Frighting Possibility of a move

Nibejeebies · Mar 6, 2016

So I was informed this weekend that my apartment complex may be ending my lease and offering to move me to another apartment to finish it out or release the lease entirely due to some maintenance issues that have arose and suspected need for remodel/overhaul of my unit and the one next to me.

This will prolly happen by the end of the month... which means I am going to have to move my reef tank. Now Currently I dont have that much corals, mostly softies like mushrooms and zoas, however I was told that my Hammer and Octaspawn will prolly not do well in a move.

If this happens, I will be moving to a residence aproximatly 30-45 mintues from my current location.
This said, Any one have tips on moving that far with the items I have?

Kole Tang, 2 clown, 2 pajama cardinals, 6 hermits, 6 turbo snails 4 troca snails, 1 sand sifting star, 1 Harlequin serpent star, unknown total number of bristle stars (i know of at least 5-7), 1-pepermint shrimp, approximately 100 lbs of live rock, and I know at least one bristle worm.
Corals- 5 zoa colonies/ frags ; 2 palythoa colonies/frags; 1 mushroom; 1 hammer; 1 octaspawn

I know that I will need to ditch the sand and replace it completely, and to save as much of the tank water as possible... what else? Any one have tips; tricks; ect ect ect

Bdog4u2 · Mar 6, 2016

If you're keeping the same tank and your sand bed isn't that old I would keep it just don't disturb it to bad

l8_apex_it · Mar 6, 2016

I have moved a 30 gallon tank a number of times over the years and never had any losses. I helped my brother in law move a 50 gallon cube about an hour away with no losses.

Be deliberate and concentrated on the tank move alone. Think things through ahead of time. Make extra water ahead of time for the new location. Keep and take as much water from your current tank as possible. Use buckets, ice chests, etc.

Good luck!

Bdog4u2 · Mar 6, 2016

Bottles of hot water can keep water from getting to cold. I've even used hand warmers when buying livestock hrs from my house

Kershaw · Mar 6, 2016

My first tank was 180 gallon. I bought it about 30 min from my house. I started at about 11 am and I finished at about midnight. I used 100 gallons of old water plus the water in the rubbermaids I transfer rock in. I put all the fish in a Rubbermaid and coral in a bucket carefully. The only thing I worried about was a power head and a heater for coral and for fish. I didn't lose anything. The only thing is it took about 2 days for water to get clear again. Slow is smooth smooth is fast. Fish and coral will be fine for an hour drive. I bought coral in SoCal last year and drove them back to NorCal took 7 hours. They all lived and looked great I just had them in a cooler with nothing else. Hope this helps moving tanks sucks

cmcoker · Mar 6, 2016

Multiple buckets/containwrst with lids, rock separate from corals separate from fish. Have a temporary setup for your fish at the new location. A brute trashcan (I use a 20g) is good, with heater and powerhead, with the few corals you have they can go here too, maybe some pvc elbows for hiding spots. Move fish, corals first. Then rock and tank/stand. Setup tank, return livestock. I would plan to do the tank move separate from your actual move. It's too much to try and do in one day.

Alternatively, get a quote from the lfs for doing this for you.. Around here it averages $1/g per hour, usually with a minimum number of hours.

dutch27 · Mar 6, 2016

l8_apex_it said:
I have moved a 30 gallon tank a number of times over the years and never had any losses. I helped my brother in law move a 50 gallon cube about an hour away with no losses.

Be deliberate and concentrated on the tank move alone. Think things through ahead of time. Make extra water ahead of time for the new location. Keep and take as much water from your current tank as possible. Use buckets, ice chests, etc.

Good luck!

