Tips for moving a 75 gallon reef 2 hrs?

[Yanksrkewl00]

I'm helping a relative move a 75 gallon reef. Its his first saltwater aquarium and I'm new myself so i'd appreciate some tips. Mostly on how to handle the livestock and keep bacteria alive. We are going to transport the LR in buckets with lid. The LR doesn't have to submerged in water correct it just has to be wet? Included are 2 tangs (yellow,hippo) and small reef fish. Can i transport them in one bucket or split into 2 buckets? How about coral? When the reef gets set up we are keeping half the water and we will to match temperature and salinity of the new water to the existing. Should we rinse the sand out before we put it in? I appreciate it. Thank you! I'm trying to get my relative to join reef2reef forum too:wink:

 

[Captain Nemo]

The most important thing is to keep it all warm. If you can't then don't even try to move it. You just need the fish in a bucket and corals and LR in others. I recommend transporting in an SUV so you can control the temp better but that will be your biggest obstacle. Keep it all warm and good luck!!

 

[CivicDemon]

Make sure he changes the sand bed, Sand beds can be hell if they get stirred up.

 

[cginter]

Make sure he changes the sand bed, Sand beds can be hell if they get stirred up.

I moved my 55g an hour away and kept my sand bed in my tank when moving it, with out stirring it up. And I was fine afterwards. I have to move next month and have to do it all over again except this time I have a 125g. Do most people recommend taking out the old sand and adding new when moving?

 

[Yanksrkewl00]

Should I just rinse out the sand bed in rod I water or better to just replace ?

 

[scouncil]

You can keep or replace, i dont think it matters so long as you have your live rock intact and save at least a third to half of the original tank water. I'd filter the sand or at least give it a good "vacuum" before you put everything back in just since you won't get the chance again.

I guess even better is cleaning with the "vacuum" system (you know, the big wide tube attached to siphon tube that picks up sand/detritus and drops the sand when you lift the tube...) after you take everything out. That way you're just tossing water you would have drained out anyway.

Good luck if you haven't done it yet, and if you have- what did you do and how did it work?
Susan

 

[Yanksrkewl00]

The move went well. Thank you all for the advice. We picked up fiji pink sand for the tank and it looks very nice. All corals growing well. The only thing that was lost in the move was a fighting conch. Good thing aquatic den had more ha. The tank just got upgraded lights from T5HO to AI LED!