Suggestions For Moving A Existing Tank

[fishguy23]

I'm moving at the end of the month and I would like to take my existing setup, does anyone have suggestions on how I can safely move everything corals, livestock, LR, saltwater etc w/ out really disturbing the biological??????

Would like to know how long I have to transfer water, I'm thinking a large rubbermaid garbage can.....???

Should I leave the LR in water or dry & how long do I have till die off???

Coral transfer.....seperate bags, buckets....?

Livestock??

It's a 40 breeder & I am moving an hour away



ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!???:duh::splitspin

 

[TimberTDI]

Will you have access to the new place before you have to move out of the current place? I've found that it is much easier and so much less stressful to move keep the home move and the fish move at two seperate times.

Try and keep the rock underwater as much as you can. Die off starts as soon as the rock hits the air. Use a bunch of 5 gallon pails w/ lids. I would also try to take as much of the tank water as possible (all of it if you can). Keep the fish seperate from the corals, I learned the hard way.

Steven

 

[mray]

Also completely replacing the sand is usually necessary. Even if the detritus trapped in your sand doesn't cause an ammonia spike, you will have crap blowing around for awhile.

 

[NYreefNoob]

2 20g tupperware container's, 1 for rock 1 for fish, use all your tank water to fill these and put rock in the one and fish in the other, bag up corals and can place them in either container, keep a power head going in both container's until loaded to move if you can tear tank down nd put all items in these for a day then move tank and set it up, dont take sand out of tank, if you have a canister filter while you are refilling the tank run it, it will catch most of the debris floating, use mainly new water to fill tank, the next day do a water change using the water the fish are in and the water the rock is in, filter will have cleaned water up, not much different then doing a tank switch out at home, except your moving it all to a new location, ive done 4 tanks in 2 years and never lost anything in the process, and always re-used old sand, if you use a bowl when adding the water you will have very little disturbance in the sand

 

[Killerdrgn]

How do you move these things when they're full? 20 gallon tupperwares are heavy when full of water. And a tank with sand is pretty darn heavy too.
Oh yeah i'm closely monitoring this thread cause i'm moving too.

 

[mray]

Having your new tank ready to support fish and coral makes it that much easier. I would move half of the live rocks into the new tank and let it settle before you start moving live stock. Moving the sand is tough. Some like to keep their old sand others go with new sand. I prefer using new sand and seeding it with some of the old sand but that's me.

 

[boardryder]

Depending on tank size how possible is it to leave the sand in the tank when moving it considering weight and possibly breaking the tank? I've heard to use a flat surface like a sheet of plywood for support.

Great thread especially since I'll be moving soon.

 

[reefs4life]

I've had to move my 75 twice because of a couple accidents and I left my old sand in it and kept about an inch of water over the sand, worked fine for me. I put the rock and water in 4-20 gallon garbage cans and the livestock in a recycling bin since I didn't have much in terms of livestock. I put small pumps in each garbage can to circulate the water around the live rock and if you have an AC converter for whatever vehicle you're using to move, you can do that too

 

[Adamc1303]

Say you really like yhour aquascape and the corals are all glued and encrusted over the rock. Is there a way to cement the rock structures together and just removem them along with the corals? This way when you move you just tanke a few oieces out that you need to be super gentle with and put the tank back together like a puzzle. Any ideas on that?

 

[meschaefer]

It all been pretty much covered before, but from a veteran of eight tank moves, here is my method.

If you have access to your new place before the move, I usually make some fresh salt water at the new location to have ready at hand water to fill up the tank when you get there.

When you start the move, first all of the rock comes out. Fill a five gallon bucket with tank water, and rinse each rock off in that bucket before placing the rock into a second five gallon bucket or rubbermaid bin. When the second bucket or rubbermaid bin is full top it off with water. Repeat as necessary until all of the rock comes out. You may need to replace the rinse water a few times, as it gets very dirty very quickly. Corals go into there own five gallon bucket. If I have them on hand, I put each coral into a plastic container with holes in it, this is to prevent them from touching each other.

Now that all the rock is out remove all but a few inches of standing water. This makes it very easy to get the fish out. Fish go into a separate five gallon container, multiple containers if necessary. As they will be in the buckets for a couple of hours, I would get a few of those battery operated air pumps (if you don't have a converter to run them off of the cigarette lighters in the car). Although your move is only an hour away. The fish will be in the buckets for the better part of the tank tear down, and set up as well. Also depending on how things fit in the buckets, I have been able to mix some fish into the buckets holding corals.

Sand comes out and into it own five gallon bucket. topped off with some tank water.
If you are able to make fresh water before you get to your new place, I only put enough water in each five gallon bucket as necessary. If you can't make fresh water before you get there, I top off every bucket to the top so that I can save as much water as possible.

Although people do it. I strongly recommend against leaving the sand in the tank. As you move the tank, your will inevitably put stresses on the tank that it was not made to withstand. The added water and sand in the tank will magnify those stresses. While you may be ok, you could just as easily break the tank. Also with the sand left in, it is that much heavier and harder and awkward to move around.