+1 to this, carefully plan it out. If possible:

1 - Stage water at the new place. If you can, stage water and existing rock in bins at the new place before you move.
2 - Breakdown the tank a couple days in advance, the breakdown will likely take longer than you think. The breakdown can be an all day event alone, especially if it's plumbed to a sump. Grab rubbermaid bins, load them with existing rocks and tank water, a powerhead and a heater, everything can live there for a couple days, the tang may get stressed. You can then take out more tank water and do a bucket shuffle to the new place, and let that water and some rock hang out at the new place with powerheads and heaters, and/or make fresh water at the new place to add this stuff to. Use lids to minimize evaporation.
3 - Day of the move, transfer the fish from bins to buckets for ease of transport, bins of rock and water are heavy and messy. At this point you should have a couple of bins with some of your rock and water at the new place. Drive straight over, 30-45 min won't kill the water temp. Put the fish in the bins at the new place. Or, get bags from the LFS, and bag the fish up so you don't have buckets of water sloshing around.
4 - Go back, get the rock, bins, tank, etc and move all of that to the new place. This is where you want extra water staged at the new place, so you can dump the water from the bins at the old place, drive the rock over, and drop it in the water at the new place. The die off in the 1-2 hours this takes won't be enough to cause a new cycle in the rock.
5 - Setup your tank. By the end of moving day, you probably won't want to do more than put it on the stand. Go ahead and save it for the next day if you're exhausted, your livestock is safe in bins of established rock and their old water, they'll be fine. I've done this for weeks after having a tank break, and everything live happily in a 12g rubbermaid bin with a halide rigged over it.

Those corals should all transfer just fine, just sit your light on top of the bin you put them in. Remember how shallow the bins are compared to your tank, so run the lights on a shorter cycle. This is mostly going to be more stressful for you than the livestock. Consider borrowing buckets and equipment from fellow local reefers, or even seeing if they can give your stuff a temporary home until you're set up. Or if you're near family, maybe use their basement as a staging area for bins and livestock.

Have more towels ready than you think you need. Many more towels.

Ditch the sand, by the time the tank is handled and moved it'll get stirred up, plus a tank full of wet sand is much heavier than it needs to be. With planning it's very feasible to do with zero losses. I met someone in my part of NY that moved a 55g tank from VA, by car, with buckets and air stones, with zero losses. Just be smart, plan it out, give yourself time. The tank move should probably be it's own dedicated moving day, separate from furniture.

Kershaw · Mar 6, 2016

Make sure you have new bulk heads if you need it them!!! I almost didn't find any before the fish stores closed.

jamie callard · Mar 6, 2016

Fish and corals go 24 hours when buying online or even your lfs had a 24 hour period so a short move wont be a big deal

Bunnee911 · Mar 6, 2016

You won't need a light for just a day. But DO have plenty of towels.

dorky · Mar 6, 2016

Make sure that your s/o understand how importance this is to keep em alive cuz mine didn't and lost all the livestock

hejjo · Mar 6, 2016

Jus did this 7 months ago and it was not fun lol. I agree with having the tank move on its own day. Chances are it will take a lot longer than you thought it would. I bought a box of bags for all the coral n floated them in a sealed 5 gal bucket, Worked great. It was easier for me as well since I was upgrading to a new tank. I spent a few hours a day for several days going over my plan so I wasn't as stressed when the day came. Didn't loose anything but I had to move my blue hippo tang from a bucket to the trash can of rock since she wasn't to happy. I kept my sand and didn't have any problems. Didn't even rinse it. Good luck. [emoji106]

l8_apex_it · Mar 6, 2016

One more from my earlier list - identify a good friend (or # dependent on the sizer of your tank) who will not let you down day of.

smiley28 · Mar 6, 2016

Everyone here pretty much said what you need to know but I'll have you know I once moved a tank 3hrs away by removing the rock and 2/3 of the water. It wasn't light by any means and it was only a 37g cube which had higher sides.. Not safe for the tank either I'm sure but I made it work with a heater and power head running off the cars power

Good luck!

Nibejeebies · Apr 2, 2016

Those that gave advice thank you. I did in fact move but lucky everything seems to be going great didn't lose any corals or fish, and only lost a single hermit crab.