Questions on moving a120g system.

Hello everyone, I just found this forum and club recently and have been luking for a few days. I haven't had a reef for about 8-10 years when I had a 20 gallon nano. I recently committed to buy Joe's (jaysuncle) 120g system. He had everything setup like I was planning and it was a great bargain. I'm excited as can be, but a little worried about the move. I've got it planned out for the most part : covered trailer, extended cab pickup, livestock bags, o2, insulated boxes, ice chests, buckets, water premixed and tested @ the destination, etc., but I've been reading about possible problems with disturbing deep sandbeds in tanks during relocation and wondering about the best way to go about handling the sandbed, or the move in general. Any suggestions/experience? Any advice, opinions, help offered would be greatly appreciated.

 

how far of a move ?

 

The move is from Arkadelphia to about 30 minutes Northeast of Fayetteville, about 4.5 hours drive time, maybe a bit more.

 

Do you have a tank to put the livestock in all ready running?

 

reefer,
First off, welcome to the forum and I would like to invite you to the meeting this month in central city. I promise you it's worth the trip. My wife and I actually thought about buying joe's system.

First off as Blake asked how far are you going? Sounds like you have your stuff good for the move, covered trailer a plus. As far as the deep sand bed according to my research you don't really hit problems with gas pockets until you get up around 5+ inches. I would say be as careful as you can removing the livestock out. Get them (corals, fish, inverts) out and safely packed away first. If your trip is not long I wouldn't worry so much about the O2, just pack the fish into bags, corals into specimine bowls and the live rock in some big rubbermaid containters, either with some of the water from the tank or packed in wet newspaper (maybe I'm a little anal....better safe than sorry, but not to the extreme.) Once you get everything out just siphon out the water and put the sand in buckets. Any gas pockets will be released when you get out the sand. If you are concerned with putting the sand back in, save out about 5 lbs and rinse the rest. It will take no time to repopulate the rest with bacteria from the 5lb. But like a said, according to my research (someone correct me if I'm wrong) an actual "deep sand bed" is like 5 inches plus. Anything else is really not gonna get bad gas pockets, pretty much ornamental. Mine is about 2 inches deep. Decided to stir it after better than a year. No problems whatsoever.

Some of our more seasoned members will surely spring in with advice, and it will be good. You can learn a lot from the guys on here. And once again, please think about attending our meeting next weekend. Where are you located?

 

We were looking at the same system but decided we wanted a 135 (we wanted lenght). Soon as our housing situation gets decided (just went through bankruptcy and trying to save our house) we will start gathering equipment.

 

Unfortunately, no. That would be ideal. Should I expect a long (re)cycle? This concerns me more and more.

 

Ditto

 

Its a four and a half to five hour drive from joes to reeformadness

 

[/quote]Unfortunately, no. That would be ideal. Should I expect a long (re)cycle? This concerns me more and more.[/quote]


Its hard to say I would take the top two inches of sand out of the tank and put into buckets to put back on the top after the move the rest I would put back on the bottom and as long as you keep the live rock wet it may have a very short cycle IMO

 

jason, thanks for the advice and info. That makes me feel a little better. I was planning on using o2 for the bags just in case it took a little longer than I thought and the tank needed more time to settle and clear up a bit. They would most likey be good overnight with O2 on top of them, at least that was my thinking.

I'd love to come to the next meeting, but I am tentatively planning the move for this weekend. I'm originally from that area, and I've passed through Central City many times as my grandparents lived in Charleston and Lavaca areas.

 

That thought occured to me but I wasn't sure if it had much merit. I could mark the buckets and keep the layers *somewhat* intact. I was planning on keeping the rock submerged the whole time and transporting as much of his original, undisturbed water I could to cover them. Once I got down to the bed, I was planning on discarding most of that water due to the detritus that would have been stirred up by then.

 

I would venture to say that I still wouldn't worry about o2. if you have easy access to some go for it, can't hurt. One thing I might do is get a big rubbermaid container from wally world (30 or 40 gallon around $20) and have it filled with salt water sitting at temp when I got home. You can always put the fish in it with a powerhead agitating the surface if they need to camp out overnight. I would just acclimate to the container and then again when I went into the tank with them (again, anal). I think the inverts and corals will do fine in a bag or bucket overnight, up to a couple days. Just remember corals don't like roadtrips and it may take them a few days to acclimate after you put them in the tank and open up good. Just remember that these critters get beat to hell in the ocean by storms and such, people don't give them enough credit. Not to mention UPS doesn't know the word "fragile", they don't speak french. Not to say leave them on the front porch overnight but you get the point.

 

Sounds like you got a plan for the move what day are moving the tank?

 

Sam

this weekend. I done hit him up to come to the meeting. Maybe next month he will come check it out. If it wasn't for the meeting I would go help load the tank and break down, joe's is just about an 1 1/2 hours from here.

 

I know this weekend But Sat. or Sun.

 

Good point. Reefer if it's sunday and you need help I can help on the south end. I live in dequeen about an hour and a half from joes. wouldn't mind seeing what I missed anyway, lol.

 

I was planning on Saturday. I hate messing up other peoples Sunday schedule, church, lunch, nap, etc., lol.

 

I won't be able to help on sat. do have someone to help you with the move

 

Joe is checking out his resources to see if he can get an extra pair of hands. How many people should it take to move a 120g, in your experience?