Moving and might need help with steps?

[AquaWave523]

We are just setting up our aquarium - 90 gallons with just live rocks and fish. My wife and I are plan on looking for a new home within 6 months to a year. In the event that we do move, how difficult is it to move all my fish to the new house? We're looking at 1 hour most to the new house.

What would I need to do to make this a safe and easy transition?

 

[Zimster]

Find the biggest coolers you can and a bunch of 5 gallon pails. I have shipped my tank back and forth between housing situations 6 times now. Its only a 46 gallon but it is still alot of work.

What kind of transportation will you be using?

Here is what i do:

I have 2 big coolers. One i try to fit all the rock and corals into. The fish go into the other cooler. If you have anemones, you might want to separate them from the corals and fish. I have had one casualty with mixing the fish and the rock so i don't recommend putting them in the same cooler (i had to brake pretty hard). If you have a base structure in the sand then i would leave that. I use a ROI or maxi-jet pump to pump out the water to the coolers. When they are full, i move on to the 5 gallon pails. I always made sure that each one had its own cover as to refrain from heat loss. Get out as much water as you can but leave all the sand. I move the tank to the car and disassemble the stand. I have 2 tanks in my stand acting as a sump and refugium. I usually leave them as they are without draining any water (this can get heavy if you have a big sump). Then as fast as i can, I pile everything into the car. On trips longer than 6 hours, I use a battery operated bubbler to keep the water oxygen levels up.

I have taken my tank on a 24 hour move like this and everything survived. Since you only have one hour, you shouldn't need to worry about the oxygen nor water temp. When you set everything back up, put all the water in the pails into the tank first and get your heaters up and running right away. It will probably look really cloudy and thats normal from all the bacteria and uneaten detritous in the sand. Usually it will dissipate in less than an hour.

If you have extra pails available with extra room in your transportation, I would fill up a few of them with RO water to compensate for all that will be lost.

 

[scottbeth]

I have moved my 75gal sps 5x now with no loss. I agree with zimster but never used coolers (good idea though ), I used 5gal buckets and plastic bins(15-30gal) for rock and corals. I would recommend changing 20-30% of the water. once you get to the bottom half of your tank, the water is going to be pretty nasty. check water perimeters over next few weeks. make sure your skimmer is adjusted correctly, it'll be doing some extra work. after filling your tank and getting your heater,filltration,skimmer ,etc., I'd wait about an hour (for water to clear) to add fish,corals,and inverts. Good luck and everything should be fine.

 

[bmack]

Both prior posts give great information.I have moved a 120 3 times. From Dallas to Tampa(all by air) and Tampa to Atlanta by truck, and then local in the ATL. The 1st move was the most challenging and not applicable in your case since you are only going an hour away. In both of the latter cases a rolling 55 gallon rubber maid trash can was my best friend. I filled the trash can with all the live rock and then added the top "clear" water from the tank. Then finished off with fresh r/o saltwater. The corals and fish where all double bagged and put in coolers. The main issue I had and one to you should watch for is that due to the issue of success I had some branching corals break into frags. Later sold for good dough but some tears when it happened.
After the tank was reset I put all the live rock back in and used a powerhead to pump the water back into the tank. Again topping off with fresh r/o.
It is all stressful. I keep saying never again but what do you do after 15 years. You become attached. Good luck. It is a lot of work but worth it.

 

[billsreef]

If you can arrange it when the time comes, get some overlap between taking possession of the new house and having to be out of the old house. Makes it much easier if you can spend a day or two on the tank without having deal with anything else. Set up rubbermaid tank in the new house (basement or garage, i.e. out of the way, but safe) with fresh SW. This way you can move the critters direct into the rubbermaid, set in the LR and some powerheads and heaters as necessary, and now you can work on moving and resetting up the tank itself without the need to worry about rushing