Hello all -
I know I'm going to have to move my tank in about 10 months to my new house which is about an hour drive away.
I have a 120 gallon saltwater tank - with about 75-100 pounds of rock, 1 inch sandbed, and a 40 gallon sump with protein skimmers, filters, and a refugium. In addition I have a handful of your typical saltwater fish, two tangs, two cardinal fish, a rabbit fish, coral beauty, blenny, gobby, mandarin, three chromids, a cleanup crew and two clownfish - nothing out of the ordinary, and a few corals.
I want to prepare for the move now. I know its far away - but has anyone else had experience with successfully moving their tank?
My plan right now is to take multiple trips before the final move in date happens. I'm going to try to take all of the rocks in one trip - throw them into 5 gallon buckets with saltwater and lids on them, then take it all to the new location. I have a spare 40 gallon quarantine tank that I can use just to fill up at my new house just to keep the live rock in water so I can keep the beneficial bacteria.
Then, I'm going to try to do the same thing with all of the sand. Scoop it up into 5 gallon buckets with lids, bring it to the new house and dump it into the quarantine tank with the live rock.
This is going to leave me with an empty tank with livestock in it. My plan is to do the same thing with the fish, get them all separated amongst a couple of 5 gallon buckets with lids on them. Before doing this, I'm going to drain about 70% of the water in the tank. Now that the fish will all be in 5 gallon buckets ready to go, I'll drain the rest of the tank and the sump, and pack it all into the car.
When I get home I'll quickly assemble the 120 gallon tank and start filling it with RODI water and salt ASAP. I'll start transferring the live rock and sand into the 120 gallon. Once the tank level is filled about 30%, I'll start moving all of the fish into the tank and then get all of the sump hooked up.
Does this sound like a good plan? My main concern through all of this is that I'm going to lose my beneficial bacteria and my tank will have to cycle again. I want to make sure I do everything possible so that I lose as little beneficial bacteria as possible and make the tank transition as least stressful on the fish as possible.
I know I'm going to have to move my tank in about 10 months to my new house which is about an hour drive away.
I have a 120 gallon saltwater tank - with about 75-100 pounds of rock, 1 inch sandbed, and a 40 gallon sump with protein skimmers, filters, and a refugium. In addition I have a handful of your typical saltwater fish, two tangs, two cardinal fish, a rabbit fish, coral beauty, blenny, gobby, mandarin, three chromids, a cleanup crew and two clownfish - nothing out of the ordinary, and a few corals.
I want to prepare for the move now. I know its far away - but has anyone else had experience with successfully moving their tank?
My plan right now is to take multiple trips before the final move in date happens. I'm going to try to take all of the rocks in one trip - throw them into 5 gallon buckets with saltwater and lids on them, then take it all to the new location. I have a spare 40 gallon quarantine tank that I can use just to fill up at my new house just to keep the live rock in water so I can keep the beneficial bacteria.
Then, I'm going to try to do the same thing with all of the sand. Scoop it up into 5 gallon buckets with lids, bring it to the new house and dump it into the quarantine tank with the live rock.
This is going to leave me with an empty tank with livestock in it. My plan is to do the same thing with the fish, get them all separated amongst a couple of 5 gallon buckets with lids on them. Before doing this, I'm going to drain about 70% of the water in the tank. Now that the fish will all be in 5 gallon buckets ready to go, I'll drain the rest of the tank and the sump, and pack it all into the car.
When I get home I'll quickly assemble the 120 gallon tank and start filling it with RODI water and salt ASAP. I'll start transferring the live rock and sand into the 120 gallon. Once the tank level is filled about 30%, I'll start moving all of the fish into the tank and then get all of the sump hooked up.
Does this sound like a good plan? My main concern through all of this is that I'm going to lose my beneficial bacteria and my tank will have to cycle again. I want to make sure I do everything possible so that I lose as little beneficial bacteria as possible and make the tank transition as least stressful on the fish as possible.
