Moving 180 gallon reef tank

[Vader7782]

I was wondering if anyone who has had to move their tank could share their experience with me. I have a full 180 gallon reef with mostly sps and a few soft corals. I also have clams and around 20 fish. My biggest concern is what to do with the sand bed. I have 120 lbs of sand and I was wondering if I should just keep a few 5 gallon buckets full to reseed some new sand. I will be moving about 15 miles away, probably in about a month or so, depending on when I close on my new house. Please share any ideas or experiences any of you have had.
Thanks,
Jeff

[P. Jibles]

I helped Ian, Aquaman7, move his tank to his new place. Now it wasn't a 180 gallon tank, but it was still a pretty hefty move none the less. What I found out is that you can never have to enough 5gal buckets and large rubber-maid containers! Here are some steps that we did for our move...

1. Kill the power and remove/clean all equipment (start a new right?! )
2. Drained water level down to the top of the rock scape
3. Removed all coral as best we could. SEPARATE BY BUCKET!! We figured that the softies would be fine if they were in the same bucket, but we did separate all the LPS and SPS into baggies so we wouldn't get a war zone going on.
4. Removed as many inverts are we could. SEPARATE SNAILS AND HERMITS!! The hermits will snag some new shells if ya know what I mean.
5. Removed rock. Now this was a tricky part because some rock had corals on them while others did not. For the ones that did not have corals on them we placed them in buckets and just draped paper towel over them to keep the rock "living" (we did the same with rocks that had zoas and mushrooms on them) But the rocks with coral, we submerged them in the water then sealed up the lid.
6. Removed more water into buckets for fish
7. Removed fish (separate if needed) by having the rock out of the tank it makes it a lot easier catching the little buggers. PLACE A AIR PUMP INTO BUCKET WITH FISH! why you ask? they will be stressed and chances are you will put them into the tank last anyways as they ferment in the stirred up bucket water. Spend the $20 on a battery air pump..not $50 on a new fish.
8. Now here is were your sand question comes in.. Remove the sand. It makes the tank way to heavy and you don't want to crack the bottom. We put his sand in one of those flat plastic containers, drained out as much water as we could, and then threw away some sand that just looked "exhausted" and "outdated" hahah. You'll want to have some new sand to put in because chances are you will lose some sand in the moving process. Have you found a way to move your clam? what species of clam is it!!??

Hope that helps Jeff,
JB

[Vader7782]

J.B.,
Thanks for the reply. That sounds like a good method to me. Similar to what I have been planning on doing. As for the clams, I have 7, 2 T. Squamosa, 1 T. Derasa, and 4 T. Crocea. I was planning on placing them by themselves in a rubbermaid tub. As for the moving process, how long did it take you? Did you need to add heaters to any of the water? Did all of the live stock make it? Also using the same sand did not get an ammonia spike?
-Jeff

[P. Jibles]

That collection of clams sounds incredible!! You may want to prop them up when you pack them.. could cause some damage along the clam's rear retractor muscle. It took us all afternoon to make the complete move, and from the follow-up from Ian he said the tank went through a mini-cycle: a little color bleaching and diatoms, but it subsided. Oh, and we did put a heater into the fish bucket. Hope that helps!
J.B.

[Coral Pets]

If it is a 2"+ sand bed, I would replace or wash the sand. I've tried a few times to move a tank and the sand, but the sand usually has a bunch of nutrients stored in it.

[Vader7782]

Thanks for the replies. J.B. I will be very careful moving the clams as they are probably my favorite reef inhabitants. I'm glad to hear you had such good success moving.
So do you just wash the sand with some of the aquarium water and use the same sand?
-Jeff

[KGERBUS]

I have moved 3 established set ups with little to no loss. This is what I did. I pumped out 3/4 of the water into buckets. Next I removed all of the live rock and put them into different buckets. I removed all fish and placed them into first batch of water removed. (If you have enough buckets place each fish in individual buckets.)The remainder will probably be very cloudy and nasty throw it out.Put the rocks int buckets that do not have any fish in them. Then I would put all of the sand in a bucket. Disconnect all of the plumbing and misc equipment. Move the tank and misc stuff into the truck. Move the rock and finally move the fish last. (Keep the fish and coral in conditioned space as much as possible.)

Set up.
First get all live stock including the water and rock into the house. Next move the tank and equipment. Pull all snails and crabs out of the sand. Next (This is controversial but it has worked for me every time!) I ALWAYS rinse all of the sand with tap water. You cannot rinse it too much! Get all of the nasty stuff out of the sand. This could take 1 hour or more. Next place the sand into the bottom of the tank. Place a lid onto the sand. Pump the clean water into the tank letting the water run over the lid as to not stir up the sand. Once you have some water in the tank put your heater in the water. Once you have the clean water in the tank add your rock. I would also rinse the rock in tap water but do it VERY BRIEFLY. (If there is any coral on the rock I would skip this step) I would throw away all of the nasty salt water. Your tank should be about 1/2 full. Put a power head in the tank to start moving water around. Next add the fish by placing the bucket in the tank water and letting the fish swim out. Try not to use the net on them or dump them in. Now your tank should be ¾ full. Add previously mixed salt water slowly maybe I gallon per minute. Hook up the sump let some of the tank water run down into the sump. When you have enough water in the sump turn it on. Hook up the rest of the equipment. AND ENJOY!!!
By no means do I think this is the only way to move a set up. I like to keep as much clean water as possible and keep my live rock in water. Also I like having as many 5 gallon buckets as possible for the move. Larger containers can be hard to handle. You can always barrow buckets from fellow reefers! Mix the new salt water the night before I would mix at least 30 to 40 gallons. Just so you know this probably will take most of the day. I would also test the water for ammonia and nitrites for the first few weeks. I hope this helps.
Kevin

