Moving 5+ hours...

[Be102]

I plan on moving a decent distance away from where I currently am and have a 65 gallon display tank as well as a 40 gallon sump.. I am wondering what would be the best procedure to complete this process. I am fortunate to not have any fish currently and just have a majority of inverts and corals. What would everyone recommend I do? I was thinking about removing the rock work into a few 5 gallon buckets and then potentially all the sand in one 5 gallon bucket. I will put the block that is in my sump in a wet location to keep the beneficial bacteria all going smooth....

Any tips for this? I can potentially begin to break my tank down now to get it prepared but need some guidance..

thanks!

 

[Jedi1199]

I plan on moving a decent distance away from where I currently am and have a 65 gallon display tank as well as a 40 gallon sump.. I am wondering what would be the best procedure to complete this process. I am fortunate to not have any fish currently and just have a majority of inverts and corals. What would everyone recommend I do? I was thinking about removing the rock work into a few 5 gallon buckets and then potentially all the sand in one 5 gallon bucket. I will put the block that is in my sump in a wet location to keep the beneficial bacteria all going smooth....

Any tips for this? I can potentially begin to break my tank down now to get it prepared but need some guidance..

thanks!

Since you have no fish, your plan sounds good. This is what I would do anyway. The corals will tolerate a short term period of below normal temps.

What you describe is actually pretty much exactly what I did when I moved to my home. Only difference is the drive was 2 hours and not 5. Either way, should be fine. If you have powerheads on hand, or can buy a couple (a couple Aquaclear 10's will be fine), I would get them in the buckets as soon as you get to the new place. Use the "venturi flow" to oxygenate the water as well as generate flow over the corals. Also, drop your heater into the bucket with the living corals. The rocks will survive a couple days as long as they are wet, but I would advise a powerhead on those as well as water stagnates fast.

Congrats on the new place! Hope the move goes well. Keep us posted!!

 

[Jedi1199]

One for at least the bucket with the live corals/inverts. One for the bucket with the rock. The sand is fine as is. **Be sure to wash it completely before adding it back to the tank**

 

[Be102]

One for at least the bucket with the live corals/inverts. One for the bucket with the rock. The sand is fine as is. **Be sure to wash it completely before adding it back to the tank**

Would you recommend I add wet paper towels / newspaper to the rocks?
would you keep the corals fully submerged in water? Some are encrusted on the rocks so i might have to have them together.

 

[Jedi1199]

Would you recommend I add wet paper towels / newspaper to the rocks?
would you keep the corals fully submerged in water? Some are encrusted on the rocks so i might have to have them together.

Fully submerged. All rocks, corals should be fully submerged.

 

[Be102]

The move is coming up with around 10 days left to go.. ive got numerous buckets and containers... I am hoping it all goes well..

I was wondering if and what I could do prior to the actual move day to help prepare myself more... Should I break down my sump the night before and put the rocks that are in the sump in some buckets?

Should I do everything the morning of...? I will have A LOT to do from getting a truck to having movers help me move all my stuff..

Any ideas from keeping a tank from cracking during a move? just wrapping it well and hoping for the best?

As you can see I am quite all over the place..

 

[Be102]

Bump looking for advice w move

 

[snorklr]

rentals or someplace you bought...what i'm driving at is will you have access to both locations for a couple days? where you could move the tank, clean and set it up without dealing with the rest of your belongings? i'd make up a big load of new water and have it at the new place ahead of time, if not bring it along in the truck....i used tractor supply food grade 5 gal buckets (like $10 with lids) for moving everything...all submerged...they sat in small square milk crates with towels so it all packed together tight and couldnt fall over...if this tanks been up for a while you'll be surprised how much gunk and detritis will be stirred up and wind up in the buckets with the rock...and when you see it i doubt you'll want to dump it all back in your tank...you probably want to first siphon a quantity of clean water out of the tank into buckets with nothing else so you can reuse it...then use the new water you made to replace the rock/ sand bucket water...gotta keep everything at reasonable temperatures so depending on weather it may be better off in a car with a/c than the back of a rental truck..plastic down and towels in case anything spills.or already at the new location in a 78 degree room...sand will have to be washed( as per brandons rip clean threads) when you get there and have ro/di or salt made up for final rinse...i wouldnt break anything down ahead of time...i just cant imagine trying to deal with the tank while trying to tell other people what to do with your furniture

 

[Hairyteeth]

For rocks that have coral, think of how you can support them in the containers wether with other rocks or something else to keep the coral from getting knocked around too much

 

[Be102]

For rocks that have coral, think of how you can support them in the containers wether with other rocks or something else to keep the coral from getting knocked around too much

Thanks for the reply...

