transfer logistics

[zimmer]

Hi - I'm transferring from a 65 to 90 gallon tank. I'm making water and doing some cleaning today, then the big move tomorrow. I want to make sure my plan is solid so I appreciate any advice or feedback.

First, transfer fish, urchins, crabs, snails to an established 20 gal QT, matching pH & SG, ammonia is at 0.

Next - anemones, big leather, zoas, hammer, gorgonian. Move them to a separate container using existing tank water that they are accustomed to. Move bare rock to its own bucket.

Drain tank & reserve water, thoroughly wash old and new sand (I read the 50 pg transfer thread). Move the sump into the new cabinet. Hook up plumbing,, refugium. I'm moving from an HOB to internal with drains out the bottom, and hope the setup will go smoothly.

Fill the new tank with sand & water. Is it better to have all fresh water, or would it be ok re-use existing tank water that was reserved? Logistically and time-wise it's easier to re-use existing water. I estimate that I would have maybe 30 gallons available.

How long will the anemones & corals be ok in their bucket with a heater & flow added? That's my biggest concern since with hooking up new plumbing, I want to be sure to allow for time to navigate any bumps in the road until it's all running smoothly. The fish will be ok in the QT for a while.

After all is up & running, move corals, rocks, anemones. Last step would be to move the fish.

thanks for any input, advice, words of wisdom.....

 

[EricR]

Hi - I'm transferring from a 65 to 90 gallon tank. I'm making water and doing some cleaning today, then the big move tomorrow. I want to make sure my plan is solid so I appreciate any advice or feedback.

First, transfer fish, urchins, crabs, snails to an established 20 gal QT, matching pH & SG, ammonia is at 0.

Next - anemones, big leather, zoas, hammer, gorgonian. Move them to a separate container using existing tank water that they are accustomed to. Move bare rock to its own bucket.

Drain tank & reserve water, thoroughly wash old and new sand (I read the 50 pg transfer thread). Move the sump into the new cabinet. Hook up plumbing,, refugium. I'm moving from an HOB to internal with drains out the bottom, and hope the setup will go smoothly.

Fill the new tank with sand & water. Is it better to have all fresh water, or would it be ok re-use existing tank water that was reserved? Logistically and time-wise it's easier to re-use existing water. I estimate that I would have maybe 30 gallons available.

How long will the anemones & corals be ok in their bucket with a heater & flow added? That's my biggest concern since with hooking up new plumbing, I want to be sure to allow for time to navigate any bumps in the road until it's all running smoothly. The fish will be ok in the QT for a while.

After all is up & running, move corals, rocks, anemones. Last step would be to move the fish.

thanks for any input, advice, words of wisdom.....

Sounds reasonable -- I did tank transfer 1 year ago but only from 37 gallon TALL to 40 gallon breeder.
I'll only comment on the water and sand...

I saved and re-used about half of my old water and didn't have a problem.

I went with new sand and, even that, I ended up rinsing for about 1.5 hours,,, plus that was before the actual transfer so you'd have to factor in some time for that.
*old sand seems like a pain (and potential source for problems) but I'm sure you can make it work, as long as you really take the time to rinse and get all the old junk out of it.

 

[doubleshot00]

I just did a tank transfer and will say it took me all day. I reused 50% of my old water and used new sand. This was about 2 months ago. The next day i tested no3, po4 and alk. Nitrate was stupid low so I started dosing and po4 was stupid high but i left it alone. After week of decent feeding and light dosing i had 5-6 no3 and the po4 started to come down. After about 2 weeks i add a very small amount of gfo and got it to .15 and nitrates were climbing like no tomorrow. Its been 2 months now and my tanks no3 and po4 just tanked. I have dinos now. So tread lightly.

I would keep a bottle of bacteria just incase. I dosed an entire bottle of biospira just incase.

 

[zimmer]

Thanks! I have a bottle ready to go.

 

[zimmer]

Sounds reasonable -- I did tank transfer 1 year ago but only from 37 gallon TALL to 40 gallon breeder.
I'll only comment on the water and sand...

I saved and re-used about half of my old water and didn't have a problem.