[Vader7782]

Thanks for the very detailed reply Kevin. Does anyone think it would be ok to just add like 70% new sand and use 30% of my established sand? Has anyone tried this to try and eliminate the amount of sand that needs to be washed when re-setting up the tank? Reason for this is I am going to set up another tank within a year and would then use the leftover sand, after I had washed it of course, and I thought I could better eliminate an ammonia and nutrient rise in the tank.
-Jeff

[rEd86]

I used all my old sand when I upgraded from the 265g to 700g. (I added a LOT or new sand so I don't know if that helped)

I found it easiest to clean the sand while it was still in the old tank. I have tried to clean sand after moving it into 5g buckets and it' s just not easy. Follow Kevin's instructions and when you only have sand left and little salt water, start filling the tank with fresh tap water from a garden hose. Once the tank gets 3-4" above the sand line, start stirring the sand up so all the crap in the sand is suspended in the water. Then siphon the water out and repeat the process until the water is fairly clear after you stir things up. It took me a good hour to get to this stage.

Good luck.

--Ed

[aquavista99]

I recently moved several large tanks within the past year. In my opinion,it is so much easier to just replace the old sand with 100% new sand. On a 180g tank your size, it would cost about $100 or so to replace the old sand with new sand and not worry about adding nutrients to your tank or spending hours trying to clean the old sand.

In the alternative, it would be fine to mix 30% old sand with 70% new sand so long as the old sand is washed/cleaned first.

Thanks for the very detailed reply Kevin. Does anyone think it would be ok to just add like 70% new sand and use 30% of my established sand? Has anyone tried this to try and eliminate the amount of sand that needs to be washed when re-setting up the tank? Reason for this is I am going to set up another tank within a year and would then use the leftover sand, after I had washed it of course, and I thought I could better eliminate an ammonia and nutrient rise in the tank.
-Jeff

[gthorpe2]

Do like everyone said on packing things up, then you can drive to my place and I should be able to find some space for it. Then we'll set it up and your finished!! Not that painful!!

[Vader7782]

Adding 100% new sand wouldn't be harmful? I thought new sand should be added with some established sand. If 100% new sand wouldn't hurt, then I will go that way.
Greg, sorry I can't do that, I enjoy the tank too much

[Frogfish]

There is no "right" way, but lots of different ones that would work.

I would want to use at least some of my old sand to help seed the new. I know you will have LR that will do much of the same, but I would scrap off the top layer of sand and place it on top of the new.

Aquavista... where are you getting sand for $100 for a 180 gallon tank!!!

Vader, If you want I am sure I have some 5 gallon buckets with lids that you can borrow. Let me know if you want to stop by to pick them up.

[Vader7782]

Frogfish, I should be alright on 5 gallon buckets, thanks for the offer. I will let you know if I could use any extra. I think I will keep some of the established sand to reseed the new. Thanks for all the replies everyone.
Anyone else have any advice or moving experiences they can share?
-Jeff

[aquaman7]

One important thing to remember is get a buddy to help... my 55 gallon was definitely a two person job. JB, you're the man!

5 gallon buckets are great (lids are good for transport and for insulation in cooler months but be sure there is a hole in the lid for gas exchange) and big rubbermaid containers are great for bigger rocks! Another really awesome thing to use is a big plastic picnic cooler (like a playmate brand cooler or something). They insulate water temperature VERY well so they are great for moving fish and coral... especially during hot or cold times of the year. You can fit a lot in them too and they are generally pretty easy for two people to carry. I wish I had more of them for my move.

If it is a 2"+ sand bed, I would replace or wash the sand. I've tried a few times to move a tank and the sand, but the sand usually has a bunch of nutrients stored in it.

We definitely stirred up A LOT of settled detritus and nutrients contained in the sand... even though, as JB said, we did clean it out a bit... it wasn't enough. It took a while to get the subsequent higher nitate levels back down.

If you can put new sand in and then reseed it or split half old sand and half new... I think that may be the way to go... Or, better yet, use a thorough cleaning method like Ed or Kevin used. As much as I love having "seasoned" sand full of beneficial bacteria and microfauna... I lost a couple sps corals from my nitrate spikes.

Oh, and when it comes time for re-aquascaping... it can drive you nuts but it's fun to work out something new. My hands were like soggy prunes when I finally got something I liked (it was around 12 in the morning) .

God speed!