So I am moving rather far so I wont really have the ability to do both the tank and everything else separate as I will need the truck to bring the tank itself / sump and stand.

Im hoping to fill numerous 5 gallon buckets / other large black and yellow tote containers like the ones from home depot with the rocks and some water as well as corals. Sand will go into a bucket and I will plan on rinsing the sand when i get there. I am pretty sure the tank and bacteria will be fine as long as I keep the rocks and other stuff submerged. I will make sure to pack a power head with the stuff so despite not planning on aerating it throughout the car ride, I can at least get the water moving asap when i get there..


Ill be honest.. I am assuming some steps of the fish tank will be a little either on the late side and or potentially will get delayed as there are a LOT of other factors at play here.

My tank has no fish and only little inverts like hermits and snails. I will try my best to place all snails together and all hermits and whatnot with each other to prevent problems.

The idea I had to help me leading up to the move was to potentially take my sump offline and just have the rocks in a bucket with a powerhead until the actual move. at that point I can hopefully have all my sump equipment and plumbing from the overflow box off and then the next morning can just plan on doing what is inside the tank itself ( rocks/ corals/inverts)


at the end of the day if I lose some stuff I will not be devastated... Ive planned on moving for a very long time and therefore haven't really added many fish to the system in a while. I am pretty sure my stuff will be alright when I get there and I can start asap to get them with some new water / back to normal.


Am I in for a bad time...?

 

[wculver]

I plan on moving a decent distance away from where I currently am and have a 65 gallon display tank as well as a 40 gallon sump.. I am wondering what would be the best procedure to complete this process. I am fortunate to not have any fish currently and just have a majority of inverts and corals. What would everyone recommend I do? I was thinking about removing the rock work into a few 5 gallon buckets and then potentially all the sand in one 5 gallon bucket. I will put the block that is in my sump in a wet location to keep the beneficial bacteria all going smooth....

Any tips for this? I can potentially begin to break my tank down now to get it prepared but need some guidance..

thanks!

Your plan does sound good with one exception which is flow. The water will just sink on the rocks and the sand and things will begin to die pretty quickly at least in part. You'll end up having to re-season the live rock but if you keep great flow it'll be minimal. You can use some small cheap power heads to achieve this with a power inverter on the road. Lastly, you didn't mention the sand but many times it is not worth saving. Basically if it ends up smelling like death by the time you get there it may be better to just use new sand rather than the old sand and a massive ammonia spike as you get things going. The coral will be stressed from the move so just trying to keep things as smooth as possible.

 

[Be102]

Your plan does sound good with one exception which is flow. The water will just sink on the rocks and the sand and things will begin to die pretty quickly at least in part. You'll end up having to re-season the live rock but if you keep great flow it'll be minimal. You can use some small cheap power heads to achieve this with a power inverter on the road. Lastly, you didn't mention the sand but many times it is not worth saving. Basically if it ends up smelling like death by the time you get there it may be better to just use new sand rather than the old sand and a massive ammonia spike as you get things going. The coral will be stressed from the move so just trying to keep things as smooth as possible.

Do you think sand dying is a big deal if I plan on rinsing it with rodi ? I dont really have it in me to buy mulitple bags of sand and Rinse it come the day of move in...

i bought a REALLY cheap powerhead that moves like 10 gph or something silly like that... I am unsure if a car can run a full sze powerhead while moving / which container should even have the powerheads?


If you think that I might have even better luck with say downsizing my tank significantly, just keeping rocks / corals/ inverts and then trying like a new set up at the new place that is a possibility... I am just trying to keep all of this as painfree/cheap as possible.

 

[wculver]

Do you think sand dying is a big deal if I plan on rinsing it with rodi ? I dont really have it in me to buy mulitple bags of sand and Rinse it come the day of move in...

i bought a REALLY cheap powerhead that moves like 10 gph or something silly like that... I am unsure if a car can run a full sze powerhead while moving / which container should even have the powerheads?


If you think that I might have even better luck with say downsizing my tank significantly, just keeping rocks / corals/ inverts and then trying like a new set up at the new place that is a possibility... I am just trying to keep all of this as painfree/cheap as possible.

