Sic transit aquaria mundi

[sirrus6]

Hi All


First time poster on R2R, although I've been in the hobby since 2004. Recently (2017), I retired from a job in Pennsylvania and moved to North Carolina. This move created a major problem; how to move my (at that time) 13-year old aquarium's contents safely and securely from PA to NC? This thread chronicles the move, describing what worked, what did not work, and what I should have done differently. Hopefully, these experiences will allow other aquarists contemplating a significant move to avoid some of these issues.


Ken

 

[sirrus6]

The starting point:


A 175-gallon reef tank featuring many mature corals but just five fish. I had more fish earlier, but as the move approached, I lost a few fish and did not replace them. I planned on restocking once the tank was operational in NC.


FTS of PA tank

left pillar

center pillar

right pillar

At the time of the move, my fish collection consisted of:


A couple of angels,

a wrasse and a hawkfish,

and a tang (unfortunately, the pictured marginalis died shortly before the move). This tang has almost no dorsal and anal fins! It was my first fish, bought at Petco in 2004. Around 2011/2012, its fins gradually deteriorated to leave it as shown below. It still maintained its vibrant yellow color. Over the past couple of years, its color has faded to the pale yellow seen in pics further down in the thread. I don't know how long yellow tangs live in captivity (30 – 40 years is claimed), but I fear that this particular tang may not be around too much longer. It still eats heartily and swims normally.

In addition, some notable coral colonies included:


Purple monster

Oregon tort

red dragon

caroliniana

Atlantis pink granulosa (one of my favorites)

Bazooka Joe and Tyree watermelon chalices

Fox loripes

ORA hawkins echinata

Atlantis raspberry lemonade

Reefer Madness rainbow nasuta

Vivid Aquariums rainbow delight

I also had several smaller frags/colonies that can be seen further down in the thread.

 

[sirrus6]

The ending point:


A new 227-gallon tank (72" x 27" x 27") with accompanying sump and frag tank. The NC house was a new construction, and so I was able to design an aquarium room into the project via an architect.

schematics of tank

architect schematic

The aquascaping for this new tank was designed long before the move. I prefer a more "open" design, so I used two rock pillars at the left and right, with a flatter rock in the middle. I built a full-size model of the tank with poster board, and used PVC pipes to assemble the framework that holds the rock pieces, all from Marco Rocks. Note that the bottom rocks will be positioned a few inches above the sand bed to limit sand compaction and give the livestock much "cave-like" hideaway space.

pv scaffolds

complete aquascape

Unanticipated problem: Over time in the tank, the center 1/2-in vertical pvc struts were not strong enough to hold the rock work in its original position, given the cantilevered design. So, these center supports bent and the rock drooped (see pic below). Fortunately, the displacement did not prove ultimately to be a problem (so far). If I could re-do this plan, I would use a metal rod (titanium or stainless steel) inserted in the vertical pvc struts to ensure their rigidity.


[(Aquarium move) pic bent pvc]

 

[sirrus6]

Several problems presented themselves in contemplating the transfer of the PA tank contents to the new NC tank. For example,


1. The breakdown of the tank and transfer of the livestock to travel containers must happen quickly – within one day would be ideal.


2. Most of the corals are strongly encrusted on the rocks, and so removing them for quick transfer is a real concern.


3. Stripping a tank of live rock typically raises a cloud of debris that makes it difficult to see, let alone catch, the fish and recover inverts like sand-dwelling snails, hermits, etc.


4. All livestock must be keep in a survivable environment during the actual move, which will take about 10.5-hrs, door-to-door.


5. The new tank in NC must be ready to accept all livestock immediately.

 

[sirrus6]

The first stage:


So, to begin working through all of these issues, I decided to break down the aquascaping and remove the corals from the rocks starting about six months prior to the move. I removed each of the three rock pillars in turn, hacked as much of the corals off of the rocks as I could, and placed the newly liberated coral chunks on egg crate racks built for this purpose. I tried to position the coral chunks on the racks in positions that approximated where they were when they were on the rocks. I then returned as much of the rock as possible to the tank, positioned under these new egg crate shelves in order to preserve the necessary water remediation functions of the live rock. I worked on one pillar per week, and it was very messy.


Left eggcrate shelf

Middle eggcrate shelf

Right eggcrate shelf

Unfortunately, for some corals, I could do no better than saving around half of the original colony. On the positive side, none of the hacked up colonies died over the next six months, and all healed up where they had been cut.

 

[sirrus6]

The second stage:

Meanwhile…I was commuting to the house construction project in NC where I set up the new tank and aquarium room. The Marco rocks were kept in saltwater for about two months to "cure", but actually that procedure was probably unnecessary. Marco rock of course has no "life" in it, but I was concerned about phosphate leaching. I monitored the phosphate level in the water holding the rocks for the two-month period, but in fact saw no appreciable phosphate. So, once the plumbing was set up and saltwater added to the tank, the sand and rockwork were installed also.