Make sure that the tank is the last thing you take down, and the first thing to go up if you need to move it on the same day. If you can't get it set up, at least move the livestock into larger bins with some powerheads to get the water moving. Keeping everything else submerged.

 

[boardryder]

If you could setup basically a quarantine tank with all your corals, fish, and inverts while moving, setting up, and settling your main tank, about how long could you leave everything in the quarantine? Lets say its about half the size but have all the equipment needed. I would think this is probably the best option as long as you have the means to do so. Also about how long is recommended to let everything settle so as not to introduce your inhabitants into an amonia cycle if you are reusing your old live rock, live sand, and what's left of the water?

fishguy23 if you have that smaller tank still I think that's what I would do.

 

[D1J8Z]

where are you moving to?

 

[NavyNano212]

Also completely replacing the sand is usually necessary. Even if the detritus trapped in your sand doesn't cause an ammonia spike, you will have crap blowing around for awhile.

I read replacing the all of the sand was BAD...adding some new was ok, but replacing is not good???

 

[mray]

Depends on how you like your tank. Some people like the life--worms, stars, etc. I personally don't. The purpose of my sand bed is to be a surface for bacteria to grow. If you believe that having peanut worms, bristle worms, spaghetti worms, and all of that stuff in your sand is going to benefit your tank then yes, replacing the entire sand bed is not going to be a good thing.

EDIT: I just realized that if you are moving your tank you will most likely be using the same rocks so it really doesn't make a difference what you do. I'm upgrading my tank and I've decided to kill and reseed my live rocks with sterile ones which is why I'm using new sand.

 

[jay1335]

Ive done two tank moves and the first time I used the 5 gallon bucket method which worked real well. The second move went much better (maybe because i knew what to expect) but one thing that I must say made things much easier was that I used 6 foot catering coolers. I own a catering business so I have easy access to them but most party rental places have them. This way keeps your water temps regulated and allows you to store much more. All my rock went into one and all my livestock went into another. And you only have to lug the livestock cooler which you dont need to fill all the way till you get it into the vehicle. My rock was bucketed right down to the cooler waiting in the van. I found this way to be much easier. But def have fresh water ready to go and it might be a good idea to have a bucket with you in transport, you never know what could start leaking.

 

[fishguy23]

This is all great advice, thank you everyone!!!!

 

[AlexWasserman]

I've moved my 125 and 175, and the method was much as outlined above. I used much bigger rubbermaids, 30G I think, not the largest size though, as they seemed much weaker. Last time I moved I bought 6 and 3 broke (45G?) when first filled. The 30Gs don't have holes in the handles, and are a thicker material.

Otherwise, I start once the house is otherwise empty, put the rocks into a rubbermaid, the fish into a different one, scoop sand out, as much as I can, into a third.

I try to keep as much water as possible. Refilling and mixing salt isn't what you want to be doing as you move in... premixing if you can is ideal, but I've never had that opportunity.

As I take the equipment apart the pumps and heaters go into the rubbermaids until the very last minute to keep water flowing.

Then, at the new place, the tank goes up, the sand and rock back into it, then fish, then corals. Last time I moved I actually just put the pumps, heaters, etc into the tank, and setup up the sump the next day... just a matter of priorities. Generally a water change is going to be a good idea too.

Be sensible about how you split things out... a boxfish will cause damage if it dies along the way, I've learnt that the hard way before. Arrived with everything alived, set up the tank, found everything dead an hour later.

If you need/are using/looking for movers, I used Schleppers. Ask for Harry, he and his guys moved both the 125 and 175 tanks without blinking. I was really very impressed. I had box up livestock, etc, but they did all the heavy lifting, and were happy with rubbermaids leaking in their lorry...

In the wet, I can't stress enough how helpful having a GFCI is either. Probably saved me quite a few times.

I got my rock and sand shipped up live from Florida so I definitely want to keep it. I want all the life on my reef I can get.

Alex

 

[eric]

fish stores that sell fish for human consumption sometimes have those disposable styrofoam coolers
for your non fish related items:
if you need boxes and packing supplies try the free section of craigslist
liquor stores are also a good source of roach free moving boxes
clothing, blankets and pillows that you aren't using anytime soon are good for wrapping breakables; this can save alot of room

 

[h20 freak]

I moved last year, I unfortunately broke my leg(royally screwing my summer) but my family got it done for me, I am very grateful obviously.

Even though the tank got nuked a week after re-setup due to a floor sanding incident:irked:. Everything went smoothly despite almost 48 hours of "transit". My only inhabitants were some fish and snails, I saved as much water as possible in three 20 gallon containers, the fish one had a battery powered air pump. That was basically it equipment wise. I have no idea how my family got the fish out and quite frankly I don't want to.Anyway within the first day everything in the tank was pretty much as it was a few days before.

 

[fishguy23]

Well an update on my move...... FAILED MISERABLY!!!! My fish could not survive the stress & the heat elements along with sick GW traffic.

1 saddleback, 1 clown & blenny survived