So the powerheads are super low wattage, my small cheap ones are 15 watts for example and move enough water to help the process significantly. Up to your best judgement to tell that the water movement is enough for hours of travel. A common inverter size is 400 watts so you can have a few of those cheap powerheads going to help you out. I assume it's hot where you are so no need to worry about heating the water.

As far as the sand there are some options depending on what you want to do. Perhaps the sand will turn out okay even. My experience has been it sours and putting it back in the tank directly spawns an ammonia spike just like starting a new tank and you want to avoid that obviously. If you think it's possible to wash things out that would certainly help, it's the waste in the sand that crease the issue. I suppose it all depends on what type of sand you have, if it's the fine stuff may be hard to do.

 

[Be102]

So the powerheads are super low wattage, my small cheap ones are 15 watts for example and move enough water to help the process significantly. Up to your best judgement to tell that the water movement is enough for hours of travel. A common inverter size is 400 watts so you can have a few of those cheap powerheads going to help you out. I assume it's hot where you are so no need to worry about heating the water.

As far as the sand there are some options depending on what you want to do. Perhaps the sand will turn out okay even. My experience has been it sours and putting it back in the tank directly spawns an ammonia spike just like starting a new tank and you want to avoid that obviously. If you think it's possible to wash things out that would certainly help, it's the waste in the sand that crease the issue. I suppose it all depends on what type of sand you have, if it's the fine stuff may be hard to do.

I’d like to think my sandbed is near pristine… when I added it I made sure to rinse it a lot with rodi… I feel like I was a very old advocate for rinsing my sand bed.

another factor is that I currently don’t have fish or anything that is a major contributor to waste. I’d be lying too if I’d say I was always up to date with my water changes… my tank is rather established ( not many algae spikes or anything) I am hoping I should be okay.

I will look into an inverter for the car as well

 

[Dburr1014]

Do you think sand dying is a big deal if I plan on rinsing it with rodi ? I dont really have it in me to buy mulitple bags of sand and Rinse it come the day of move in...

i bought a REALLY cheap powerhead that moves like 10 gph or something silly like that... I am unsure if a car can run a full sze powerhead while moving / which container should even have the powerheads?


If you think that I might have even better luck with say downsizing my tank significantly, just keeping rocks / corals/ inverts and then trying like a new set up at the new place that is a possibility... I am just trying to keep all of this as painfree/cheap as possible.

If you have only rocks in a bucket and water they will be fine for a couple of days as stated earlier. And if you're going to be in a warm area, all the better. The sand if you're going to rinse it you don't even need to store it in water. It just needs to be rinsed in tap water really well and the final rinse can be Rodi. All the coral and inverts should go together in a bucket with water. If you can get a couple of those battery powered air stones that would help tremendously. I would break down the sump first the night before. Just leave your powerheads going in the main display and a heater. Good luck with the move.

 

[Jedi1199]

Moving a tank is a LOT of work!!

Is it possible to do the house move one day and then the tank the next? I guarantee you that once you get to the new place, the wife will want the bed set up first!! Telling her she's not going to get a bed for 6 or 7 hours while you play with the tank is NOT going to fly!!

The advice you are getting all sounds great... till you step back and look at the reality of what you are doing. You are going to have to tear the entire system down. This means all of the plumbing and everything.

Getting the stock and sand into buckets is easy, but it is just the first small step. Cleaning out the sand bed into a bucket (a plastic dustpan works really well for this). I would NOT go larger than 5g buckets as water is HEAVY!!

Now, once you have everything moved into buckets and as much clean water saved as you can, you have a tank, sump, plumbing, stand and everything else to deal with. All the plumbing will need to be disconnected. Drain the overflows, pull out the standpipes and bulkheads. All of your wavemakers, pumps, skimmer, and whatever else you run all will need to be removed and packed for the move.

Now, you get that all done.. its been a long day already.. You drive 5+ hours to the new location... Do you REALLY think you will be able to rebuild the system now? Your wife wants her bed. The kids want dinner, You are tired, hot, irritated, and sore and all you want is a beer and peace and quiet!!

It's the weekend.. its late, you start putting all the plumbing back together... Drip, drip drip.. ***** it's too late to run to the store to fix this.. And on and on...

