75 gal. move

[Landshark18]

Today is the day! I'm inheriting a 75 gal with a pair of osc clowns, a yellow tang, purple pseudo, about 100 lbs of live rock, and a huge brittle star named Willy. The move will only be a short distance but I know its gonna be A LOT of work. Does anyone have experience with moving a tank this size with this many creatures and if so, what is the best way to go about doing it? I dont want to lose any fish or ruin the sand. I will be spending this entire day working on the tank and will be checking my RC frequently. Any imput at all would be greatly appreciated!!!

[dwillingm]

Here are some tips:

If you want to keep the sand, then do not distrub it. Mixing up the sand can release alot of unwanted nutrients.

Try to take as much tank water as possible, and be prepared to do some water changes over the next few days and weeks in case of problems. Definetly monitor your ammonia and nitrite, and do not feed at all or very little over the next few days.

Keep an eye on your brittle star. I had one for a few years, and he did a great job of cleaning the tank. He grew to an outrageous size, and began setting up traps for fish to swim into. I didnt see him eat any fish, but if you touched his tentacles while he was set up in the trap, he closed up fast. I also had fish that were doing fine for years disapear, including my mandarin and several green chromis.

Good luck and let us know if you have any specific questions.

[deepboy]

I would also so suggest getting rid of that brittle star, I had a one before in a 75gal I had a long time ago and fish turned up missing I got rid of it and nothing has gone missing on me since! Will never see one in my tank again.

[Landshark18]

Good News and bad news. The sand was disturbed a quite a bit during the move. There wasnt any way of really getting around it going up and down stairs with only two people. The fish seem to be doing fine though. I was able to save about 70% of the water and added some plain distilled as the hydrometer reading was high(1.026). What kind of water change schedule am i looking at here? This will be my greatest concern over the next few weeks.

[dwillingm]

The ammount of water changes depends on how much your cycle was distrurbed, there is a good chance that there wont be any major problems, especially with that 100 pounds of liverock helping things out. Not having any coral will also help the situation, generally coral are more sensitive then fish to these sorts of changes.

Monitor your ammonia and nitrite and if they start to become detectable I would start doing 10-15% water changes every 2-3 days. Your fish will also be a good indicator to any problems. They will show signs of stress if ammonia or nitrite is building up.

If there does not seem to be any problems, I would stick to a regular 10% per week water change schedule.

[Landshark18]

thanks!!!