Moving a 125g mixed reef

Chiefmaster30 · Oct 10, 2018

Anyone have any suggestions/ ideas, do’s/ dont’s on moving a 125g mixed reef. We bought a house so moving 20 miles away. I have A 30 gallon empty tank available. And some tubs.

CAMAKAZY · Oct 11, 2018

Bag all fish corals an large inverts. Save as much water as u can. Put rock in a tote or large buckets an keep em wet the whole time. If substrate is old rinse it. I'd probably get some saltwater an get it to new house, to have ready when u get the tank there. I moved a 56g 200 miles like this but lost about 10 gallons in transit. Oh an cold packs an a cooler for fish corals an inverts.

Travis Stewart · Oct 11, 2018

Like mentioned above, bag everything you can that’s not attached to rock work. I always use 5 gallon buckets for my rocks and use water in there to put back in tank. I usually put fish in those buckets as well so they feel safe during move and have some place to hide. I put rocks with coral at top of those buckets of course. I always do a 50% water change when moving. I also always ditch all the sand and start fresh. Add some live bacteria first couple weeks and your golden. Have had 3 successful moves with not one fatality of coral or fish. Good luck.

PS like above mentioned also, have that other 50% water ready to put in tank when you get there. Be patient, everything will be fine.

Tennsquire · Oct 11, 2018

My tank moves have always been during cold weather. What I found to be invaluable were those Gatorade coolers with the screw on lids that you see on the sidelines of football/soccer games (my brother is an athletic trainer and has a ton of them). They kept things safe and kept the temperature stable whilst moving. The last move I did (4 miles) provided me the luxury of setting up a holding tank in the old house, moving the main tank to the new house and setting it up (I kept the sandbed), and then moving all the fish/livestock over from the holding tank after the main tank settled down (about a month later). We had the old house for a while to work on it before putting it up for sale, so it wasn't a sprint like some moves are. I re-used as much water as I could and I transported it in those 5 gallon water cooler jugs as well as 7 gallon water storage tanks from WalMart ($14 a piece).

Good luck!

DanielJameS · Oct 13, 2018

The sandbed is the trickiest part. I always say replace it and seed it with old, particularly if your rock is REALLY well established. I completely replaced the sanded in my 125 from my 75 when set up and saw no ammonia whatsoever with all my fish re introduced.

If you have the man power to move the tank with the sand bed still intact (suction cups, a crew, no stairs) I’d say keep it but depending on the age of it if you fully remove it you are going to stir up some funk that makes a metro waste plant smell like roses.

All other suggestions are great for transport. If you can get your hands on a battery powered air pump or better yet a battery backup to run some low wattage stuff to keep oxygen up, that helps tremendously as well.

Best of luck [emoji1360]