so I should scoop the sand out too and throw it in water? Would it be OK to put the sand in a rubbermaid and stick the corals in the sand for the short time it will be??
I bought my tank &reef used last year, and here's what I remember from trying to move a reef:
-Don't plan on being able to put corals (or anything else) is the same bucket as your sand.
(Unless you are VERY meticulous about cleaning your sand bed weekly/daily/hourly, I think you'll find once you start to scoop up the sand bed it is going to be NASTY....)
Your corals are not going to be happy sitting in a bucket of dirty sand and detritus.
+If you do want to remove the sand bed (to make the tank lighter) put the sand in buckets (not a tub)
You'll want a little water in there--just enough to keep the sand moist--but since this is going to be a short term move--you won't need a heater/PH for your sand.
-But DO make sure you have enough extra heaters/powerheads to keep all the tubs w/livestock running good.
**IT'S ALWAYS GOING TO TAKE LONGER TO REASSEMBLE YOUR TANK THAN YOU PLAN.**
(I spent the better part of a day just aquascaping!!!)
-So when you setup the tubs, PLAN that everything is going to have to spend ALL DAY (and maybe even overnight) in those tubs....
(If you get done quicker, then you're ahead of the game--which is alot better than trying to buy another heater at 10:30pm...)
-It's also good to test your heaters in the tubs beforehand.
(I lost 1 whole tub of corals during my tank transfer because a heater wasn't dialed in correctly, and everything was basically par-boiled!)
+And have ALOT of pre-mixed/aerated SW ready on hand! (like +30% of your total tank volume)
You'll find that when you get near the bottom of our tank, the water is going to start getting pretty dirty... and when you start removing livestock from the tubs, again some of the water left in the tubs is going to be dirtier than you'll want to re-use. (Leave those nitrates in the tubs and use 50-75 gallons of fresh saltwater instead!)
