Need Help Moving my Tank!

[widdledink]

Greetings All!

I got a problem! I am being forced to move out of my Apt (not being evicted) and am moving this weekend. Though that is a problem it isn't the one I am writing about.

I was at my LFS last night and was talking to them about how I was going to move my tank. (Save about 50% of my water in buckets). I have done it before with great success. But they suggested that I dump out all of my water and start fresh with new water because I have very high levels of N03.

I am not so sure about this...I am planning on changing out my CC Substrate with a DSB and adding a ref to the system as well when I set it back up in the new place. I do plan on leaving about 1/4 - 1/2 of CC on the very bottom of the DSB to keep some of the bacteria that is already there. Now for the DSB I have purchased one 20# bag of Live sand and 2 50# bags of washed scilica sand. I will be mixing them together. Reason for this is because I am poor and live on a budget.

I obviously don't want my fish to have to endure the horror of re-cycling the tank by starting completly new. But then on the other hand I don't want to keep my high levels of N03.

My Question to you all is what do you think? Right now I am leaning to keeping 50% of my current water, changing out the substrate, adding the Ref., and then watching my water quality like a hawk for the next month while doing seveal small water changes.

Again...Tanks for the help!

OH BTW I have a 75 Gal main tank and will the Ref will be about 20G.

 

[liquafaction]

when I moved mine, I kept 100% of my water. I would think that you would want to keep at least half of it. I just used buckets. I just moved another one this weekend (within my house) and I changed it over from CC bed to sand. I took about 3 cups of CC out of my old tank, and dumped it in the back of my new tank just to "critter" transfer. My understanding is that this will work fine.

 

[OrionGirl]

There is no reason to keep the existing water, other than for transporting fish and goods wet. The beneficial bacteria do not live in the water column--they are attached to the CC and rock, etc. By keeping all of the old water, you really will just be importing the nitrates. Keeping just 50% shouldn't be too bad, but it isn't needed.

Instead of using a layer of CC, I would take the CC from the top layer and put it in nylon bags. Then rest these on the sand in the new setup, with a powerhead aimed towards them. Remove the bags after 2-3 weeks, and you should be good to go. Testing will confirm this. The layer of CC won't help colonize the bacteria as much as you'd think--burying it under the sand will prevent oxygen from getting to it, and the aerobic bacteria will die.

 

[liquafaction]

I like that idea with the bags. I was also under the impression that you need some of your old water. If I would have known this, I would have started with fresh water.