Moving tips - What are your success/disaster stories?

[Travis Rider]

I am building a new home but between the ground breaking and move in date I need to find a place to rent. This means that I will have to move my tanks twice. One move in the next 4 or so weeks, another move in 7 months.

What pointers/tips do you have? What are some of your success/horror stories? Do you recommend cutting back and getting rid of one of the tanks during the transition? This would require me to sell or 'donate' some fish.

My setup and stock list: I have 2 tanks (75G and 29G Biocube) along with a 10 gallon QT tank.

I am currently in a fallow period for my 75G (ends second week of May). I have no fish in that tank, just inverts and corals.
Banded Coral Shrimp
Hermit Crabs
Linckia Sea Star
Snails
Pincushion Urchin
Bulb Anemone
Hammer (small frag)
Acan
Pineapple Coral
Plate Coral
Red Planet Acro

Biocube:
Cardinal
Maroon Clown
Orchid Dottyback
Snails
Emerald Crab
Hermit Crabs
Cleaner Shrimp
Blastomussa Merleti
Pulsing Xenia
Acan
Bubble Coral
Feather Duster (2)
Blushing Leather

My QT has two Ocellaris Clowns.

I need to find the best way to transfer and possibly combine (3 to 2) without too much stress. I don't want to lose any fish or corals.

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

I'm building a house as well and will be moving my tank. Luckily I only have to do it once! But, I've done some digging & seems the best way is to pack rock/coral in totes or buckets with tank water(conserving as much as possible to add back later). Remove sand and either discard and get new or wash very good to clean before putting back. I plan to reuse my sand and just rinse well as I currently clean my sandbed regularly anyway. I probably have a 2-3 hour tear down, then my new place is 40 mins away, then 2-3 hour setup. I don't see huge issue with doing this, I'll just have some RO/DI already made to make up for the water loss in the transfer. Reusing the old sand without washing seems to be the deal breaker & its what causes tank to crash/cycle again from all the gunk buildup. I'd say do a pretty good deep clean of all your equipment between now & then so you're not trying to do that as well.

 

[haanstang]

I'm building a house as well and will be moving my tank. Luckily I only have to do it once! But, I've done some digging & seems the best way is to pack rock/coral in totes or buckets with tank water(conserving as much as possible to add back later). Remove sand and either discard and get new or wash very good to clean before putting back. I plan to reuse my sand and just rinse well as I currently clean my sandbed regularly anyway. I probably have a 2-3 hour tear down, then my new place is 40 mins away, then 2-3 hour setup. I don't see huge issue with doing this, I'll just have some RO/DI already made to make up for the water loss in the transfer. Reusing the old sand without washing seems to be the deal breaker & its what causes tank to crash/cycle again from all the gunk buildup. I'd say do a pretty good deep clean of all your equipment between now & then so you're not trying to do that as well.

It takes longer than you think unless you get a lot of help. I moved a 65g with 30 gallon sump and from the time I started to the time I finished took 7 maybe even 8 the more I think about it and it was just a 15 minute drive. But I did have an entire apex system with two eb832s to cord manage
I have 10 5 gallon buckets and I used every one of them. And every one of them had something in it besides water. I only reused about 20-30% of my water and reused my sand. Make sure you have enough air pumps ,stones and hose for everything that needs it. That was a big help and actually took a lil stress off me knowing that the water was bein oxygenated the whole time things were in buckets.
Only lost one fish and that's because he decided to go carpet surfing sometime over night after it was all finished

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I am building a new home but between the ground breaking and move in date I need to find a place to rent. This means that I will have to move my tanks twice. One move in the next 4 or so weeks, another move in 7 months.

What pointers/tips do you have? What are some of your success/horror stories? Do you recommend cutting back and getting rid of one of the tanks during the transition? This would require me to sell or 'donate' some fish.

My setup and stock list: I have 2 tanks (75G and 29G Biocube) along with a 10 gallon QT tank.

I am currently in a fallow period for my 75G (ends second week of May). I have no fish in that tank, just inverts and corals.
Banded Coral Shrimp
Hermit Crabs
Linckia Sea Star
Snails
Pincushion Urchin
Bulb Anemone
Hammer (small frag)
Acan
Pineapple Coral
Plate Coral
Red Planet Acro

Biocube:
Cardinal
Maroon Clown
Orchid Dottyback
Snails
Emerald Crab
Hermit Crabs
Cleaner Shrimp
Blastomussa Merleti
Pulsing Xenia
Acan
Bubble Coral
Feather Duster (2)
Blushing Leather

My QT has two Ocellaris Clowns.

