How hard is it to move a cycled tank?

[ess17]

Sorry, I didn't know how to move my topic, so I reposted my topic that is in the beginner forum to here.

Hello. I am new to the forum. I have just started researching to set up a reef tank. I have never done one before, only freshwater. We just moved and are leasing right now, so we don't know how long we will be in this house. I really want to start a reef tank, but I don't know how hard it will be to move whenever that will be. Does moving a tank usually have a pretty good success rate? I don't want to be cruel to the fish/coral.

 

[J-Money]

I don't know anything for sure...i'm a newbie but I would think it would depend on how far you have to move. You could put all your LR in a tub with some water in it and drive everything over and put it back in the tank at the new place. A little water might need to stay over the sand or wutever substrate you use to help keep everything living in there alive. If you use cannister filters you could leave them full of water and keep all the copapods and ish alive...that's all i can think of. Hopefully it won't be too much more cuz I may be moving in the next 6 months

 

[MrMashashin]

the best way to move a reef tank is to always be prepaired. If you know your going to move get tons and tons of containers to hold your water, fish, rocks, and a bit of your substrate. I've done it before but instead of me moving it was the guy I bought my 55g marine tank from. Drained about 50g of water out into milk jugs, coolers, and a 30g tubawear container. It worked out perfectly!

 

[Opcn]

I'd like to add two things.

Firstly keep your canister filter full of oxygen somehow, if you leave it for ten minutes full of water things decaying will pull out enought oxygen to start killing whats living inside.

Secondly, Keep as much of your substrate alive as you can, it takes time to grow what lives in it and if they die they polute your tank.

 

[Great Lakes]

All good points.
I will just add that it is not too difficult.

The size of the tank has the largest impact on the results.
The larger the tank, the more prepared you will have to be.
Yet if you prepare well, a larger tank fairs better IME due to the vast amounts of live rock and substrate to help everything stabilize faster on the receiving end.

GL