Hi all, looking for some advice. I have the dreaded prospect of moving home, not once but twice in 6 months! My single biggest worry is my 200litre reef tank with pets. I have tried to list a detailed plan for the days of the move and was hoping someone would be able to read it over and comment on anything I am doing wrong. I appreciate this is a fair length so apologies for that!
My main concern is actually the substrate and what to do with it. It is an 18month tank that has been heavily seeded with copepods for a Scooter and Mandarin Dragnonet. It is also home to a SS starfish.
THE DAY BEFORE
1. Clean all inside of glass
2. Clean individual pumps and filters.
3. Feed fish
4. Look out containers.
5. Put down rubber matt in location of new tank.
6. Make up salt water to cover 60% of the tank and keep at the same temperature as the current tank. Store in large 80litre container and jiffy cans.
ON THE DAY:
BREAKDOWN
10:00 Unplug pumps, skimmer and filter.
10:15 Remove the equipment from the sump, and the connecting pipework and store them safely. Syphon out the water from the sump into a plastic container. Remove the cheato and live rock from the sump and put in the plastic container. Remove the sump from under the tank.
11:00 Syphon out some water into coolers (x 2). Pick up corals (keeping them submerged in water) and store in the water coolers (2 corals per container). Add 1 heater per container
11:30 Put some fresh water into a plastic container at the temperature of the tank. Catch all the snails, crabs, tube worm and sand sifting starfish and put in a bag each with tank water. Put the bags in the container with the warm water to keep from moving about.
12:00: Turn off the powerheads. Add the powerheads to the two containers with the corals. Connect the two powerheads to battery back up to run for duration of the move (they last 30 hours).
12:30: Start removing live rock from the tank into containers, keeping rock with the most organisms to the bottom of the container. Syphon out some more water to keep the rock submerged.
13:30: Start catching the fish, some in bags and others in the containers with the coral and powerheads as follows: 3 green chromis in 1 bag, submerged in the container with the inverts. 2 clown fish in bag submerged in the container with the inverts. 1 Purple Orchid and Scooter Blenny in one of the coral containers, and the Yellow Blenny and Mandarin Dragonet in the other. These fish will be lose, and not in bags.
14:30: Remove the cleaner shrimp into one of the coral containers.
CHECK: At this point the tank inhabitants should all be removed, and set up is: CONTAINER 1: Indivual bags per species with Clown Fish. Green Chromis, Hermit Crabs, Sand Sifting Starfish, Emerald Crabs, Turbo Snail, Sea Urchin, Snails. CONTAINER 2 (all loose): 2 x corals. Orchid Blenny. Scooter Blenny, Cleaner Shrimp. CONTAINER 3 (all loose): 2 x corals, Yellow Blenny, Mandarin Dragonet. CONTAINER 4: Live rock and cheato.
15:00 Syphon remainder of the tank water into jiffy cans. Remove the sand from bottom of the tank (1.5” sand bed) and rinse in some tank water. Put in a bucket slightly submerged in tank water.
15:00 While the tank is being emptied, someone else can be carefully loading the jiffy cans, containers and pets into the car.
15:30 Clean/wipe the remainder of the tank. Remove the light.
15:45 Load the tank and stand into the car. Drive to new house.
SETUP
16:30 Set up the tank and stand in its new location and check levels. Check temperature of the containers with the fish and top up with warm water if this has dropped. Connect airtube into each bag and run a small pump.
17:00 Add the substrate to the tank.
17:10 Start a small pump to pump new saltwater from large container into tank, hitting the side of the tank to avoid distrurbing the substrate.
17:30 Start building the liver rock in the tank in its right position.
18:00 Add all jiffy cans into large container once new salt water has been used up.
18:30 Once the tank is full of a combination of new and old salt water, start drip acclimatising the corals and fish.
19:00 Set up the sump with heater, skimmer, pump etc. Add carbon to the sump and Phosphate remover.