Front shots: The aquarium front face was designed with an upper hatch (on gas struts) and lower access panels for ease of maintenance. This design was based upon Sanjay Joshi's setup.


front view

front view hatch up

front view bottom panels open

Rear shots: I used a Bean-type overflow system and a manifold that allowed distribution of the return water to (a) the tank (via a Sea Swirl), (b) the frag tank, (c) a GAC/GFO canister filter, and (d) a calcium reactor. The make-up water (from a 55-gal reservoir) passes through a Ca(OH)2reactor prior to entering the sump. I don't use filter socks. The (Deltec) skimmer sits on a stool just to the right of the tank


rear view

Sump – left side

Sump – right side

Unanticipated problem: I did not install any check valves to prevent backflow during a power outage. I was concerned that they would biofoul and become ineffective. I soon learned that this plan was a very bad idea. In any event, I eventually installed two transparent Spears check valves in-line with the input to the frag tank and in-line with the input to the Sea Swirl. These check vales have double-union connections, so they can, in principle, be readily dissembled and cleaned with a toothbrush if they do biofoul. So far, so good.


Frag tank check valve

Tank return check valve

Other equipment spaces: The shelving pic shows the frag tank, a quarantine tank, and the 55-gal water reservoir. Filling the reservoir and subsequent make-up water distribution is all automated. The calcium reactor is under the frag tank. I have two plywood boards on the walls adjacent to the tank that contain all of the control electronics. The room is wired with four independent 20-amp circuits. There is a drop-in chiller adjacent to the sump, but it actually has never turned on! The tank temp is kept at 73.5 – 75.5 oF, and the ambient temp is bracketed between 71 and 74 oF by the house's HVAC system. So, the tank never gets hot enough to call for chilling, but the heaters do come on occasionally. Finally, I have a (manually activated) back-up generator that powers the aquarium room (and a few other appliances) should the power go out. It has, and the back-up plan works, if I am at home to activate it.


Left-hand control panel

Right-hand control panel

Aquarium room shelving – contains the frag tank, a quarantine tank, the calcium reactor, the RO/DI water reservoir and misc. equipment

shelving

 

[sirrus6]

The big day – packing the aquarium contents:

After a lot of thought, I decided to use three 26-gal insulated Igloo coolers on wheels to transport all of the livestock. Two of these coolers were used for corals and inverts, and the third cooler was used strictly for fish. (Transporting fish with other livestock can be an issue; any invert die off can pollute the water and thus deplete the oxygen due to bacterial action, which could be lethal to the fish.) Each cooler was fitted with some eggcrate shelving (2 layers for the corals), and some eggcrate-attached PVC pipe hideaways for the fish. In addition, each cooler had a bubbler and a small powerhead for circulation. I initially thought about a small heater as well, but I found out (in a control experiment) that 20 gallons of salt water at 74 oF in this cooler for 24 hrs only experienced a ~ 2 oF drop in temp. So, I figured that for the 24 or so hours in the coolers, the temp would not be a problem. As it turned out, monitoring the actual Igloo cooler water temp during transit indicated that it actually went up a few degrees, probably due to the heat generated by the powerhead.

The coral pieces were packed onto two shelves, and held in place by large rubber bands. The fish were simply added to their cooler without being fed for two days prior.

Empty cooler

Cooler 1 (corals), lower rack

Cooler 1 (corals), upper rack

Cooler 2(corals), lower rack

Cooler 2 (corals), upper rack

Fish cooler

Overall, these coolers were packed in a couple of hours the evening before the move, and were ready to go early the next morning. I would have to return to PA in a week or so to clean up and the strip down the remaining tank setup.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi All


First time poster on R2R, although I've been in the hobby since 2004. Recently (2017), I retired from a job in Pennsylvania and moved to North Carolina. This move created a major problem; how to move my (at that time) 13-year old aquarium's contents safely and securely from PA to NC? This thread chronicles the move, describing what worked, what did not work, and what I should have done differently. Hopefully, these experiences will allow other aquarists contemplating a significant move to avoid some of these issues.


Ken

Thanks for sharing. Your info very important

 

[sirrus6]

The move itself:

The move went surprisingly smoothly, given the amount of anxiety that it generated over the past several months. We rented a minivan equipped with electrical outlets, and prior to loading the coolers, we taped down plastic sheets over the entire interior. (I wasn't sure how to explain copious amounts of saltwater spillage to the rental agency, so minimizing that possibility was important.). The coolers were filed with about 15-gal of saltwater each (~ ½ full), and loaded up into the minivan via a (hand-crank) hydraulic lift. They were too heavy to lift by hand, and I wanted to keep them as horizontal as possible. The powerheads and bubblers were plugged in, the lids were closed, and off we went!