I went with new sand and, even that, I ended up rinsing for about 1.5 hours,,, plus that was before the actual transfer so you'd have to factor in some time for that.
*old sand seems like a pain (and potential source for problems) but I'm sure you can make it work, as long as you really take the time to rinse and get all the old junk out of it.

Thanks- good to have a time frame for rinsing sand.

 

[design.maddie]

I did a transfer/move this year and will repeat what they all said. Use new sand. I used half old and half new(red the same thread) and had a major tank crash and lost a ton of stuff. I will never reuse more than a cup of old sand.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I agree 100% with using new sand. While it's going to be best to rinse that too, you'll just be removing the finer particles and "dust" that can cloud the tank.
I told attempted to rinse and reuse old sand and it's a HUGE pita! And even when you think it's rinsed enough, there's a decent chance it will still be dirty enough to cause lots of headaches.

Using old water is fine. It won't do anything to aide in the cycle, but as long as it isn't polluted from the old sand, it's fine. (meaning, if a lot of gunk is kicked up into the water, don't save it, just the clear tank water).

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Regarding the plumbing... If I understand correctly, you're not currently using the sump. If that's the case, it might be best to work on getting the sump plumbed BEFORE you start moving livestock and breaking down your current tank.
In an ideal scenario, you would get all the plumbing completed and test it using regular tap water. Then, if you run into some major problem, your fish, corals, inverts, etc are still safe and sound.

Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!

 

[zimmer]

Regarding the plumbing... If I understand correctly, you're not currently using the sump. If that's the case, it might be best to work on getting the sump plumbed BEFORE you start moving livestock and breaking down your current tank.
In an ideal scenario, you would get all the plumbing completed and test it using regular tap water. Then, if you run into some major problem, your fish, corals, inverts, etc are still safe and sound.

Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!

I already have a sump. The new part is moving from a HOB overflow to an internal overflow. Hopefully it will go smoothly!

I’m convinced - going will all new sand, and a shallower bed to start off with for easier cleaning.

thanks!

 

[IL-Reef-A4]

Agree on the new sand. Mostly new sand with just a little of the old mixed in should work well. However, when I moved my tank my nitrates did go down more than I anticipated with the new bed and same feeding habits leaving me with ultra low NO3 in the tank. My experience might be an anomaly but something to look out for after the move.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I disagree on all new sand.

When I do something like this, I drain 95% of the water, stir the sand up to fluff out detritus, mix it around for a few minutes, then pile all of the sand up in one corner. Remove the remaining water.

Scoop the sand out, add to new tank, add some additional new sand, and you instantly have a nice, established sand bed.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I disagree on all new sand.

When I do something like this, I drain 95% of the water, stir the sand up to fluff out detritus, mix it around for a few minutes, then pile all of the sand up in one corner. Remove the remaining water.

Scoop the sand out, add to new tank, add some additional new sand, and you instantly have a nice, established sand bed.

Or, like my experience, you crash your tank...

IMO, not worth the risk.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I disagree on all new sand.

When I do something like this, I drain 95% of the water, stir the sand up to fluff out detritus, mix it around for a few minutes, then pile all of the sand up in one corner. Remove the remaining water.

Scoop the sand out, add to new tank, add some additional new sand, and you instantly have a nice, established sand bed.

The issue here is that no matter how well you swish it around, you are still transferring enough to overwhelm a not established biofilter. Too many tank crashes proving the issue to think this is still a good idea. A good friend of mine locally recently lost his Home Display, plus his side business that was week established, because of this.

To me, it's not worth it.

 

[zimmer]

To be clear, “crash” means nitrates & phosphates bottoming out, correct? I have 18 month old rock so that counts for a somewhat established biofilter. I was thinking that this older rock plus new sand would balance each other out.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

To be clear, “crash” means nitrates & phosphates bottoming out, correct? I have 18 month old rock so that counts for a somewhat established biofilter. I was thinking that this older rock plus new sand would balance each other out.

