moving

[stony]

Iam moving to a apartment right down stairs in the same complex that I live at. what steps should I take to move my 55 gallon and 100 pounds of fiji live rock and soft leather coral, mushrooms and fish. Any help or ideas would be great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sandworm]

Unless you have a spare empty 55 gallon tank and a long hose.. hehe You'll have to get some 20-30 gallon containers and drain as much water into them as you can, save your rock and corals in them along with your water.. In other words save as much of the water, coral , sand and anything else you can in the containers and then set your tank up at the new place and then ad it all back in the best you can.. If you have to add water back to make up for lost water hopefully it will not be anymore water than a normal water change. You do it right and you won't miss a thing.

[Hystrix]

I have a post w/ pics of moving my 75gal and 20gal from FL to OH in reefcentral.com and reefaquariumguide.com the info might help you. Do a search under hystrix.

[1996 cobra]

a bunch of 20 - 50 gallon rubbermaid containers will suit you best.

justin

[NitrateFarmer]

As others have stated save as much water as possible.
Since filling and moving large containers of water is impossible - due to weight - the long hose idea is great.

Remember you don't have to fill it all the way immediatley, I held out for many hours to get the best water and lower the trauma ( several trips to the fish store for 15-20gal. of SW )

livestock and LR in seperate buckets air hose/ heat as needed.
Your fish got to you by land, sea and air in much worse conditions and can hold out in a bucket for hours if needed.
(I'm pretty sure some of my Yellow tail damsels can live on land - tough bastards they are.)

You can also run your SUMP or any other Bio filter into themselves to lower the risk of a spike later on.

PS don't forget the towels and a mop.
Good luck and let us know how it worked.
-J

[mookiebears34]

I recently purchased an existing 75g reef system from somebody and needed to move everything about 30 miles. We saved as much water as possible using 10, 5-gallon buckets. The 5 gallon buckets were not too bad to carry and with the lids, they worked great. I was able to place livestock in the buckets for transportation...keeping as few fish/corals per bucket as possible.

I then placed all the live rock in newspaper and placed them in boxes for transportation. The newspaper kept the moisture in the live rock during transportation.

We disgarded all water that we could not fit into the buckets and carried the tank out with very little water along with the live sand. It was pretty heavy, but we were able to get it up some stairs and transport it without problem (except for the stank it gave off).

I did not lose anything during the move. I thought that with the combination of adding about 30% new water along with not rinsing off the live rock before placing it in the tank would have hindered the system, but everything worked out great.

The one suggestion that I have for you is to work quickly on setting up your filtration, heater, etc. That was the most difficult part for me, especially because I did not have any previous experience with the equipment.

Good luck!

[jknut]

Just a thought, but I think Stony has moved already. :lol: That post is over a year old. :mrgreen: But still great information.

[stony]

I sold everthing and move here to Tampa florida a year after I moved downstairs to a new apartment i have been here in Florida for three months and have a new reef BUt great information on how to move a tank thanks


~stony~

[NeedHelp]

just made a 20 mile move myself last week and i took large garbage bags oand lines them in anything that has a structure and could support weight. They were large plastic bins you use to store clothes and stuff. Pulled the bag out and cut one corner and drained the water into buckets. The rock did well in the plastic tubs also, just make sure they stay wet. Although i bought a new tank for the new place and used all my old equipment.