Logistic nightmare

[sampsonndelila]

I have a 125 gal tank up and running now. I have had it almost a year, so I am ready to take the plunge and get a bigger tank. I am looking at buying a 300 gal from a guy… here in lies the problem. I need to move the 125 from its spot, put the water back in it (without the sand and stuff) then move the 300 to my house in the spot of the old one. I want to add the 100 lbs of sand from my 125 and the 150 lbs of live rock to the 300 lbs in the tank already. I also want to keep most if not all of the water in both tanks, to keep the good water. I know if I disturb the sand my ammonia levels will spike. So I guess I need to keep the 125 water only, for a while to keep the fish safe. How long do you think the ammonia will take to settle down.
I need like 25 of those tubs... lol this is going to stink.... but man I want this tank.

[BIGBIRD123]

Carter,
I wanted to keep the sand from my 135g when I set-up the 280 but decided not to. I went with new sand because I spent 2 days trying to rinse the old sand to remove enough stuff to keep the spike to a minimum but the sand still stunk to high heaven. I am glad that I didn't keep the old sand. All you need for the new sand is a couple of cups from an established tank to make your new sand "live" in about a week. JMHO and what I did.

Steve

[jrsatx20]

i did the exact opposite of bigbird. i took the sand from my 75 and rinsed it till it was clean. put it in my 135 (his old 135) and added water then salt then rock had a small spike but went down in about week and a half. in this hobby what worked for someone else might or might not work for you.

[Joshua]

The only time I moved sand I didn't rinse anything, just scooped it all in and topped the tank off and had my critters back up and running by the end of the day.

For all the moves above all you need are some large containers/tubs. Put the water from the 125 in the tubs, put the sand in a separate container and set aside, move the tank over to new spot, put water back into the tank and take tubs to go get the 300. Bring as much of the clean water as you can fit in the tubs and discard the rest, set 300 up, put sand in it, pump all the water in and start making some fresh sea water in the empty tubs.

[Bill S]

JUST to make sure, I'd not use the old sand. You might see if someone has some sand to "lend" you, that you can rinse real well, and then use. Then when you remove your old sand, rinse it well, and return it?

[OrionN]

I would not reuse the sand. How bad the ammonia spike will be depends on how "live" your sand bed is. If you have a really alive sand bed, it is going to be bad. In addition the huge ammonia spike, it will also dumps all that nutrient into your new system. Why use it, consider the cost of the whole system, the money getting the new sand will be worth it.

[sampsonndelila]

I was not really thinking too much about the sand. It has plenty of sand with it. And it has only been in the current configuration about 8 months. So I am guessing it’s not that contaminated. I was just going to add my sand just because. I was worried most about the water. And the tank move its self... this is a huge tank... but I want it. I think I am going to try a hand truck or something it scares me to move something that big around too much. I guess I need to buy a lot of beer for my buddies.. lol

[Joshua]

I was not really thinking too much about the sand. It has plenty of sand with it. And it has only been in the current configuration about 8 months. So I am guessing it’s not that contaminated. I was just going to add my sand just because. I was worried most about the water. And the tank move its self... this is a huge tank... but I want it. I think I am going to try a hand truck or something it scares me to move something that big around too much. I guess I need to buy a lot of beer for my buddies.. lol

I used my son's skateboard to move my old glass 180 all by myself and it worked pretty well. If you can get some sort of rollers to put under both sides and support it so it's not putting too much pressure in one spot then all you have to worry about is lifting up one side at a time to get it up on the rollers. Now getting this thing in/out of the truck is a different story entirely.

[hobogato]

there is also the maast cart - not sure who has it now, but it is a large wooden box with cargo wheels on the bottom. many large tanks have been moved with it. you may ask bigbird, we used it at his house a while back.

be sure to post when you will need help moving this beast, i am sure more people than just myself would be willing to come help you.

as far as the sand, you wont know how bad it is until you get the water out.

[hobogato]

also, i would not be too concerned about saving all of the water - only a small percentage of the biofilter (bacteria) is in the water, most of it is in the sand and/or rocks. just be sure the replacement water you mix up is as close as possible to the parameters (temp, salinity, pH, Alk and Ca) of the existing water.

no matter what, you will have at least a minor cycle, so it is a good idea to run carbon for a while (changing it often), skim wet for a few days and maybe even run phosban (or another phosphate sponge) to get rid of phosphates that will be released from the sand.

you can also expect at least a small cyano/hair algae/dinoflagellate bloom.

dont forget, you dont want to be in no man's land (between 1" and 4") on the depth of the sand. from personal experience, i used to keep my display at about 3" of sand, and always battled cyano (long after 1 year running). once i siphoned all but 1" out, the cyano went away and has not returned

[sampsonndelila]

I have never heard about that with the sand. I might just leave it as is. but I know I cannot lift this thing with the sand. So I will have to move it once. I did catch a break today and a friend loaned me a 55 gal tank so I can transport 55 gal from the new tank and add the fish to that tank. so they will have no change... if the 55 has nothing but water it shouldnt have any spikes. I can run that for a week or two till the big one even out. If we could find that roller cart that would be awsome I think I will give him a PM. I am going to buy the tank tonight. I think I will grab the fish too. and tommorow start moving rock and water.

[sampsonndelila]

I want to move as much water as I can because I think the fish he has are used to RO water. And I know I am bad but I always use Tap Water...sorry. I was going to try to save as much as I can but it might be moot since the tank will have time to sit with the fish being banished to the 55 gal.

[sampsonndelila]

I expected a small growth but I am guessing it will be smaller then the time it took to cycle the tank whne it was new.

(you can also expect at least a small cyano/hair algae/dinoflagellate bloom)

[sampsonndelila]

bump

[rocketeer]

I have a dolly and a 10 ft. sled I made for moving my 240. Need help?

rocketeer

[sampsonndelila]

The guy I am buying from is being a little flakey on times. I was going to move some last night but he couldnt. Ant then this morning but he wont return my calls. Man a dolly would probably really help though.

[OrionN]

I want to move as much water as I can because I think the fish he has are used to RO water. And I know I am bad but I always use Tap Water...sorry. .....


RO water or tap water is not really important when you mix salt water most of the time (occasionally the city water can have massive amount of whatever they use to sterilize the system). However, you should use RO water to replace elaborated water. Daily adding small dose of copper, and what ever else in the tap water may be detrimental. Even using just tap water to top-off, if you change your water often enough, there would not be any problem other than expensive salt cost.
I use tap water to mix salt for water changes, but use RO to top-off for many years now and never have any problem attributable to doing this. I do have problem from time to time when I am lazy and not change water but these are quickly corrected with water changes using tap water to mix salt.

[fishypets]

OrionN-

I don't understand how mixing tap water in large quantities like for doing water changes will not hurt your tank but topping off will?

[OrionN]

My 30 g tank evaporate .5 g per day. I have to add tap water as top off for two months before I get the dissolved solid I put in my tank with the initial make up of salt water using tap. What I am trying to say here is that the concentration of toxic dissolved solid in tap water (copper and other metals) are very low. It is the adding of these daily by top off water that is a danger not the low concentration initially when we mix the water with tap water. Even copper is a minor nutrient need for our reef tank, but very toxic to invertebrates only when exceeded certain level.
BTW, my tank is very efficient in handling nutrients and the nitrated in the tap water is of no concern to me. Just the dissolved metal, namely copper is of real concern to me.