Moving!! UGHHH

[TimL]

Can someone please point me to a doable and reasonable set of steps to move a reef tank?

The tank is just 1 year old and is 72 gallons in size. I have about 75 lbs of LR and about 10 SPS corals that have encrusted and attached to the LR. Various softies as well. Naturally I want to minimize as much damage as possible. What are people’s experiences and tips?

Thanks a lot.

Unfortunately, I will be moving at the height of summer where daytime temps can be 100 degrees. My move however, is only about 8 miles.

[sk8rreefgeek]

ouch. you might want to post up in the MARS club, who knows, you might find someone wanting to help out a fellow reefer.

When I moved, I just borrowed a bunch of 5gal buckets from my LFS (cuz they're cool like that) and saved as much original water as possible.

[Diatome]

Been through three moves and one upgrade with my tanks. Rubbermaid tubs. Fill with the water and probably have one for rock, one for fish/inverts and one for corals. Save as much water as possible in buckets and such. Move. There are some other posts on RC regarding this but it can be done. I honestly never lost anything on any moves. the upgrade I smashed two sponges. Not sure how it is possible but the livestock can survive. One move I never even found my fish. They had embedded themselves in the rock so I just moved them with the rock. All except the scopas tang. Battery powered air pumps can help if it will be a long time out of tank. Considering my plans never went as planned....

Good luck.

[MrSpiffy]

When I moved from Milwaukee to Madison, here's what I did to help make things easier:
[list=1][*]Bought a Rubbermaid Brute 44-gallon trash can and wheel dolly (roughly $75 total for both) to mix fresh water up with at the new location[*]Bagged corals and fish individually to minimize damage, storing them in a rubbermaid container or insulated box[*]Drained most of the water, keeping only enough to make sure live rock was in water[*]Put all rock into 5-gallon buckets with tank water in it.[*]Put sand into a bucket with tank water in it[*]Moved drained tank, stand, and livestock to the new location[*]Put sand back into the tank[*]Placed rock into the tank to aquascape[*]Added new water from the Rubbermaid into the tank, plus any water saved during the move[*]Adjust temperature, if necessary (I had a heater in the trash can.)[*]Acclimate livestock as necessary, and add them to the tank[/list=1]

I think that's about how I did mine. I actually added rock after the water was going in, but I would've done rock, then water, if I could do it again. The trash can helped a TON. It was worth the money, and it helped to avoid hauling buckets and buckets of water from one place to the next. And now I can use it as a mixing tub, if I want. Plus the dolly makes it really easy to move.

Of course, try and avoid direct sunlight exposure to minimize the greenhouse effect (overheating) on the livestock. Use heat/ice packs as necessary to maintain good temps, if you need to.

Hope that helps!

[hyndu]

Just finished moving a 150 yesterday....

I got a bunch of plastic trash cans from wal-mart, filled each with LR about halfway and then enough water to cover them up.

Corals and fish each got 5 gal buckets or put them in with trashcans. Used a dolly to move the trashcans on and off truck. I put bungie cords around the tops to minimize spillage while on the truck.

I only saved about 50% of the water and had the other 50% ready at the new place so it would just be like doing a big water change.

[bsagecko]

i moved a 90g tank with 150 lbs of liverock 100lbs of livesand, fish, inverts, and corals. I had a two hour drive...........plus setting back up which took a week everything was fine..........

i suggest useing icechests as they are insulated........that way you dont have to worry about the temp..........they cost a lil more but well worth it IMO..........suggest save all the water and keep all your biomedia covered in water..........keep the water moving after the drive...............oxygen is critical especially as the water warms up the less oxygem available to the fish......

if you werent across the country from me i would help you.....i have successfully moved 3 tanks with only one causualityof a regal tang that had HLLE, flatworms, and ich....all at the same time.....least to say he was a time bomb............

[TimL]

You guys are all AWESOME!!! Thanks so much for the info it is greatly appreciated!!

Tim