Buying a tank, how to move it?

[InvertLover]

Found a tank from a local reefer who's looking to get out of the hobby.
It's a 29 Gal AGA, w/ 10 gal sump. My main question is how should I move the livestock? Buy a large rubbermaid container, battery powered airstone, and move them? It's a very short drive ( 5-10 miles). Livestock is as follows:

Fish:
none ( good for me.. see my user name...:rollface: )
Inverts:
Xenia
Clove polyps
purple shrooms
one green-striped shroom
small colt
several small snails ( idk what they are yet... hopefully not the
margaretta (sp?), since i've heard that in a tropical tank
their lifespan is unnaturally shortened )
20 lbs of live rock
4'' sand
Most of my research so far has been into setting up a new tank, not working with one that's already established :rolleyes:

Also, I've read that trying to re-use the sand from an established aquarium can result in some nasty things happening in the tank...
Is this true?

[Travis L. Stevens]

If it's that short of a drive, no need for an air stone. I would just bag em up as seperate as I could (though I threw all my frags in one bag when I moved.) and just move it. This will be an easy process.

[lessans]

First off you don't really need an air stone for circulation( if that's what you're using it for) because when you're driving you're container(whatever it is you decide to use) will get moving water suitable for the inverts from the movement of the car turning, stopping, and going. As for your container, I would not suggest one big container for all the inverts on the live rock because the rocks could shift during the commute and could damage the inverts, but rather put pairs of inverts that are on live rock in five gallon buckets to allow for non shifting rock but also to prevent live rock from getting crammed into the bucket that you can't get out of the bucket by the time you get home. Also you could take several trips with a couple of buckets to and from your house to this local reefer and then you could quarantine them when you got home.

[Warnberg]

You should not have to worry about oxygenating the water. However I have found a little trick that works real well for long hauls.

First 5 gallon bucket, put a trash bag in it, put water and fish in it, fill the top of the bag with air and close it up. They should be good for about 2 to 3 hours before stress starts to occur. After 2 to 3 hours stop and add a cap or two of hydrogen peroxide to the water. Hydrogen Peroxide is H2O2 water is H2O, when hydrogen peroxide is added to water it releases one oxygen atom and turns to water, so you are oxygenating the water.

But you should not have an issue at all with this short trip.

[InvertLover]

Wow! Reef Central is great! Thanks, travis, lessans, and dave for
your quick replies! I'm going to check out the tank tomorrow, then
spend a few days doing searchs on RC before I buy it. However, I'm
getting a good enough deal that even if all I got was the equipment,
then I would still spend the money. I'm borrowing a friend's digital
cam when I got look at it tomorrow, so I'll see what I can learn about
posting pics (hopefully) tomorrow night. From what the owner has
said, he's got a mild slime algae problem, so i get to jump right into
one of what seems to be a rather frustrating experiance...:eek1: after
I get the tank I will start a new thread, but for now, everything will be here.

Dave:
What effect would adding the H2O2 have? I thought that it acts as a
weak acid when dissolved in water? ( throw off pH?)

[InvertLover]

Oops, and i forgot about the sand! new sand? or re-use the old?

[Travis L. Stevens]

This is what I would do

Bag up/ Bucket up the livestock
Place the rock in 5 gallon buckets
fill the buckets with water from the aquarium
fill more 5g buckets with the extra water if you have any leaving just enough water to cover the sand
put a plastic trashbag over the top to keep water from spilling/spashing out
get a friend to help you load it and unload it (since it's only 29g not a 180g of course) leaving the sand in there...effectively reusing it
get the tank set up quickly and start putting everything back
Dont forget you still need to re-acclimate everything along with getting the temperature back in line (if it dropped in the 10 minute drive.)

[lessans]

I would buy new sand and get rid of the used sand because who knows what kind of crap could be buried in the sand. This will prevent any potential headaches and frustration in the future, plus it shouldn't be very expensive to fill a 29 gal tank with sand.