About 10.5-hrs later, we arrived at our new NC home. There was no water spills during the entire trip, thanks to cautious driving by my wife and I (largely by my wife)…until we had to drive down our somewhat steep driveway – the final 0.001% of the trip. As luck would have it, the angle was just too great, and a little water spilled out. The plastic sheets did their work, however, and the minivan was returned the next day with no one the wiser.

 

[sirrus6]

The fish and corals were quickly placed in the tank, which had been laying fallow for about a week. The corals were placed both on the aquascaping and on the sand bed without consideration for their "optimal" placement – that would come later. The fish went in as well, except…

Unanticipated problem: The longnose hawk somehow got jammed under the eggcrate in the cooler, and was crushed. I should have been more attentive when I built the eggcrate/pvc platform for the fish.

Over the next few days, the corals were positioned in hopefully favorable locations. The PAR value at each coral in the PA tank was measured (approximately) by an Apogee meter, and an attempt was made to duplicate (or at least approximate) those values at the coral placement positions within the NC tank. The PA tank was illuminated by three 400 W 14K MH's, and the NC tank was lit by three Radions set at 14K and about 70 – 80% of maximum intensity to meet these lighting match criteria. The flow in the NC tank was generated by two Gyre pumps, whereas the PA tank used two Vortec 40's. Nevertheless, some coral mortality occurred within the first couple of weeks. Major losses included most of the purple monster colony and most of the Reefer Madness rainbow nasuta colony. Some portion of each of these colonies did survive, and there were no other consequential coral losses.

FTS at 1 week

FTS at 1 month

The left-hand pillar at 1 month – note the algae growth.

The center rock at 1 month

The right-hand pillar at 1 month.

FTS at 2 months

 

[sirrus6]

Time marched on, and stocking progressed. New fish were added over the next 12 months, and no fish were lost during that period.

The longnose hawk was replaced.

A couple of wrasses were added.

Two tangs joined them.

An angel and a butterfly were included.

And, finally, a mandarin was added.

 

[sirrus6]

Some corals have thrived; others have not fared as well.

Winners:

Tyree watermelon

SJ purple ??

needle-in-a-haystack

Reefer madness rainbow nasuta

ReefGen blueberry fantasy

red dragon

ORA pearlberry

Oregon tort. I'm not sure why the pic shows white blotches – they are not apparent to the eye.

jujubee

Fox flame

Dendros

cookie monster

caroliniana

ORA Hawkins echinata

Atlantis raspberry lemonade

bonsai

ARC fireworks

ARC samurai

Fox loripes

 

[sirrus6]

Losers:

Atlantis orange chalice

Atlantis pink granulosa

Vivid Aquariums rainbow delight

sandollar monti

purple monster

pink/yellow tips

pink stag

Bazooka Joe

 

[sirrus6]

In addition, two new corals were added.

Walt Disney

SC orange passion

 

[sirrus6]

Some more tank and fish pics at the 15-month mark.

Left tank shot

Middle tank shot

Right tank shot

Frag tank

One of my favorite pics.

 

[brandon429]

Excellence in documentation, coral growth and skip cycle moving.


Do you use any special disease prevention protocols before adding fish (new ones vs carry overs)

 

[sirrus6]

Fish addition protocols:

1) Old fish from the PA tank: No, nothing special in terms of disease prevention. The fish were transported in PA tank water, but were washed with clean saltwater before addition to the new tank. These fish had lived many years in my PA tank without any sign of disease.

2) New fish additions: All fish from LA/DD, where they were quarantined and observed to be healthy for a minimum of 4 weeks. Then, 2 - 3 weeks in my Q-tank, where they seemed to be doing OK. 1/3 of the Q-tank's water was changed out with tank water twice a week, and the Q-tank has active live-rock filtering via rock in a canister filter off to the side. Actually, an earlier marginalis did die in quarantine, from apparent uronema. I had to completely chlorox the quarantine system, and re-set it up.


Ken

 

[brandon429]

Fish disease protocol (do we maximize the environment to ward off disease or do we maximize vector prevention) is BIG right now here, and I was going to be floored if in a system of that level research and execution you were not applying some form of QT and careful prep+ transfer.

Thanks tons for your input, clearly this is article level build plan document going on, we're all thinking wow. Nice
B

 

[Jase4224]

I love your pics with multiple fish in them.

 

[sirrus6]

Thanks for your kind words Brandon. Just as an FYI, I'd guess that I took >25 pics for every one "multiple-fish" keeper. It's not so easy to get them in the same focal plane. I shoot with a 1/200 shutter speed, so they have to be moving quite slowly also.

Ken