moving my tank ?

Buehlz · 07-15-2003, 09:11 PM

Hi I have a 75 gal FOWLR that I moved into a temp home of a 38 gal. Over the weekend I moved the 75 gal tank saving all but 25% of the water and all the substrate. I now have it filled back up (had it moved and filled back up in 3 hrs). It has settled and I have cleaned the substrate after it settled. My ? now is that how long should I wait before I move the fish and LR back over to the 75 gal tank? Do I need to wait for the tank to recycle? And if so how long do you think this would take? I am in a little bit of a rush because I have my 38 gal tank sold to make room for my new member of the family (180 gal). But I know that nothing in the saltwater world works fast and I dont want to loose anything.

Thanks.....

thefatman · 07-15-2003, 10:16 PM

if yo usaved all the substrate and lr and water, yo ushouldnt have a new cycle, or a minor one, if any.

check your levels. if ammonia and nitrite are zero, you should be ok to move the fish back over.

you should only get a new cycle if new live rock or live sand was added.. doesnt sound like you did that. so i say go for it.

Geoff · 07-15-2003, 11:16 PM

as long as the SB was not seriously disturbed then you should only have a minor recycling of the tank. it does not matter how carefull you are, whenever you move a tank or even disturb the SB a little you will get minor die off. the less things were disturbed the shorter the cycle. i would keep an eye on it. it may cycle really quickly. i have moved a 55 countless times, sometimes over 6 hours away. i would set it up, wait for the temp to settle then aclimate the critters back in. i was very successfull with this. i have had very little critter loss.

if in doubt test.

G~

CAT · 07-15-2003, 11:24 PM

I've moved the same tank twice in the last year. I didn't disturb the sandbed (left a 1/2 in. of water above the sand to cover) and put everything back right away. No problems.

Good luck

wanareef · 07-16-2003, 03:32 AM

Cat

Was it a small tank? I have a 100 gal to move in two weeks, it was this weekend. Just delaying the inevitable.

Buehlz · 07-16-2003, 03:37 PM

well I totally emptied the tank.... took all the crushed coral and sand mix out because it was too heavy for me to lift myself and no one wanted to help and I also added 30 lbs of LR from HIRocks... So I should be expecting a small cycle that would happen in a couple of days.... witch have already past since I did this on Fri and it is now Wed....

Toadfish · 07-16-2003, 05:47 PM

Have your water tested...then you'll know exactly where you are in the cycle.

Buehlz · 07-16-2003, 09:39 PM

here is a pic.... Everything tested fine so I moved the rest of the LR and fish today.... yes that is a canaster filter and it is only on there temporarly

CAT · 07-16-2003, 10:42 PM

Wanareef. Yep it's a 28 gal bowfront so it wasn't too bad. Still with some help you could manage it. If not, I'd keep the top 1 inch of sand and replace the lower layers that could cause problems. Disturbing a d.s.b. can be tricky. If you have c.c. you could be ok like Buehlz.

Good luck. Moving tanks is right up there with root canal as far as I'm concerned...