Moving Advice

[ArowanaLover1902]

In a few weeks I'll be moving upstate for college, I'm moving my aquarium up there too (I chose to live off campus almost solely because of my aquarium [and parrot]). I've got most of my stuff planned out but I'd love some advice from anyone who has done it before. Personally my only real experience was moving the tank, stand, and light before (I had to load them in an suv and drive for 4 hours there and back to pick it up and bring it back). I mean to get the tank setup and running in under a day as that will be its new home. I've already decided to put jacks under the floor just in case, but that will be done before the final moving.
Part 1
Here are the steps I have planned:
1. Jacks under floor before moving tank
2. Install RO and premix some saltwater
-Moving Day
3. Shut down tank and remove all devices
4. All devices dried and placed in a plastic bin (for reference PB1), the light will go back into its box
5. Remove all fish and place into plastic bags
7. Remove all coral, each into respective bag (see problem/question 1)
8. Remove all inverts into plastic bags
9. Remove all live rock and place into large plastic bins, which will be semi filled with water so as to minimize die off
10. The tank is 35 gallon with a 15 gallon sump (only about 10 gallons in there at any time), I plan on draining 20 gallons into plastic 5 gallon jugs
11. Remove all sand into bin with some water, I'm really happy with the quality of my live sand
12. Remove all filter media, sponges will go in with live rock
13. Load all the livestock into a bin and put them into car
14. Load all the equipment and the disassembled tank into car as well
15. Drive (about 2.5 hours)
-Unloading
16. Set up tank and add 5 gallons water
17. Add all sand
18. Add live rock (maybe change things up a bit) and finish adding water
19. Add all devices, connect filter, and turn on the tank
20. Wait till temp gets right and then add livestock back to tank

I feel like this is a pretty detailed plan, any suggestions or missing steps?

Part 2
Problems
1. Some of my corals have grown onto the rocks, zoa colonies and a mushroom or two, do I treat them any differently than the rest of the live rock?

 

[Redleg]

Since you are going to have water already made at school, preheat it to your current tank temp. go ahead and bag your fish and corals, put them in a cooler instead of a plastic bin. You could do the same with your zoa and shroom rocks. put them in a cooler with tank water. you may want to consider washing that sand before putting it back in the tank. It will probably be full of detritus. My sons always seemed to have cheap Styrofoam coolers laying around their off campus housing. So if you need to buy a couple they are reusable.

 

[Sorcha2]

Unless your planning on oxygen bagging your livestock I would suggest getting food grade five gallon buckets from lowes and using those instead. Any rocks with coral I would suggest making sure they are completely submerged and in a position where they won't get roughed up. I've moved with fish a couple times and the five gallon bucket method has always worked perfectly for me.

 

[ReefDreamer1126]

In a few weeks I'll be moving upstate for college, I'm moving my aquarium up there too (I chose to live off campus almost solely because of my aquarium [and parrot]). I've got most of my stuff planned out but I'd love some advice from anyone who has done it before. Personally my only real experience was moving the tank, stand, and light before (I had to load them in an suv and drive for 4 hours there and back to pick it up and bring it back). I mean to get the tank setup and running in under a day as that will be its new home. I've already decided to put jacks under the floor just in case, but that will be done before the final moving.
Part 1
Here are the steps I have planned:
1. Jacks under floor before moving tank
2. Install RO and premix some saltwater
-Moving Day
3. Shut down tank and remove all devices
4. All devices dried and placed in a plastic bin (for reference PB1), the light will go back into its box
5. Remove all fish and place into plastic bags
7. Remove all coral, each into respective bag (see problem/question 1)
8. Remove all inverts into plastic bags
9. Remove all live rock and place into large plastic bins, which will be semi filled with water so as to minimize die off
10. The tank is 35 gallon with a 15 gallon sump (only about 10 gallons in there at any time), I plan on draining 20 gallons into plastic 5 gallon jugs
11. Remove all sand into bin with some water, I'm really happy with the quality of my live sand
12. Remove all filter media, sponges will go in with live rock
13. Load all the livestock into a bin and put them into car
14. Load all the equipment and the disassembled tank into car as well
15. Drive (about 2.5 hours)
-Unloading
16. Set up tank and add 5 gallons water
17. Add all sand
18. Add live rock (maybe change things up a bit) and finish adding water
19. Add all devices, connect filter, and turn on the tank
20. Wait till temp gets right and then add livestock back to tank

I feel like this is a pretty detailed plan, any suggestions or missing steps?

Part 2
Problems
1. Some of my corals have grown onto the rocks, zoa colonies and a mushroom or two, do I treat them any differently than the rest of the live rock?

I have had to do this same thing four times now! How far of a drive do you have? My most recent move was 22 of drive and 3 days of the tank torn down. Distance if the drive will change some of my advice!

