Advice on moving a marine aquarium to a new house

PhinzUp

New member
I am inheriting a 55g complete set up from a coworker that does not have the time to maintain the aquarium any more. I had been planning on building my own setup, but this seems like a great and less expensive way to enter the hobby and I am a lucky beneficiary of a free to a good home setup. Info on current setup that I am getting: 55g tank(LWH = 43x13x21in) and stand with live rock, a refugium, skimmer, powerheads, heater etc. Some less demanding corals, 1 yellow tang, 1 maroon clownfish and 2 yellowtail damsels. Any advice on a battle plan for moving this from the current location to my house. The drive time in between the 2 locations will be about 5-10 minutes. Thanks for the help!
 
Lots of bucket and storage bins. Set-up a holding tank for live stock prior to moving the tank so the critters are safe and happy. This will by you time. You will need time.
 
For me this is a easy task, I have moved tanks from a distance of 15 miles to 450 miles. What you want to do is start early, like states above lots of buckets if not rubber maid totes. You know the good thick ones.

First you want to remove any corals, this process depending on how many will use up the most totes, you want to allow room in each tote not to touch or crush each other. Another plan could be to go to your LFS and see if they will give you some fish bags.

Once all corals are remove you can remove the live rock, if there isn't any corals growing on the rocks these can all go I to one tote. But if they is repeat step one with a different tote.

Once all the live rock is out remove all the fish into a bucket. For this step its good to use an air pump with an air stone to keep the water oxygenated while you finish up and while setting up. Next remove all the sand, if you want to reuse it's good to rinse it very good, however I would just by new sand. Removing the sand will/ can release stuff that was trapped. Try to save as much water as possible during the move.

Load up everything into the vehicle you are using. If you bought new sand ensure you rinse it could, once rinsed place sand I to tank, place the live rock in the way you like. Next take all the water you saved and place into tank, next step would be to either make new water if you need to to ensure the corals are under water once placed in the tank. Last would be to add the fish and clean up. After you are done, make some new water for a water change the following day. It's good to do a water change after a move be ause the move will stir up a lot of gunk that will settle on the sand bed.
 
For me this is a easy task, I have moved tanks from a distance of 15 miles to 450 miles. What you want to do is start early, like states above lots of buckets if not rubber maid totes. You know the good thick ones.

First you want to remove any corals, this process depending on how many will use up the most totes, you want to allow room in each tote not to touch or crush each other. Another plan could be to go to your LFS and see if they will give you some fish bags.

Once all corals are remove you can remove the live rock, if there isn't any corals growing on the rocks these can all go I to one tote. But if they is repeat step one with a different tote.

Once all the live rock is out remove all the fish into a bucket. For this step its good to use an air pump with an air stone to keep the water oxygenated while you finish up and while setting up. Next remove all the sand, if you want to reuse it's good to rinse it very good, however I would just by new sand. Removing the sand will/ can release stuff that was trapped. Try to save as much water as possible during the move.

Load up everything into the vehicle you are using. If you bought new sand ensure you rinse it could, once rinsed place sand I to tank, place the live rock in the way you like. Next take all the water you saved and place into tank, next step would be to either make new water if you need to to ensure the corals are under water once placed in the tank. Last would be to add the fish and clean up. After you are done, make some new water for a water change the following day. It's good to do a water change after a move be ause the move will stir up a lot of gunk that will settle on the sand bed.

I agree with this post 100%. The move isn't that far so you don't really have to take extreme precautions. I would just make sure you have plenty of containers (rubbermaid bins, buckets, garbage cans, and 5 gallon jugs). I would try to preserve as much clean tank water as possible, meaning siphon out as much water as you possible can into clean jugs before you disrupt the tank and kick up a bunch of muck. It would be good to have someone doing this for you while you remove corals, rock, and lastly fish. I would also make sure you have plenty of air pumps, power heads, and heaters for oxygen and temperature control. I like to have enough new saltwater on hand so that I can do a partial water change as I am setting up the tank (a small %) followed by a few larger % water changes in the days after.
 
there was a time when I had a bunch of 5g buckets but few lids...also moved a LOT of tanks... keeping the buckets 2/3rds full of water with an inverted, halved and cleaned gallon milk jug in the bucket really kept sloshing to a minimum...
 
guys and what if i had a bucket of aragonite that i used for 3 months, and after that i didnt use ... can i rinse it several times and use it again in the tank i will move?

should i discard the sand that i have in the main display when i move? cuz its full of spageti worms and other stuff so if i take it out, im sure that there will be ammonia spikes due the death stuff :(

thats my question !!!! the rock i had has like 3 years with me so the rock its ok :)
 
Cleaning sand

Cleaning sand

Whenever I have moved a marine tank with sand I have scooped off the top 10mm of sand and transported it in a bucket with just enough tank water to cover the sand.
Then the rest of the sand I have cleaned thoroughly by putting the sand in buckets, filling with water, stirring, draining the water and repeat:
fill, stir, drain.
Until the water was pretty clear.
Then when setting the tank back up I put the cleaned sand in first, then half filled the tank with salt water and gently placed the top layer of sand on the top.
I have only moved 3 tanks but they have all been 6ft marine with lots of corals, inverts and fish.
 
Back
Top