Crash is used to describe a lot of catastrophic situations

 

[Jedi1199]

When I upgraded my tank from a 55g to the new 135 in July, I used as much clear tank water as I could. I also used ALL of the existing sand AS-IS!!! I didnt rinse it, wash it, voodoo ritual over it, have an ordained priest come and do a ritual blessing... nothing nadda zero!!

I drained the water to the level of the sand then started scooping the sand into a bucket. It all went into the new tank exactly as it came out of the old. I added 4 bags of new sand directly from the bag and filled the tank. I ran the canister filter from the old 55, plus 2 very strong flowmakers aimed at the sandbed to keep anything from settling on the surface. In less than18 hours the water was cleared up.

On day 3, everything went back into the tank. No bottled bacteria needed. old rock first, then corals and finally fish. Done!!

I had only ONE single loss with the transfer and that was a torch that was already receding before I started.

In the next weeks I added more fish, more corals and more dry rocks.

It is now early November and I still have not lost a single coral, fish or invert.

 

[zdrc]

I wonder if the problem people have with nutrients bottoming out after a tank transfer has more to do with the increase in water volume at an equivalent feeding schedule and the large water change involved in doing the transfer than it does with using new sand.

Then again, I can't really see how reusing sand is bad as well? I'm not really sure what people are worried about here? Do they think the sand will release extra ammonia? Why would it do that and where exactly was the ammonia tied up in the first place? I didn't think sand could absorb ammonia. I wonder if people who excessively rinsed the old sand ended up killing off most of the microfauna in the sand and this mass die-off triggered a mini-cycle. In this case, I think messing with the old sand as little as possible would be the best route if using the old sand (just like what Jedi1199 and Gregg @ ADP did).

 

[zimmer]

So many different experiences! At some point, I suppose you just do what feels right for your situation and have this awesome forum on speed-dial for help

 

[Jedi1199]

So many different experiences! At some point, I suppose you just do what feels right for your situation and have this awesome forum on speed-dial for help

Unsure why people have crashes either.

I should add I guess that my upgrade was significant. I tripled my water volume and more than doubled my footprint.

I had a huge increase of surface area for cycling bacteria, plus I diluted the water that I reused by a considerable amount. I also brought a large refugium online about a week after the tank was set up. I am sure that a lot of these things factor in.

Now, if you refer to my build thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-new-135-build.909794/ You will see step by step how I did the transfer, and also, the updates that I have posted since the build was finished. It hasn't been all roses and kittens..

 

[brandon429]

zimmer

another way to see the matter is there are two different forms of safety in the job you're considering

there's what worked for one person/they relay it to you and if all variables stated and unstated align, you get the same outcome


and then there's what works for solely other's tanks...threads that do tank transfers and document things through all variables. I guarantee you that all losses associated in tank moves, including fish wipeouts and coral loss after the move, came from unrinsed systems that transferred over waste, thinking it was better to move as much bacteria as possible

the entire hobby is trained that we're consistently low on water bacteria, in water, and cleaning = destabilization but that's false. cleaning = stabilization and removal of irritants tbd. it's not ammonia, seneye owners can attest

we think it's mixed states of bacteria/bacterial compounds upwelled during transfer events, rock slides, powerhead dislodges / name your causative. it's always a nutrient upwelling for the few times losses occur in tank transfer.


we are out to page fifty on the official tank transfer thread of zero losses for one sole reason: every entrant regardless of reason for posting rinses their entire sandbed in tap water 100% until it's cloudy, final rinse in ro water or saltwater/then it's ready for use.

by streamlining all posters regardless of presentation reason into a guaranteed sandbed only consisting of sand grains, no waste, we have a perfect outcome. cover any fish as you hold them in totes, we had jumper fish before but not any tank crashes.

the nutrients in the end don't matter, you're testing for dissolved nutrients that's only one viable pathway

the other pathway is high suspended feed/protein and low dissolved waste which a brand new transferred system with a rinsed bed can attain, you just take advantage of that uber clean system and feed it like you stole it.

the cleaner you transfer over a system, the least clouding that transfers among rocks and sand, the more perfect the outcome in public tanks numbering in the several hundreds now.

if you hesitantly rinse things out of fear of bacterial loss, that does more harm than good.