So need to move 1000+ miles!

[DasCamel]

We're moving from Bakersfield to Seattle area next week. Wife and I, two daughters, 2.25 dogs, three cars and a trailer. + a good friend to help drive.
And of course the fish, corals, live rock and anenomes! 150g main + sump and my daughters 40g breeder.

Only taking a little sand to get the Haddoni comfortable in a bowl.

Posting here, well because I have anenomes. Magnifica, LTA, Haddoni and Crispa. Breeding clown pair, hybrid powder blue, Male Anthias and my daughters coral beauty and coral banded shrimp. Of course all the misc of a 3 year old reef tank.

I bought a 150qt Coleman marine cooler, thinking of using that in the backseat of the pickup with battery powered pump and airstones and as needed an inverter for power heads and a 100w small heater. Probably a second cooler in the trailer for live rock and misc. Keeping the cooler in the truck overnight.

Thinking of egg crate to separate Haddoni and the Maginifica from everything sensitive.

So thinking it'll be two 10 hour trips over two days and figuring out a temporary fix on the 3rd day at a rental house for one month before we can move into our new house. My tank and sump are acrylic so figure they'll be easy to move in the trailer.

So, not going to feed on the trip, fattening everyone up the month before.

How does the plan sound? Am I missing anything big?

 

[hotelbravo]

just a neat idea i saw once. Take a sheet of eggcrate and cut it to fit inside the cooler bottom. then you can ziptie live rock to the eggcrate. this will give you biological filtration and give the fish places to hide and feel somewhat safe to reduce stress.

 

[DasCamel]

just a neat idea i saw once. Take a sheet of eggcrate and cut it to fit inside the cooler bottom. then you can ziptie live rock to the eggcrate. this will give you biological filtration and give the fish places to hide and feel somewhat safe to reduce stress.

I was going to pack some rock in the cooler, good idea to secure it!

 

[Breadman03]

So need to move 1000+ miles!

Can you have a Rubbermaid trough or similar set up ahead of time? You wouldn't need a ton of advance, but a couple days to fill partially and get to temp. That way, you could just plunk everything in and get to worrying about creature comforts such as figuring out why you only have 3 toothbrushes when you know you packed 4.

 

[DasCamel]

Can you have a Rubbermaid trough or similar set up ahead of time? You wouldn't need a ton of advance, but a couple days to fill partially and get to temp. That way, you could just plunk everything in and get to worrying about creature comforts such as figuring out why you only have 3 toothbrushes when you know you packed 4.

I wish we could setup something in advance up in Seattle, but I'm going to wing it the first day. Either hit up a store and buy saltwater or quickly hookup the Rodi and fill the tank. Prolly going to bypass the sump until we move into our new home. Which isn't a done deal until it officially closes mid Oct and becomes available up too 20 days later....

Moving sucks. :headwally:

I'll post photos soon enough too. This should get interesting, assuming at least one panic moment.

 

[sam.basye]

If it's going in the back of the truck, be mindful of the sun and outside air temps.
For in the cab, be mindful of air temps. The air pump is going to be pumping 72° (or whatever you set the AC/heat to) air into the water.
Ex. Put a cooler in the bed of the truck completely out of sun and shaded, you still end up with water the same temp as the outside air. Easy way to cook you fish if it's warm out!

Don't put anything in the cooler that isn't secured, like the zip tied rock to egg crate suggestion, or it will roll around and crush things (coral) in turns.

If you have an inverter, you might as well use it to set up the heater and a power head in addition to the air pump.

Find a way to separate things that don't get along.

These are the big things I've come across and experiences when transporting aquatic critters.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

If I were you I'd sell most of the stuff except the fishes. I too moved recently and had to set up a new system. Many of my rainbow chalices and other high end corals slowly perished. Your nems will probably suffer the most. It's better to set up a new system, let it run as fish only and then add inverts. Whatever you decide, best of luck to you and your family.

 

[DasCamel]

The cooler I'm going to keep in the backseat, my target low is going to be around 75 degrees. I'm not worried too much about the temp while driving, more so at night at the hotel.

I have batteries for the airstone pumps, just not sure about heating. In theory I could use the car battery, not sure if it could handle 100w heater overnight.

Yeah, I may need to fire sale most of the corals. Just keep some small frags to repopulate in the future.

The nems I can treat if needed in Seattle, they are in good shape to start.

 

[Pinkskunk]

If I were you I would just sell everything and do over when you are ready. I lost my 10 years old red carpet moving 50 miles. Less stress on animals and you and your family.

 

[OrionN]

I agree. Don't move the animals and set them up once you get there. They will not survive. Sell them, or else board them at LFS in CA or in Seattle.
When I was there, there is a store there: Saltwater City in Belleview WA. Call them and see if they will board your animals for you.
Also you can contact the Puget Sound Aquarium Society. There are great reefers there. They can at least set something up there for you ahead of time. You can put your animals in a semi establish system until you can cycle your tank. Maybe contact the Seattle Aquarium, maybe they can help in exchange for some of your donation......

