Moving Questions... need answers

[Gangrene]

Okay... I'm nervous.

So I'm moving(let's say a mile or 2 away.) and I'm going to have to move my 37 gallon tank. Tell me everything I should take into consideration. Tell me everything from the obvious to the details I may have not remembered.

(I've moved freshwater tanks before, no biggie)... all the life in my tank scares me, I want to obviously minimize any loss to anything alive in my tank.

It's a reef tank with rock, soft corals, fish, and a lot of inverts. The move is not that far... one of my fish is a yellow headed jawfish and it is dug into it's burrow in the live sand under a rock. What do I do about that?

Another big concern I have is that professional painters are going to be in the new place... Paint fumes... If they aren't finished before I move in, how concerned do I need to be about this. If there is concern, what steps should I take, turn off circulation? Any advice in tank moving would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[eric@tampa]

My last move was a 75gal about an hr. away.
1.Drain water in to buckets
2.Put live rock in its own bucket
3.Softies can go in a bucket of there own/or bag
4.Fish I bagged
5.Inverts bag or put in bucket
Make up water a day ahead of time for replacing what you will spill/lose,I drained mine down to the top of the sand and did not have any problems.Paint maybe run athe hose for your skimmer outside and cover tank sorry don't know.Good luck,eric

 

[TTrout]

This size tank shouldn't be too bad, but you do want to plan it out. What I did with a 55g is put everything individually in large rubbermaid containers. Live rock in one, sand in another, fish in another, and cleanup crew in another container. If the fish will be out of the tank for a while you might look in to battery operated air pump and a small heater you could plug into a inverter in the car.

As for the jawfish, just take out everything and leave him till last. I usually wait till last to get fish and cleanup crew after all rock and corals are out of the tank. Be cautious while scooping out the sand to look for other critters to put with the rest of the clean up crew.

You could then empty the water into 5gal water containers or large plastic trash containers with wheels (make sure it's clean) to transport the water.

 

[Tnconcept]

Move

Move

I use those 20g tub they got at walmart to keep your rock and coral in peace with a good water flow. For temp until the painter are done. That's just me, those bucket are like 5 bucks... Just me 2 cents.

 

[Gangrene]

Bumping,

Anybody else? I want to get a lot of insights into this move.

If this gets too far down the list I would appreciate bumps. The move is on Thursday...

I'm thinking I'm going to tie it in with a 10 gallon water change... 10 less to ship over. Will have to have it mixed up before hand. I will get that ready Wed. night. Take two 5 gallon buckets with with some live rock in each. I have to watch the placement to avoid harming the corals attached to them.

I'll have to net the fish. and put them in some container... I'll have to do the same with some of the snails and hermits...

I was planning on taking the water down to the sand and leaving in my lowest level of live rock. That rock is on the bottom of the tank with the sand around it. I did that to prevent animals from digging under the rock. I didn't want to mix the sand up by taking it out. If I'm not taking the sand out I need that rock to remain on the bottom. Then I'll get two or more people to help me move the tank slowly to reduce any movement of the sand and rock.

I have tons of little starfish all over the tank etc... so I won't be able to remove all of the life. I'm hoping that once the water level is low I can move the tank and begin the refill in less than 30 minutes.

Tearing out the jawfish will be a pain.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[jasoncampbell83]

I have moved two times in the last year... its a headache to move but both times I moved nothing died. This is what I did:

Mix up your water a day or so ahead of time.
make sure you have buckets with lids (make sure they are clean)
I had about 6 or 7 clean buckets with lids that I seperated fish, coral, and rock in, and I used a new trash can from walmart to put the water in, I put the trash can in the back of the truck and bucketed 5 gallons of water at a time into it (it would have been too heavy completely full to put in the back of the truck) I had a battery operated air pump in the buckets with the fish, it was warm enough not to need a heater for the move. I already had the spot picked out in our new house for the tank, I moved about 10 miles from home the first time and 15 miles away the second time, both times I didnt have anything die and it worked out well the way I done it. I then just set up the tank when I got it to our new house, first I put the live rock in, then started bucketing the water in, hooked everything up and put coral in next, the fish last. Hope that helps, good luck moving!

 

[jasoncampbell83]

oh yeah i forgot to say that I left my substrate on the bottom of the 37 gallon, i left about an inch or two of water above it and it done just fine during the move. Good luck!

 

[TheFishMan65]

Moved a 75 twice and just put it on new stand. All three times I drained everyting itno 18 gallon rubbermaids (12 -3/4 full). I added rock and fish to each one. Possible problem there is crushing the fish, but it gives the some filtration. When I put it on a the new stand I had a lot of coraline algae on the glass, not any more it died. So I don't think you want to leave the rock open to the air. Don't know for sure just my $0.02.

Do your water change, but I would move it all. If you spill any you will be glad you had extra.