I need to find the best way to transfer and possibly combine (3 to 2) without too much stress. I don't want to lose any fish or corals.

The trick is to know your limits. Knowing you have two moves I would work to "trade-in" as much livestock as you can. See if your local LFS could give you a credit and find a new home for it all. I have moved tanks three times; the first one went perfectly smooth with 0.0 loss of life but I was prepared and had the luxury of a new tank ready to go.

My second move I thought I would have a tank but the build was delayed by the vendor and I had to wait 5 extra weeks. I tried my hardest to keep things alive in rubbermaid tubs but at the end of the day I lost 100% of my corals but managed to save all my fish. If I could go back in time I would have traded my nice stuff in for credit towards corals on my new tank; I miss that old tank it was just amazing to look at...so many colorful sps colonies

Every coral died from this one:

 

[maroun.c]

I've recently been through a 400 G tank failure and my corals and fish had to be moved twice with first time on emergency basis...
key thing is to carefully plan, share your plans here and with friends and note any valuable info you get. go over that plan many times and then a few times more. Try to account for everything and then overdo it in preparing more mixed water, more heaters/chillers being prepared for big water cahnges in case things go wrong. having seeded material like marine pure blocks or other to kick start your filtration. making sure all your equipment is in top condition and will not be faulty after the move as that's when the small issues appear. have a reactor full of carbon ready.
having a nearby LFS or reefer on standby to house your stuff just in case things turn for the worse in anyway...
good luck

 

[Marc.The.Shark]

It takes longer than you think unless you get a lot of help. I moved a 65g with 30 gallon sump and from the time I started to the time I finished took 7 maybe even 8 the more I think about it and it was just a 15 minute drive. But I did have an entire apex system with two eb832s to cord manage
I have 10 5 gallon buckets and I used every one of them. And every one of them had something in it besides water. I only reused about 20-30% of my water and reused my sand. Make sure you have enough air pumps ,stones and hose for everything that needs it. That was a big help and actually took a lil stress off me knowing that the water was bein oxygenated the whole time things were in buckets.
Only lost one fish and that's because he decided to go carpet surfing sometime over night after it was all finished

Thanks for the info! My tank is 20g's and I've actually taken it down & moved it to another room once already. I designed it with the intention of moving it in a year or so (been set up for 6 months) from an upgrade. I actually spent a year on the build/upgrade making sure that I had everything as easy as possible for maintenance and for the eventual move. I think my upgrade was more of a crapshoot than I'll have with the move (hopefully)! lol. I went with all new rock/sand and it was basically starting a new tank from scratch....losses for sure, unfortunately I wasn't planning on air stones, figured things would be in the buckets maybe 4-5 hours tops....Might have to rethink that after your post, probably not a bad idea.

 

[Travis Rider]

First move was a success. I was able to get both tanks moved without any issues. All livestock are in great condition.

 

[happyhourhero]

I moved my 65 gallon and used 3 big rubbermaid tubs. I put most of the rock, my flower petal cap and a couple low light corals and my sixline in 2 tubs and my 2 bubble tips, the rest of my fish, my big sps colonies, my shrimp, 12 new WWC frags and a small rock in another. Had to keep them in tubs for 2 full days before I could set the tank back up because the closings were staggered by a full day. Had heaters, powerheads, light, etc etc. Completely forgot about ammonia and the tub with all the good stuff in it had a big ammonia spike. Killed most big colonies, my shrimp, beat up the fish but they all lived. All frags browned or bleached but somehow I didnt lose any. I dont know how bad the ammonia got but it was bad enough that the water stunk bad.

 

[pickupman66]

I did a very similar thing this time last year with excellent success. My big tips:

1. setup RODI system in place at new location and the day before move, make as much new saltwater as possible
2. Buckets with lids. Lots of them. I moved my fish in one with tank water.
3. ice chests to put rock in and submerge in water.
4. have a step by step plan made for each tank.

we moved my 66 gallon system form our old house into a temp house for a month. then into the new house. all worked well as I was fully prepared with the above steps.