P.S. I would buy live sand so you don't lose the bacteria you would get if you used the sand in the tank you plan to buy.

[Travis L. Stevens]

there shouldnt really be anything burried in the sand but bacteria and small inverts like worms and such. If there is anything harmful in the sand, I bet its in the rocks too. IE fireworms. Plus I dont trust store bought live sand. It has a shelf life, true, but you dont know how it was shipped. Was it mishandled? Did it get exsesively hot or cold? How long has it sat there on the shelf? If it was not properly handled its basically a bag of sand and water and if you catch it at the right time, ammonia/nitrite/nitrates (those these would decrease in the bag over time because it would cycle again). Thats just my opinion on store bought LS. If you can get it from a friend, club, store's disply/fuge, etc, that's a good way to go.

[InvertLover]

I went, I saw, and I like it. :) The tank has some slime problems, but not bad. It also has a type of macro-algae that has taken over a good bit of the rock, and that'll have to go. I'm planning of pulling as much of it off as I can while I'm moving it. Not much in the way of sponges, so I'm hoping that I won't have too much of a die-off problem. Several large rubber-maid containers for the water and rock, a small bucket for the frags, ( also a ricorda that he forgot about!) :spin1: I'm going to run carbon after the move, to try and limit any large ammonia spikes. Since it's such a short drive, i'm not too worried about the airstone situation, but once we get to my place, I'll throw in a plug-in airstone. The tank will be drained to the level of the sand, and i'll put a plastic bag over the sand when we add the water back. * no sand storm! * No longer too worried about the transfer, just excited. Also, as soon as my roomie gets back, i'll upload some pics. ( tho they aren't that great.)

[lessans]

I wouldn't add a plug in air stone in the tank. I heard it can cause salt creep. If you want more advice about the air stone go to my thread in New to the Hobby titled "Is an air stone necessary?". Hope this helps.

[lessans]

I wouldn't add a plug in air stone in the tank. I heard it can cause salt creep. If you want more advice about the air stone go to my thread in New to the Hobby titled "Is an air stone necessary?". Hope this helps.

[Amphiprionocellaris]

When I bought my current reef, I came up with a fairly complicated plan. Note, though, that this was for a 40 mile/35 minute drive and a fully stocked 75 gallon reef:
1) siphon water to level of first inverts
2) start loading inverts into containers with tank water (two large sinularia and a colt each got separate containers -- the smaller softies and the LPS also each got one container per group; I tried not to mix coral types).
3) load live rock as water level dropped
4) capture fish (a lot easier with 1 inch of water and no rock than in a setup) and bag separately
5) load sand into separate bucket (I wanted to leave the sand in the tank undisturbed, but weight issues prevented this)
6) final hardware dissassembly (that which wasn't already taken apart)
7) load tank/stand
8) transport (I used two cars- 1 hardware and 1 livestock)
9) unload in reverse order.
10) final set-up

When we arrived at the house and I prepared to "restock" the tank, I floated everything to acclimate for temperature, then did an abbreviated acclimation procedure for sensitive stuff (esp. the anemone).
Casualties: 0
This plan was for a complicated and (relative to yours) lengthy move. Yours should be much, much simpler. I just thought I might share what I did; maybe you might think of something else you haven't thought of.

[InvertLover]

Amphiprionocellaris: Wow, you did put a lot of thought into that plan... I'm glad I'm not moving that far! There aren't any sensitive livestock to worry about. Well, not any *unusually* sensitive livestock. No fish to worry about either. And since it's a fairly small tank, I can leave the sand in. Thanks though, I may steal a few of your ideas...:strooper:

lessans: The airstone wouldn't be in the tank, just in the rubbermaid containers, while I got the tank set up. I will be useing a skimmer, and have a decent about of circulation(w/ some surface ation), so a airstone in the tank would be overkill. but thanks, and I will check out that thread.

btw, on the pics, my roomate just got home ( it's sbout 1:00 ) and he crashed, so they'll have to wait for him. not that they're much to see.... grrr..... :rolleye1: