Tank move plans

Jimbo662 · Oct 11, 2017

I've got a move coming up and wanted to get input on how I plan to move the tank.
Move will be on a Wed morning. Planning to do a light last feed on maybe Sunday morning. Tues afternoon will use a styrofoam shipping box from LFS to transfer the livestock (10 fish) and a few rocks into. I'll have a small heater and small powerhead in it also. Was thinking of just putting remaining rocks in 5g bucket w/tank water. Do you think I need circulation in the buckets or will they be ok without?

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 11, 2017

Jimbo662 said:
I've got a move coming up and wanted to get input on how I plan to move the tank.
Move will be on a Wed morning. Planning to do a light last feed on maybe Sunday morning. Tues afternoon will use a styrofoam shipping box from LFS to transfer the livestock (10 fish) and a few rocks into. I'll have a small heater and small powerhead in it also. Was thinking of just putting remaining rocks in 5g bucket w/tank water. Do you think I need circulation in the buckets or will they be ok without?

Just keep the rocks wet/damp and they will be fine. You don't have to keep rocks with the fish either. It might actually be better to leave them out of the styrofoam boxes entirely to prevent them from rolling around and damaging the box or the fish. I used plastic sterlite boxes from Walmart with my recent move and put my corals and fish/inverts in my igloo cooler. The cooler is very well insulated and sealed so splashing wasn't a problem and the handles made it very easy to carry. I only moved a mile down the street so I didn't need an air pump, but it would be very easy to route an air tube to the inside of the cooler.

If you have corals, keep them separated in the containers, especially if they're a stinging variety.

Jimbo662 · Oct 11, 2017

nautical_nathaniel said:
Just keep the rocks wet/damp and they will be fine. You don't have to keep rocks with the fish either. It might actually be better to leave them out of the styrofoam boxes entirely to prevent them from rolling around and damaging the box or the fish. I used plastic sterlite boxes from Walmart with my recent move and put my corals and fish/inverts in my igloo cooler. The cooler is very well insulated and sealed so splashing wasn't a problem and the handles made it very easy to carry. I only moved a mile down the street so I didn't need an air pump, but it would be very easy to route an air tube to the inside of the cooler.

If you have corals, keep them separated in the containers, especially if they're a stinging variety.

Thanks, right now it's mostly acans and zoas. I'm only moving from one building to another in my apartment complex so should be a fairly easy move.

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 11, 2017

Jimbo662 said:
Thanks, right now it's mostly acans and zoas. I'm only moving from one building to another in my apartment complex so should be a fairly easy move.

Heck, you could probably just do what I did in Undergrad when I moved from one dorm to another. I used to just take little bins one at a time over to the new place. I would put all of my stuff in a temporary holding tank, move the display aquarium and stand over, then move all of the life support stuff (return pump, skimmer (helps take out some of the slime that forms)), then bring the rocks, fish, and corals in that order, and then bring everything else over. It took a little longer than moving it all at once probably would take, but it was less stressful on me and the fish.

Jimbo662 · Oct 11, 2017

nautical_nathaniel said:
Heck, you could probably just do what I did in Undergrad when I moved from one dorm to another. I used to just take little bins one at a time over to the new place. I would put all of my stuff in a temporary holding tank, move the display aquarium and stand over, then move all of the life support stuff (return pump, skimmer (helps take out some of the slime that forms)), then bring the rocks, fish, and corals in that order, and then bring everything else over. It took a little longer than moving it all at once probably would take, but it was less stressful on me and the fish.

I'll be doing something similar. I'm currently on the 3rd floor...going to have movers take care of everything except the livestock. Once the tank is set back up then I'll move the livestock. I'm on a tight timeline...when transferring units the apartments give me two days to be completely out and have the place cleaned up. Movers are showing up at 9am and I can't pick keys up until they open at 9:30...