Best way to move big tank

[ultramafic]

So i set up my 225 a few months back and now i'm moving! I've got a ton of live rock, bigger colonies, frags, clams. this tank required 4 big guys to move it into place completely empty, and my new place it will be on the second floor so i need to empty it completely. And i need to set up a holding area in the garage for all the livestock for the mean time.

What have you guys done to move your stuff over? My initial idea is to put the live rock in buckets, put the corals in plastic bags also in buckets, put the fish in bags too?, and at the new place put all of the live rock in some type of container, fill it with what water i bring, and then place the corals and fish inside the container with a couple powerheads and an emperor 400 filter that i have and then place the light over the top. My driveway is very steep (think san francisco steep) so buckets will have to be half full with lids.

I'm fearing this right now and would rather rely on somebody elses experience and know how instead of just winging it like i normally do. Let me know if you got some ideas! mahalo!

 

[Mike&Terry]

When we moved our livestock from our old house, we transported our fish in 5 gallon salt buckets. As for the corals, some were put in bags, others in buckets and the larger colonies were transported in rubbermaid bins.

Without going into the gory details, we had a major tank disaster in 2010 and thru that experience learned a lot about keeping livestock alive in our garage. In a pinch, 50g storage containers from one of the box stores will work, but they are not made to hold water so may need to be "shored up" using bungee cords.

Temporary vats:

In your situation where you have time to prepare, I would suggest going to an agricultural supply store and purchasing a stock vat or two.

We had to drain our current tank two weeks after install last year because the overflow box failed This pic shows the 3 stock vats that held our rock, sand, corals and fish. Most of our live rock and all of our fish were held in a 180g vat. All of our corals in a 110g vat and the remainder of our live rock in another 110g vat.


Hope this is of some help to you and good luck with your move! :bigsmile:

 

[Giancarlo]

If you check out Melevsreef.com - Welcome! there is an article on the site on how they moved their tank.

 

[Kbra]

Second floor huh?? You sure it wont be on the first floor once its full?

 

[ultramafic]

Second floor huh?? You sure it wont be on the first floor once its full?

the plan for it is to not fall through the floor. sometimes i guess plans fall through... get it?!

 

[ultramafic]

When we moved our livestock from our old house, we transported our fish in 5 gallon salt buckets. As for the corals, some were put in bags, others in buckets and the larger colonies were transported in rubbermaid bins.

Without going into the gory details, we had a major tank disaster in 2010 and thru that experience learned a lot about keeping livestock alive in our garage. In a pinch, 50g storage containers from one of the box stores will work, but they are not made to hold water so may need to be "shored up" using bungee cords.


Temporary vats:


In your situation where you have time to prepare, I would suggest going to an agricultural supply store and purchasing a stock vat or two.

We had to drain our current tank two weeks after install last year because the overflow box failed This pic shows the 3 stock vats that held our rock, sand, corals and fish. Most of our live rock and all of our fish were held in a 180g vat. All of our corals in a 110g vat and the remainder of our live rock in another 110g vat.


Hope this is of some help to you and good luck with your move! :bigsmile:

Thanks, i think this is basically the idea im going to be running with. I should have the tank in place within the next 4 days so my temporary system doesn't need to be amazing, but it does need to at least keep my goodies alive! I have a few bigger containers, a bunch of coolers buckets and other water holding goodies.

Since my driveway is on a steep hill i'll be using 5 gallon jugs with lids to transport my water over to the new house, my livestock i'm just placing in buckets with lids on them, and then when i get them there i'll put the live rock in a container, then the corals in another, and probably spread my fish out between them so theyre not so crowded. hopefully the tank will be in place and i can get some sand in and all my rock corals and fish in the new place before it gets too stressful. I'll connect my sump and plumbing after, i've already taken them offline and cleaned out most of the equipment. As for the floor i'm not worried, the last tenants had a full sized pool table and wet bar where i'm putting the tank. Advice and help is always welcome!