19:30 Start slowly introducing fish and inverts to the tank.
20:00 Add the powerheads.
THE NEXT DAY
Large 20+% water change.
Thanks so much in advance!
My main concern is actually the substrate and what to do with it. It is an 18month tank that has been heavily seeded with copepods for a Scooter and Mandarin Dragnonet. It is also home to a SS starfish.
THE DAY BEFORE
1. Clean all inside of glass
2. Clean individual pumps and filters.
3. Feed fish
4. Look out containers.
5. Put down rubber matt in location of new tank.
6. Make up salt water to cover 60% of the tank and keep at the same temperature as the current tank. Store in large 80litre container and jiffy cans.
ON THE DAY:
BREAKDOWN
10:00 Unplug pumps, skimmer and filter.
10:15 Remove the equipment from the sump, and the connecting pipework and store them safely. Syphon out the water from the sump into a plastic container. Remove the cheato and live rock from the sump and put in the plastic container. Remove the sump from under the tank.
11:00 Syphon out some water into coolers (x 2). Pick up corals (keeping them submerged in water) and store in the water coolers (2 corals per container). Add 1 heater per container
11:30 Put some fresh water into a plastic container at the temperature of the tank. Catch all the snails, crabs, tube worm and sand sifting starfish and put in a bag each with tank water. Put the bags in the container with the warm water to keep from moving about.
12:00: Turn off the powerheads. Add the powerheads to the two containers with the corals. Connect the two powerheads to battery back up to run for duration of the move (they last 30 hours).
12:30: Start removing live rock from the tank into containers, keeping rock with the most organisms to the bottom of the container. Syphon out some more water to keep the rock submerged.
13:30: Start catching the fish, some in bags and others in the containers with the coral and powerheads as follows: 3 green chromis in 1 bag, submerged in the container with the inverts. 2 clown fish in bag submerged in the container with the inverts. 1 Purple Orchid and Scooter Blenny in one of the coral containers, and the Yellow Blenny and Mandarin Dragonet in the other. These fish will be lose, and not in bags.
14:30: Remove the cleaner shrimp into one of the coral containers.
CHECK: At this point the tank inhabitants should all be removed, and set up is: CONTAINER 1: Indivual bags per species with Clown Fish. Green Chromis, Hermit Crabs, Sand Sifting Starfish, Emerald Crabs, Turbo Snail, Sea Urchin, Snails. CONTAINER 2 (all loose): 2 x corals. Orchid Blenny. Scooter Blenny, Cleaner Shrimp. CONTAINER 3 (all loose): 2 x corals, Yellow Blenny, Mandarin Dragonet. CONTAINER 4: Live rock and cheato.
15:00 Syphon remainder of the tank water into jiffy cans. Remove the sand from bottom of the tank (1.5” sand bed) and rinse in some tank water. Put in a bucket slightly submerged in tank water.
15:00 While the tank is being emptied, someone else can be carefully loading the jiffy cans, containers and pets into the car.
15:30 Clean/wipe the remainder of the tank. Remove the light.
15:45 Load the tank and stand into the car. Drive to new house.
SETUP
16:30 Set up the tank and stand in its new location and check levels. Check temperature of the containers with the fish and top up with warm water if this has dropped. Connect airtube into each bag and run a small pump.
17:00 Add the substrate to the tank.
17:10 Start a small pump to pump new saltwater from large container into tank, hitting the side of the tank to avoid distrurbing the substrate.
17:30 Start building the liver rock in the tank in its right position.
18:00 Add all jiffy cans into large container once new salt water has been used up.
18:30 Once the tank is full of a combination of new and old salt water, start drip acclimatising the corals and fish.
19:00 Set up the sump with heater, skimmer, pump etc. Add carbon to the sump and Phosphate remover.
19:30 Start slowly introducing fish and inverts to the tank.
20:00 Add the powerheads.
THE NEXT DAY
Large 20+% water change.
Thanks so much in advance!
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