Moving and scared......

[fishes2889]

Well i have exactly 19 days and counting till i move my 33g reef 1000 miles to Pa. :shock: I have to say im very scared about this whole thing.

What i plan on doing is using 4 to 6 buckets, the instant ocean that lock into place, drilling a tiny hole for a battery operated air pump line to go into and airate them for say 20-24 hours. 8-[

I plan to keep the sand and SOME LR in the tank itself and just keep 5-8 gallons in there.

Sounds like a good plan?

If anyone has tips or any info to offer, please tell.

 

[ReeferRob]

Don't be nervous, I have moved two different 55 gallon tanks in the past month!!
The best thing you can do is prepare prepare prepare. (Did I spell that right?)
Think and think again, preperation is the key, if done proberly it will all go smoothly.

I wouldn't leave and LR or water in the tank though, drain it as far as you can to keep the sand wet and so it doesn't slosh around too much.

 

[fishes2889]

Thanks for the encouragement.

How far did you move?

 

[surfn]

make sure you keep the buckets full of livestock in an airconditioned area of the car. with the tops on, they could easily overheat if put in the back of the moving truck with the weather lately.

when you set it up at the new place, set everything up in a rubbermaid tank first, to get all the live stock recovered.

while they are in the rubbermaid, that will give them time to recover, get back to a stable temp, feed them etc. then you can assess the sand bed situation on your tank......if it smells foul, you may want to trash it.

and dont add more than 10-20% new saltwater when you set it up at the new place. if you still need more water, wait for a week to let things settle before adding more saltwater.

 

[fishes2889]

No moving truck Al, i'm going up in a mini-van(rental). Good thinking though i need to keep track of the temp.

I do have a spare 40g so i could use that.....? Set up a powerhead and let them settle. feed the fishes, maybe even put the skimmer in there to get some gunk out of the water? How much time should i wait for them to recover and set the 33g back up? a day? 2 days?

i wont be adding new saltwater.....

Thanks for the advice Al.....greatly appreciated....

 

[surfn]

they can stay in the temporary tank for quite a while......if you add a skimmer to it, make sure the air bubbles dont spread across the tank and get on the corals......that could irritate them. so something like a HOB skimmer may be more appropriate.

the corals can go several days without a light. i had all my corals set up in a 30g rubbermaid for almost a week. they went 3 days without light, then at that point when i realized it would still be a couple days before the tank was ready........i stuck a 175w MH above the rubbermaid, adn they were good for another couple of days (even without a skimmer).

doing a bunch of water changes before you move may be a good idea.

maybe do a 5g water change, every 4-5 days starting now

 

[surfn]

OH!........i totally forgot about how i moved the corals in my buckets......i saw a picture of this and thought it was a very neat idea. it keeps the corals seperated from falling over on top of eachother, stinging eachother, and/or breaking during shifting.

just get some PVC pipe, and some egg crate, cut circles out of the eggcrate for the platforms. and use the pvc as legs to hold up the platforms. my 5g buckets had 2 platforms, so 3 levels including the bottom to place corals on. it worked out GREAT! esspecially for the easy to break sps stuff.

i'll upload pics in a second...

 

[surfn]

 

[fishes2889]

What did you do for cycling the 50g? Did you just use water from the main system & liverock? Or did you use all new SW & live rock?

The platforms sound like a great idea! Cant wait to see pics...

 

[fishes2889]

Wow great idea, gotta get more crate now....

 

[surfn]

use as much water from your old system as possible, if you introduce too much new saltwater, the fish/corals can become shocked due to too much new saltwater. sps will probably show the first signs of shock by sliming.

the rock came from my old system, i did put in a new sand bed though.....and i didnt have any sort of cycling that i was aware of.

but yeah, i came up short on the amount of water i had, so i added about 5g of new saltwater every other day, and it actually wasn't for ANOTHER week before i had my sump up and running.

its a slow process, whatever you do.....dont rush it.

 

[fishes2889]

ok, well i think i have some planning to do before the big move and pack.... i hate packing...

its going to be a long 22-26 hour drive and process......

 

[surfn]

ok, well i think i have some planning to do before the big move and pack.... i hate packing...

its going to be a long 22-26 hour drive and process......

pack up everything else first, leave the tank for last. i lived out of a bag for about a week when i moved...lol

 

[fishes2889]

yeah i started packing today...the tank will be the night/morning of the move...

 

[Kigs!]

Good luck with the move Steve, hope everything goes well. Those battery powered air pumps might help with some of the sensitive livestock.

 

[fishes2889]

Good luck with the move Steve, hope everything goes well. Those battery powered air pumps might help with some of the sensitive livestock.

Thanks Vince.

I sure hope they do....

 

[fishes2889]

5 days till the move, i made the bucket platforms, and bought 4 battery operated air pumps from a bait shop. They are better quality than the pecto ones, and same price....

Trying to be optimistic...

 

[VanHalen]

Good luck moving. It'll go smoother than you think
GREAT idea on the bucket and eggcrate!! I'll have to look into this as a temporary qt method

 

[Azurel]

Good luck Steve......Moving a tank is never an easy thing to do much less the stress that is felt......

Great Idea Surf on those racks, never thought of that before, ingenious!

 

[fishes2889]

Move went alright, no losses. The 5.5g cracked during the move but hey i still got the 33g.....