 

[maroun.c]

+ 1 on oxygenating the bags or doing as Sorcha advises. make sure to have at least 30-40 percent water premixed and ready as your water might get too dirty when you remove rocks.... also have some ready for couple of large water changes in the days following the move if things don't look too good. I'd also have carbon ready in a reactor and run immediately after you start new tank and change the media or run a second reactor if things look too bad. make sure to change carbon frequently first few days if needed. filter socks help a lot catching stirred detritus as well

 

[Captain Quint]

With a TWV of ~50g and maybe TUWV of ~45ish gallons floor jacks would not be required. Think about the weight of say a refrigerator and the footprint. No floor jacks needed and probably about the same +/- weight.

The info is great and I agree with using a brute and fully submerge your LR and rinse sand with saltwater as not to kill off the existing good bacteria and keep it in a bucket with salt water as well.

You actually have a good well thought out plan and thanks for sharing. Hope all goes smooth.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Its a pretty old house, I'll crawl under it (noone has for years, good thing I'm not afraid of scorpions, snakes, spides, and the occasional raccoon) and check. My drive is only about 2 hours, not very far. I'll put the fish in the bins rather than bags, I may use a smaller bin though as my only fish are a small clown, my pair of yellow watchman, a barnacle blenny (who will be a pain to catch), and a lawnmower blenny. I'm saving room for a wrasse as a college present for myself once the tank has settled into new location. I'll probably fill one of those huge 30 gallon garbage things before going.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Getting close to the moving date. I've got four 5-gallon buckets for water transport (3 saltwater from my tank and 1 of freshwater for ato). For fish I'll be moving all of those in a 5 gallon food grade bucket (which adds an additional 4 gallons of water to my quota) and inverts will be packed in seperate bags (crabs can get nasty if packed together). Rocks will be packed in a large plastic bin, adding another 5 gallons of water. Sand is packed in individual bags and put in a box, likely the same as the rock. My biggest concern is catching the barnacle blenny, he darts so fast and never ever comes out of hole for more than the half second it takes to grab food. The great positive of this is that I get to rescape and hopefully connect with some reefers up there, there seem to be none where I am, maybe I can get some cheap local frags.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

It's moving day, I mean to leave around 4:30-5:00 today. So far I've unplugged, washed, and dried all equipment. I have also removed each coral from the rockwork (the ones that weren't totally attached) and set them in the sandbed. My remaining steps are:
- Catch and bag each fish, invert, and whatever else springs up and put the bags into a food grade container along with all the biomedia and sponges
- Bag each coral and put into same container (some packed together - ex: all zoanthids)
- Remove rocks and put into empty bin #1 and load into car
- Empty sand into plastic bin #2 and load into car
- Remove water and pour most into empty bin #1 (I have 4 water jugs, however 1 is already full of fresh saltwater, another of freshwater, and two will carry water from tank, I also have two 5 gallon food jug {not the same as the coral/fish/etc one}, one for sand and one for special rocks with coral on them. I will use the 2 empty water jugs to ferry water into 2 large empty plastic bins, 1 of the bins will also carry my rocks, the other will carry just water)
- Remove refugium/sump and clean it
- Disconnect plumbing and break tank pieces apart (stand, canopy holders, and tank)
- Load all into the car (I hope it all fits, really don't want to make 2 2.5 hour trips today)
- Load my luggage (just a suitcase, my aquarium is the focus for today, I'll come back in two days to pickup my cockatiel and my clothes, unless I have a lot of room available)

- Drive and arrive

- Go into my new bedroom and double check aquarium spot, moving all other furniture out of way to make moving process easy
- Setup stand
- Attach tank to stand
- Attach plumbing, sump/refugium, and canopy holders
- Add sand to tank and refugium
- Setup return pump (this way I can dump water into the refugium/sump so I don't spill so much)
- Ferry water into aquarium
- Add rocks and filter media
- Float bags in tank, I'm sure sand will be stirred up but its the best I can do right now, I'll keep my powerheads on low for a bit, allowing everything to settle into place
- Add equipment to tank and turn everything on
- Put everything back into water and hope for the best
- Check back in here and update everyone as to how it went

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I can already tell that my barnacle blenny will be a pain. I am looking forward to finding out how big my pistol shrimp's cave is, so far (I only found a tiny bit I think) it looks huge. I have a kind of peninsula jutting off from my rockwork in my sandbed all the way to the glass and he had a cave under all of it.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

The only thing I would add to this schedule is to stop feeding 4-5 days prior to moving day. This will reduce the amount that the fish will poop when placed into bags or what ever container you put them in. Also dose the tank with Prime about an hour before you start draining it to these containers to move the fish in. This will assist in keeping the ammonia levels low during the move.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Good thing I only feed about one time every week. As for Prime, I do have an alternative, I can't remember the name though, I'll add some now.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Don't be surprised if your fish won't eat for a few days after the move. If you have them, battery operated air pumps will help keep the water oxygenated during the move.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Everyone in tank, I forgot a plumbing part though so can’t run the tank until tomorrow. The bad news is that the lawnmower blenny died. I don’t know what happened but he looked 100% fine but took a trip to the grand fish tank in the sky. The other fish are all fine along with the corals. I’m letting the water settle before placing rocks for sure, for now they are just in the aquarium. I’ve got some sechem seed bacteria that I’ll over dose. Any other advice?