Relocating FO tank

[kendawg]

Good morning , i am new to the forum , and new to salt tanks , this will be my first one . i have a tank that is up and running at a friends house , they have given me the tank just to get some extra room in thier place. it is a 75 gal full set up, it has HO compacts , wet dry sump , skimmer, heater and all kinds of supplies. now the big question , the tank has a sand bed , and about 100lbs of live rock , it has a few crabs from what i am told and a few starfish that they cannot find/catch. 1) how can i move the tank and not have to start from scratch and do i need to try to find the crabs and starfish ? i have read on a few of the posts that they are not all good and you should take caution with them in your tank sometimes. just want to do this right so i wont mess it up ,,,,did i mention this will be my first salt tank , i have been reading all i can on the forum , and trying to learn as quick as possible.

[leebca]

You don't mention the material the tank is made out of. If it is a glass tank, everything has to be taken out. You don't want to stress the sealed areas of the tank. You want it as light as possible, and to maintain it as level as possible during the physical relocation.

An acrylic tank is more forgiving, but the weight is extraordinary and as much of the content should be removed as possible.

The move is likely going to send the tank through another cycle. Just be prepared for that event. Water can be put into 5 gallon buckets and the substrate moved to those buckets. All internal decorations should follow the same procedure. The goal is to keep everything that was inside, wet.

You can't worry about what you don't see. If you find marine life during the process, protect them by putting them in their own bucket. But I don't understand 'starfish that can't be caught.' They aren't exactly speed demons, so I find that comment a bit peculiar.

When resetting it up, just keep it wet. Using newly prepared saltwater is okay; using old water gives no benefit to the start up so don't go crazy trying to 'save water.'

[kendawg]

Thank you for the info , the tank is glass from what i have been told, i am going over to look at the set up tommorow and try to work out a game plan for moving it this coming weekend , the comment "starfish that cant be caught " kinda puzzeled me also. i will see what that was about also tommorow.

Thank you for all your help. i see that this site is going to be a great help in teaching me the hobby.

[reefhead728]

Hi Kendawg and welcome to Reefland.

BTW I agree with Leebca the only advice i might be able to offer you is that if you cant get enough 5 gal buckets you can also try to use large tupperware containers from lowes or home depot.