I will tell you from firsthand experience as I just upgraded my 55g to a 135 with sump. It took me 4 days just to make the WATER for the move. The actual teardown of the 55 was one evening, then setup the new tank, stand, and plumbing took most of a day, I STILL have a leak after 2 weeks!! Oh and then, if you are going to wash the sand, figure a few hours for that and if you don't, at LEAST overnight for the tank to clear out before you can add stock back in.

I honestly would advise you to figure a week turnover between first removing stock, and reintroduction... Minimum!

Once you get to the new place, a couple large totes from Walmart, will give the fish a bit of breathing room instead of the buckets. (I used 2 30g Sterilite totes for my tank swap)

Just for an idea.. it took me 5 days start to finish to make my tank swap (NOT including time for making and mixing new water)

 

[Dburr1014]

Moving a tank is a LOT of work!!

Is it possible to do the house move one day and then the tank the next? I guarantee you that once you get to the new place, the wife will want the bed set up first!! Telling her she's not going to get a bed for 6 or 7 hours while you play with the tank is NOT going to fly!!

The advice you are getting all sounds great... till you step back and look at the reality of what you are doing. You are going to have to tear the entire system down. This means all of the plumbing and everything.

Getting the stock and sand into buckets is easy, but it is just the first small step. Cleaning out the sand bed into a bucket (a plastic dustpan works really well for this). I would NOT go larger than 5g buckets as water is HEAVY!!

Now, once you have everything moved into buckets and as much clean water saved as you can, you have a tank, sump, plumbing, stand and everything else to deal with. All the plumbing will need to be disconnected. Drain the overflows, pull out the standpipes and bulkheads. All of your wavemakers, pumps, skimmer, and whatever else you run all will need to be removed and packed for the move.

Now, you get that all done.. its been a long day already.. You drive 5+ hours to the new location... Do you REALLY think you will be able to rebuild the system now? Your wife wants her bed. The kids want dinner, You are tired, hot, irritated, and sore and all you want is a beer and peace and quiet!!

It's the weekend.. its late, you start putting all the plumbing back together... Drip, drip drip.. ***** it's too late to run to the store to fix this.. And on and on...

I will tell you from firsthand experience as I just upgraded my 55g to a 135 with sump. It took me 4 days just to make the WATER for the move. The actual teardown of the 55 was one evening, then setup the new tank, stand, and plumbing took most of a day, I STILL have a leak after 2 weeks!! Oh and then, if you are going to wash the sand, figure a few hours for that and if you don't, at LEAST overnight for the tank to clear out before you can add stock back in.

I honestly would advise you to figure a week turnover between first removing stock, and reintroduction... Minimum!

Once you get to the new place, a couple large totes from Walmart, will give the fish a bit of breathing room instead of the buckets. (I used 2 30g Sterilite totes for my tank swap)

Just for an idea.. it took me 5 days start to finish to make my tank swap (NOT including time for making and mixing new water)

Yup

 

[Be102]

Moving a tank is a LOT of work!!

Is it possible to do the house move one day and then the tank the next? I guarantee you that once you get to the new place, the wife will want the bed set up first!! Telling her she's not going to get a bed for 6 or 7 hours while you play with the tank is NOT going to fly!!

The advice you are getting all sounds great... till you step back and look at the reality of what you are doing. You are going to have to tear the entire system down. This means all of the plumbing and everything.

Getting the stock and sand into buckets is easy, but it is just the first small step. Cleaning out the sand bed into a bucket (a plastic dustpan works really well for this). I would NOT go larger than 5g buckets as water is HEAVY!!

Now, once you have everything moved into buckets and as much clean water saved as you can, you have a tank, sump, plumbing, stand and everything else to deal with. All the plumbing will need to be disconnected. Drain the overflows, pull out the standpipes and bulkheads. All of your wavemakers, pumps, skimmer, and whatever else you run all will need to be removed and packed for the move.

Now, you get that all done.. its been a long day already.. You drive 5+ hours to the new location... Do you REALLY think you will be able to rebuild the system now? Your wife wants her bed. The kids want dinner, You are tired, hot, irritated, and sore and all you want is a beer and peace and quiet!!

It's the weekend.. its late, you start putting all the plumbing back together... Drip, drip drip.. ***** it's too late to run to the store to fix this.. And on and on...

