Been bit by the bug, again, have a big question though...

[RiffeShooter]

Hello all, yep, been bitten by the bug again. I used to keep a SW aquarium late in high school and through college. It was a 75 gallon and was not a reef system, pretty much fish only, no live rock, no sump, crushed coral on the bottom with fossil coral as decorations, just an eheim and I had great success with it.

Well, the bug has bitten me again and I've been obsessing about it for the last couple of weeks basically not sleeping and reading everything I possibly can and looking at all the builds on here and other forums. Holy cow!:bounce3:

Here is my question:

I'm going to start a little small/medium (I say this from what I am seeing here nowadays ), probably 180 gallon. I do want to go with a a reef with corals but am wondering if I should wait. Here is the problem, there is a very good possibility that I will move in a year and do not know if it is a good idea to set up a reef with corals. Should I just do a FOWLR system for now? If I do move, the travel to the new place would more than likely be 3 hours so it is a short move. Do corals take well to moving?

If I do move or even if I don't, at that time when I am sure, I do plan on going with a bigger tank depending on the house but it would be in the 300-500 gallon range I suspect.

One last question, I will probably go used on this 180 tank, is a 180 Oceanic tank that is reef ready for $300 a good price? Tank only... I will build the stand for sure because I have not really seen any used stands that look good. Thanks!:beer:

 

[Fizz71]

The biggest problem with moving corals is being able to remove them. If you keep your corals on their own small rocks and they don't spread to neighboring rocks you can remove the whole coral and relocate it pretty easily. I did it in the past with LPS and softies...

If I were to move now I'd have a problem because I mounted multiple sps frags to the same large rocks and I also have caps that have grown so big they touch/encrust on multiple pieces of LR. If I were to move I'd be breaking a lot of corals, although I'd just have more frags to sell at the next swap.

If can be done though...either way...it just depends how much you want it.

And 180s around where I live are more than twice that new, so if it's in good shape it's a very good deal IMO.

 

[nlgill13]

Welcome to ReefCentral!!!

It is not that bad moving coral...what you will want is a 5 gallon bucket or two. Possibly an air stone. You will also definitely want a powerhead and a heater. Plus a car inverter to run all the electrical stuff.

You would want all this stuff anyway if your transporting fish.

 

[Painted skin]

You also don't have to go crazy on the corals, you can keep a few as good practice until you known if you're moving. Other than that moving corals is not difficult, but can tricky or just be careful with certain ones like monti cap or sps above mentioned if they spread plus they are brittle, but can be done. Softies are piece of cake.

 

[RiffeShooter]

Thank you for the replies. Appreciate it!:thumbsup: