1,500 Mile Move

[mwrobers]

Duty calls, so I'm moving from NC to TX over 4 days. I have two tanks (125g and 40g).

Moving from 125g:
-Blue Throat Trigger pair
-percula clown
-yellow angel
-bta
-rock urchin (hitchiker)
-fighting conch
-peppermint shrimp
-turbo snails and hermits

Moving from 40g:
-2 green chromis
-2 banghi cardinals
-3 peppermint shrimp
-various snails and hermits

Issue 1: We don't have a home yet at our destination. We're looking and hope to have something prior to departure in 2 weeks.

The plan: So far I'm making RO/Di fresh and saltwater for the trip and enough for arrival while tanks are set up. I'll be using coleman extreme 70qt coolers during the drive with air
pumps, small powerheads and heater with an inverter. I'll remove the coolers each night at the hotel and perform a water change and start the process over each day. I'm keeping live rock in the coolers as well. It's tightly packed, so hopefully no casualties. I think the rocks will help the coolers maintain temperature. I won't feed the day prior and will use prime to help with amonia.

Feedback?

Thanks!

 

[FirstContact]

These articles helped me think things through for my tank move when I got married. It wasn’t 1,500 miles though! Good Luck!

http://kb.marinedepot.com/article.aspx?id=10158
http://kb.marinedepot.com/article.aspx?id=10159

 

[mwrobers]

Thanks for the articles...hadn't seen those.

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

Keeping opening the coolers to a minimum, a quick scan/removal of casualties, and a capful of Prime every day will do a lot more good than water changes. I know you think it will help, but water changes are stressful and stress kills. Your fish are better off in the dark. They will be quieter and less stressed.

I even question the safety of a heater inside a cooler. It could be so insulated that you actually cook everything. Colder water holds more oxygen and slows the metabolism and in general it is safer in the short term for temperatures to be too low than too high. The bubbler is a good idea and is something I use when I transport fish over a length of days...which is often because I collect US native fish in addition to my salty loves. My record is 4 days in a gallon jar rigged with a bubbler inside a small soft cooler over 4th of July weekend. Didn’t even have any Prime in hand so left it alone except to peek at them momentarily.

There is a wealth of information on NANFA.org about moving fish long distances. The easiest way to find it is to run a search on google for “nanfa shipping and transporting fish”

 

[mwrobers]

Appreciate the insight squeakymcmurdo...Will do a search and likely ditch the heater.