BTW, I moved from Seattle to Corpus Christi in 1999. I was able to get a reefer in Houston to board some of the animals I wanted to keep for 1 month. I set up my aquarium as soon as I get here and take the animals back in 1 month. You should do something like this.

 

[DasCamel]

Didn't even think about someone hosting them, ok I'll look into finding a host in Seattle. Thanks for the leads guys, that does sound better than setting up and moving again once up there.

I'm confident though I can get them up there in better condition than overnight shipping.

 

[ThRoewer]

One thing I would do is to drive at night to avoid the heat. If you have a good LFS with shipping experience, they might be able to help you bagging the fish and frags with oxygen. They may also be able to give you enough styrofoam boxes to pack everything safety.
The only things I would transport in totes or barrels are live rocks and water.

BTW, do you plan on driving the whole stretch at once? It's 12 to 14 hours for the Bay Area to Seattle, from Bakersfield it's easily 5 to 6 hours more.
So, first you need to break everything down and pack it. That can easily take you half a day. Then you need to drive about 20h without making any overnight stops to get some shuteye. Once arrived you have to set up tanks and unpack everything - easily another half day.
So the question is, can you go 3 days without real sleep and function properly?

IMO it would be better to house all the livestock you want to keep with someone in Bakersfield.
Take the tank and live rock with you on the move. Rocks can handle an overnight stay if you have a pump in the container.
Once in Seattle set the tank up again and let it stabilize for a week or two or however long it may take.
Then go back to get the fish and corals.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[DasCamel]

Doing the drive over two days. Night time low of the first stop is 60 degrees. Just did the drive with the family and dogs over the summer.

I'm going to keep anything even remotely valuable to keep the tank cycled in air conditioned cab or car. Live rock without anything attached or excess I can recycle later at some some.

The tanks bio load is extremely low, hybrid blue is only 6", everything else is much smaller.

Attaching a digital thermometer with extension to both coolers. (maybe three)

Anyway, let's say 6 hours sleep and off again. Thinking of just using a small powerhead at night and cracking the cooler slightly for circulation. Keep the temperature drop slow and minimal.

Once there, going to try and make arrangements for someone to have something setup until I can move into my own home.

 

[DasCamel]

So I just bought jumper cables, just in case I drain the car battery and am thinking about getting a deep cycle marine battery for the trip and future backup from power outages.

That way don't need to worry about night time heating issues.

 

[nemguy]

I for one tried the cooler idea with heater and airator going from boca Florida to Long Island New York and it did not work out that well I collected wild and bought some live stock from a local fish store while on vacation and broght it back the fish and inverts that were packed in bags rather thank the cooler lived and the fish and inverts in the cooler a lot didn't survive I'm guess the bumby road and the water swishing around caused more stress than the bags. Just my 2cents

 

[DasCamel]

The cooler is effectively the size of a 40g tank, I don't see how it could be worse than bags? Did the cooler have an unusual lining?

I'm in the middle of packing the Pods and clearing the house. Tomorrow night and Monday morning the focus is on fish. Probably leaving for the first leg of two, Monday afternoon not to rush the fish transfer and take care of a billion little things. Like returning the cable equipment...

I'm ready with amquel, supplies, ammonia badge, etc... At this point, focused on getting up there and surviving the weekend. Once up there, try figure out a temp home for them if I can't get something stable.

Good news is, the permanent house may close early.

 

[ThRoewer]

Bagging individually with oxygen is generally better than all in a larger container - though it takes longer which is a problem on its own.

 

[Breadman03]

A cooler of water can slosh around quite a bit, which is a factor to consider. Another factor is what happens when something dies. In a big cooler, everything will be exposed to the ammonia spike. If bagged individually, everything is isolated.

 

[DasCamel]

It's a reef tank, water moving around is a good thing, my tank already has oscillating high flow.

Yeah, oxygen and bags is out of the question at this point. Just trying to get on the road at some point tomorrow without divorce...

My daughter and I will keep an eye on everything. Ammonia spikes shouldn't be issue unless something is majorly wrong. The positives are, everything is acclimated to each other, disease and parasite free. Zero new additions, just need to merge the coral beauty and banded shrimp over along with some hermits to the main tank stock.

Should have zero acclimation issues prior to transport and I'm good at catching fish stress free. Especially since I can drain the tank!

My friend and think we can bring the cooler inside at night together. Just need to pump a little water out and use a furniture dolly.

Pro tips, don't move ever.

 

[OrionN]

Let us know how it turn out in a few days. Best wish to you. your family and your animals. Be safe first.
The longer the water container along the length of the care the more splash. Load the cooler cross-section in your car/trailer to minimize splash. At the most the cooler should be only 2/3 full or else you will have a lot of the water splashing. I am sorry that you was not able to arrange for your animals ahead of time. It will be very stressful for you, your family and the animals.