moving house

lindsay pollard

pipefish
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Hey guys im moving house at month end.
1]once ive removed all livestock;should i wash substrate or leave it as is.
2]my dsb should i wash that sand or leave it.
3]should i keep as much of the tank water as possible.
4]any good advice
 
1 ~ I would give a quick wash as you will be supprised how dirty it will be.

2 ~ wash say 90% and use other 10% to seed it.

3 ~ I would keep as up to 50% is possible and fill rest with NSW.

4 ~ Get some Tetra "Safe start" for marine, very good stuff!
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Pleasure

Oh, forgot to mention, you should use salt water when washing the sand, perhaps some of the old water when draining.....
 
Could you not move the DSB without disturbing it? Also depends on how long it would take to move.
 
Sorry lIghty not with you on this one...the more he can keep without disturbance the better, not sure how far this move is but see if you can use containers to transfer as much as possible. You will still cycle (mini).

DONT wash the sand...trust me been there
 
Have to agree with Frans on this one, would not wash the sand out and try not disturb the dsb at all try and leave the dsb submerged in tank water
 
Oh yes and try and keep as much old water as possable. Keep extra newly mixed water at hand for a water change and for any water lost
 
Pete why would you keep the old water? You should be very carefull how long you keep that dsb without oxygen. You could have huge die off and have a ammonia spike. I would say yes keep the dsb undisturbed but only if you can get everything going in the same day(couple of hours max). Just IMO.
 
Pete why would you keep the old water? You should be very carefull how long you keep that dsb without oxygen. You could have huge die off and have a ammonia spike. I would say yes keep the dsb undisturbed but only if you can get everything going in the same day(couple of hours max). Just IMO.


That was my thought? but I would say not longer than 3 hours, bit can this be done? People have lost their tank before when they have power failures and when the power come on the DSB has died and caused a system to crash!

Take a hand full of substrate off the floor and let it go in your water, how much "cuc" comes out, now imagine once you've disturbed all your LR too, you won't be able to see the back of your tank, trust me, I've moved tank twice!

Thats why I would remove 50% of the water first, before you upset everything.

also if posible, try transport LR in water, this will help reduce a ammonia spike, but wash it off in the tank before placing into your transport container, this will also remove alot of the cuc.

And like I said, have the Tetra Safe Start on hand, this basically eliminated any spikes when I moved! IMO
 
That was my thought? but I would say not longer than 3 hours, bit can this be done? People have lost their tank before when they have power failures and when the power come on the DSB has died and caused a system to crash!

Take a hand full of substrate off the floor and let it go in your water, how much "cuc" comes out, now imagine once you've disturbed all your LR too, you won't be able to see the back of your tank, trust me, I've moved tank twice!

Thats why I would remove 50% of the water first, before you upset everything.

also if posible, try transport LR in water, this will help reduce a ammonia spike, but wash it off in the tank before placing into your transport container, this will also remove alot of the cuc.

And like I said, have the Tetra Safe Start on hand, this basically eliminated any spikes when I moved! IMO

lighty, I have also moved tanks a couple of time's. And what I do is take the return pump with a hose straight to the inlet chamber as to keep the sump circulating until I am ready to connect it all up again. Yes I do agree with you that the sump should not stand longer than +/- three hours with out circulation as everything in it will die off. I did not say keep all the water but keep as much as posable thus saying make sure you have enough newly mixed water to add to the system as if you where doing a water change... The above method will work if the move is not going to take longer than a day. I have kept my sump running for two months like this while doing tank repairs, no ill effects. Maybee we should ask the question on how far lindsay is moving and then try and then give advice from there.
 
I moved a 500L system 3 times. First time, we lost some fish, second and third, lost nothing. First thing. This is a full days job. And you need two vehicles.

Put the return pump outlet in the first chamber, or use another smaller pump.

Take out 50% or more water before you disturb anything. I used 2*90L green plastic drums. The drums was on the trailer, filled by a pump and long new clean hosepipe.
Have 50% extra new fresh Salt water ready in other drums. If this can be dropped off at destination beforehand, it is better. Out of the way and less weight on the vehicle.

Fill cooler boxes with water from display. I used big Coleman coolers . Put Live Rock in cooler boxes. So that it will not tumble and move. Put small power head in each cooler box. And put your fish snails and hermits in the cooler boxes with the live rock. Balance the fish between multiple cooler boxes I had 3 boxes. Close the boxes. Fish will stress less in the darkness and they have more natural hiding areas. Put shrimps into separate small cooler boxes. One per box. I used the coffee cooler tubs. They are more fragile and might attach each other in a confined small place. Close that cooler container. Can open and close all the coolers every 10 minutes to let in fresh air.