I will tell you from firsthand experience as I just upgraded my 55g to a 135 with sump. It took me 4 days just to make the WATER for the move. The actual teardown of the 55 was one evening, then setup the new tank, stand, and plumbing took most of a day, I STILL have a leak after 2 weeks!! Oh and then, if you are going to wash the sand, figure a few hours for that and if you don't, at LEAST overnight for the tank to clear out before you can add stock back in.

I honestly would advise you to figure a week turnover between first removing stock, and reintroduction... Minimum!

Once you get to the new place, a couple large totes from Walmart, will give the fish a bit of breathing room instead of the buckets. (I used 2 30g Sterilite totes for my tank swap)

Just for an idea.. it took me 5 days start to finish to make my tank swap (NOT including time for making and mixing new water)

So that is where stuff gets interesting.. I am lucky enough to have some people whom will help me move the tank and whatnot into the truck and then from there I am basically on my own. I have someone coming to help me with the move but they aren’t fish versed and I assure you they will try to get everything else done before the fish.

the problem isn’t really with time it’s more about the ability to move the tank
And whatnot at the same time to the new house as it will have to go into the moving truck… also would
Be only time I get help to unload it /whatnot.

I am planning on everything making the move as there has been times I’ve had my sump off and just the tank was going. I mean people have tanks without sumps…

If I can manage to get the sump disconnected and all the plumbing off I will be in good shape. All my plumbing has multiple disconnect points as I used … unions? I think they are called…. Been a while.

Question is… what will go wrong as I haven’t had everything planned… drip drip sounds like an issue.

I’mhoping this is not nearly as stressful as i am
Making it as at the end of the day I am moving a bunch of live rock, some corals and sand along with the equipment.

Do you think I’d have much luck putting all my live rock in say a 30 gallon trash can with enough water to cover it, throw a battery powered air stone in there and hope for the best? Same with the corals?


I won’t have anyone nagging me for beds or whatnot and will most likely miss a few steps as I plan on setting it up as I go… I am just hoping everything makes the move alright

 

[Be102]

If I was to buy an air stone or a powerhead and inverter what would you buy? I am planning on aerating both the rocks, corals and maybe even the sand.

 

[Jedi1199]

So that is where stuff gets interesting.. I am lucky enough to have some people whom will help me move the tank and whatnot into the truck and then from there I am basically on my own. I have someone coming to help me with the move but they aren’t fish versed and I assure you they will try to get everything else done before the fish.

the problem isn’t really with time it’s more about the ability to move the tank
And whatnot at the same time to the new house as it will have to go into the moving truck… also would
Be only time I get help to unload it /whatnot.

I am planning on everything making the move as there has been times I’ve had my sump off and just the tank was going. I mean people have tanks without sumps…

If I can manage to get the sump disconnected and all the plumbing off I will be in good shape. All my plumbing has multiple disconnect points as I used … unions? I think they are called…. Been a while.

Question is… what will go wrong as I haven’t had everything planned… drip drip sounds like an issue.

I’mhoping this is not nearly as stressful as i am
Making it as at the end of the day I am moving a bunch of live rock, some corals and sand along with the equipment.

Do you think I’d have much luck putting all my live rock in say a 30 gallon trash can with enough water to cover it, throw a battery powered air stone in there and hope for the best? Same with the corals?


I won’t have anyone nagging me for beds or whatnot and will most likely miss a few steps as I plan on setting it up as I go… I am just hoping everything makes the move alright

Well I will tell you now.. PLAN for the "Drip drip" thing. It will more likely happen than not. (plumbing is my most hated enemy..)

For the actual move.. 5g buckets will be easier. Ever tried to pick up a 30g brute can filled with water and rock? Not gonna happen! Get a couple 30g totes from walmart.. pack all your sheets and blankets in them and use them for the move.. then when you get home, dump them out and you have your bedding ready AND a place to put your fish, corals, rocks, water, heaters, and wavemakers into!! Win WIN!!

If you have to get it all done for the move on "Saturday", get as much done as you can ahead of time. Any bare rocks can be taken out at any time and placed in buckets... They don't need heat, but water movement will help. Remember I said a few cheap powerheads?

The rocks with attached corals and of course the fish will need to be held both at temp, and with flow. For the fish, the issue here is oxygen exchange more than temp. The corals will be fine with lower levels but won't appreciate getting too cold.

We are NOT talking about the 5-6 hours drive. We are talking about the reality of the time from Removal to reintroduction. I promise you that it is most likely at LEAST 3 days. THIS is what you need to prepare for.