How To Move My Tank

[Lpabsolute]

I'm getting ready to move. Just sold my house and will be needing to move the tank. 54g Reef Tank. I would only be moving about 20 mins. away but still i will have to move the tank none the less. I'm just looking for the best way to move my tank without doing any damage to the fish/corals/live rock/sand/tank itself. Any suggestions from those who have moved tanks before????

 

[reefgeek84]

Bag the fish, corals and anything else that can be bagged... Since it is only 20 mins the corals will be fine in bags. I would drain and keep most of the water.. If you can leave the sand in the bottom of the tank... If not move it how ever you need to. Then set the tank back up, and put most of that water you kept back in, drop in all the things that were bagged and fill with new water.

 

[Lpabsolute]

I just didn't know if i would have some kind of cycle due to the move....

 

[cw3561]

When I moved my 40 3 years ago I bagged all the live stuff and kept most of the water in containers and put the rock in ice chests. Left about an inch of water and all the sand still in place in the aquarium. Then got a 3/4" sheat of plywood that was just a little bigger then the foot print of the tank. Slid the aquarium and stand away from the wall and with the help of some buddies we slid the tank off the stand and onto the plywood and placed it in a truck to be transported. Then just reversed the process in putting it back together. Nothing died and the tank was all cleared up by the next day.

 

[mr pink floyd]

id get a bunch of 5 gallon buckets, drain tank, leave in sand, LR will be fine out of water for 20 minutes IMO. Get tank set up, slowly pump water back into tank wit ha garbage bag over the sand to keep storm down, put in rock corals and re acclimate fish if addign lots of new water!


good luck, this is just what i would do!

 

[Lpabsolute]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I like all of the ideas and kinda knew that, that was what i was going to do. I was just wondering if i needed to place all the corals/fish in a seperate tank until a few days, but thanks again for all of the feedback...

 

[reefgeek84]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7078751#post7078751 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lpabsolute
Thanks for all of the feedback. I like all of the ideas and kinda knew that, that was what i was going to do. I was just wondering if i needed to place all the corals/fish in a seperate tank until a few days, but thanks again for all of the feedback...

NO they will be fine going back into the tank that day....And if you keep enough water, and only have to replace like 25-30% of the water, you should not have to worry about the tank going through a mini cycle.

 

[sloshesv]

I just did my 55 gallon about a month age. The move was about 15 minutes away. I had about 30 gallons of water at the house I was moving into. Broke down the tank, corals and fish in 5 gallon buckets cushioned by freezer zip lock bag. The live rock in a cooler with no water but I would wet it and the coralline algae on the sides of the tank from time to time. I left about 1" inch of water in the tank with the sand and picked it up and transported it as is. Once at the new place we set up the tank and placed the LR. Then pumped the 30 gallons into the tank flowwing it over the LR. It was surprisingly clear. Then started arranging the coral and did the critters and fish last. I needed very little water from the buckets to top off the tank. Nobody perished and they actually looked as good as ever in a couple of days. This was all accomplished in about 3 hours.