Moving--Advice Needed

2632 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Mrs Smith, May 30, 2003

Beaches

Discussion Starter · May 30, 2003

OK, it's official--I'm a home owner again which means I'll be moving my tank and I'm hoping for some opinions on some things (40g, 50/50 110 light strip, wet/dry for 55g, Prism for up to 100g, 2 jets for water movement, mostly fish w/some "easy" corals and 2 anenomes):

1. I know to save as much water as possible from the tank--how much of a re-cycle can I expect? One of the owners of my favorite LFS maintains tanks in several businesses and homes in town and I'm paying him to help me move (I also have two 20g fw tanks).

2. Of course, without saying--I need to aerate the fish and lr when moving/relocating (I'm assuming since my drive is about 20 minutes to my new location it's gonna take me at least 3 hours to re-set everything up)--how long can they stay in the "buckets" safely?

3. I'm going to take this opportunity to "clean" off my lr of some green algae (and possibly some hitchiker crabs)--is there an easy way to do this--what's the best way (I'm really aiming for those "bigger" bristleworms that are in this one rock...)?

4. I'm also taking this opportunity to switch out most of my original mixture of crushed coral/sand and replace it with some fine sand (main reason is the crushed coral has some brown algae and just makes the tank look dirty and also to ease my
population of tiny bristleworms a bit--since I returned the Arrow Crab they've increased again). My current sandbed is about 3 1/2 to 4" deep and I'm thinking 3" should be plenty?

5. Another question--what is the life expectancy of most equipment? Return pumps--is there a way to clean these (salt buildup) or is it necessary? Water jets? Skimmers ? I've had most of my equipment for about a year and all were new when purchased, just wondering when I can expect (hah!) a breakdown--or to avoid, what maintenance to perform.

6. Recommendation for replacement heater and where to place--in tank or bottom of wet/dry? I'm not really in a hurry for this--here in FL it's supposed to be 90 today--I'll more than likely be searching for ways to keep it coo!

As always, thanks for your assistance...

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ReefDave

· #4 · May 30, 2003

Hey,
In my opinion number #4 is the most important on my list. When I moved my 75 after we finally bought a house, it stirred up that nasty crushed coral (that I never should have had in the first place) and withing 3 days almost everything in the tank was a loss. The algea bloom never did get under control, and my nitrates when from almost undetectable (low bioload) straight threw the roof. Never could get them down until the crushed coral came out...after that it was fine...before the move it was beautiful.

So, I would make sure you got almost all of it. Mabye keep a small tupperware container sized amound to dump in to resead the sand bad. If you are going with a DSB make sure you get the right sugar sized sand. If you are just going with a shallow SB its not as important. BUT GET ALL OF THAT STUFF OUT. Make sure you siphon out as much water as you can (to save for the re-set-up) before you start scooping that CC out.

Lastly CLOTHES PINS. A fouler smell than that CC you will never find!

Dave Jr

Much luck and planning to you. My move set me back 2 years in the hobby....but it also made me find this forum!

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ReefDave

· #5 · May 30, 2003

sorry just re-read your post.

If you are looking for the benefits of a DSP then I would go with the 4" bed for safety sake. As that is what most of the recomendations say. I know of alot of people that just put 3" of sand into the tank, then push alot of it to the back of the tank so that they don't have so much built up in front of the glass, and they still have 50% of the bottom 4" or deeper. I think it all ends up leveling off over time though.

Dave

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