Fill one extra cooler box with just water. This will be the first rinsing tank. Empty rest of the tank, Can rinse or move the sand a lot to get all the detritus buildup out while siphoning it down the drain. Make sure there are no lost snails, or peanut worms or anything else interesting in the sand. Depending on weight of sand in display, you can either leave it there or put it into another tub. Cover with just enough water to have it submerged. (5mm water above sand).

Drain the sump and DSB up to sand level. Move it out and get it on the trailer or bakkie. Refill it with water just taken up until full again. Put another small circulation pump in it to pump water from return chamber to skimmer chamber. Or use your return pump, that is if it is not too strong. Park the bakkie in the shade. So this vehicle have the 2 90* drums, new water drums and sump loaded.

Load the cabinet, and tank and if fitted wooden canopy, everything on second trailer or bakkie. Put all your electrical stuff, skimmer, other pumps, everything else inside the cabinet. Tie it down properly.

Now you are almost ready to go.

Put cooler boxes with livestock next to cabinet. Or where you still have space. And off you go.

Drive slow. Display tank on the front vehicle. And second vehicle keeping an eye out that nothing weird and wonderful happens. After 2km stop! recheck the rope work or tie down straps on the display. Sometimes stuff do move slightly and you have to tie it down again.

On the other side. Reversal. But first sent the wife to biy Pizza (lunch). And some extra beer.

First get cooler boxes with livestock inside the house or in shade. Re-connect circulation pumps, and keep lid closed.

Put cabinet in place, Display tank, but leave canopy and lights out of the way.
Empty sump again, but keep the water. Put sump in place, Refill, and put same pump back on again. Fill Display from the 2 90L drums.

Fill display tank with new fresh water. Get circulation with sump going.
Use that one extra cooler box. Take live rock out of live stock cooler box, and rinse it in the extra water, then put it into the display. Until all the rock is removed. Then take out the fish, snails and hermits and put them in the plastic bags, filled with water from cooler, and float them in the display. Now that empty livestock box, becomes the second rinsing box Should have about 50% water left in it. Take next live stock cooler box, and rinse the rock.

Let the bags float for 30 minutes. While you sort out all other equipment except the lights.

Release fish. You might have too much water in the system, so maybe do not release the water in the bags.

Put lights into place. Do not switch it on. Can test it, but leave it off. Put canopy in place. Dry the floor. Have a beer. Thank all your helpers / slaves. Have another beer.
 
RiaanP, thats very similar to the way I done it, never lost a fish.

I do agree if you can keep circulation over the DSB the it wil be ok, but if you have large DSB you not going to be able to move it, my sump with DSB would weigh about 250kg, could never move this, but yes if small enough them maybe?

I only differences I done compared to RiaanP was:

*Used 80L plastic rubbish bins - There will be less swashing around in a norrower container.

*Filled the tank with all available "old" water and NSW, even removing some water from the containers with the Livestock in, and then used the "air line drip" method to aclimitise the fish in the bins, once done moved across.

But first sent the wife to biy Pizza (lunch). And some extra beer.

the BEST advise I've seen in a long time!
 
[FONT=&quot]When I moved my sump I also couldn't move it with the DSB in it. To be honest I would never attempt or suggest anyone to try it. Last thing you need is your for your sump to crack while moving it.  I moved my DSB to old 25L salt buckets and made sure there was enough water in to cover all the sand. At the other side I drained as much water from the sand as I could and placed it back in the sump, filled it with tank water and placed a powerhead in the return chamber with a pipe back to the overflow chamber. This created a nice flow over the DSB and obviously the skimmer went mad.[/FONT]
 
OK, come to think about it. My sump had its own independent stand. So I moved it as a unit.
 
Depending on the size of your tank, you really need to dedicate at least a day to the moving of your tank.

A couple of things I picked up in my move and that I can suggest: 1.) Make sure you have enough water on the other side. You WILL spill water during this process. 2.) Get some extra heaters. 3.) Get extra powerheards 4.) Get at least 2 airpumps as well as a third battery operated one. 5.) Make sure you have some buckets that are large enough to hold some of the LR, corals and LS while you set up your tank. 6.) Get some help. Try and get a couple of friends to help you with the move. 7.) Most important of all... make sure you have enough :peroni:'s on the other side, because you will need a couple after all this is done. ;)
 
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