Moving -- any helpful tips?

[Elysia]

My family and I are actively house hunting, and are hoping to move by spring.

For decades we have lived in the same 1960's ranch w/ slab foundation. Now we are looking for a larger home that will include a basement, and many of the homes in our price range are older farm properties that do not have the most up-to-date electric and plumbing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be looking for regarding floors, foundations, wiring, plumbing, etc as we continue to look at homes?

In that same vein, when we do finally buy a different home, I will need to move my tanks and their inhabitants to the new dwelling. Now, I am fortunate in that we will not have to move our things out of our house within the span of a few days (as our home likely will not be put on the market until we move.) I also hope to be adding an additional tank to the current multi-tank set up, which would allow me some flexibility in my set up.

Does anyone have any advice regarding moving tanks and livestock to a new home? So far, I have only read horror stories (as published in the newest Reefkeeping magazine.) Is it best to transport one's fish, corals, and live rock, but to start new sandbeds entirely (beyond perhaps a handful from the previous set up?) How much of the "old" system water should I keep?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[phil519]

One thing to realize is that not all areas have the same TDS readings. Keep that in mind as one home may not need a water softner, and another will. I don't know if you use RODI or not but that may come into play.

In the new home - location of the tank on the slab (e.g. basement) or on the floor above the basement will need to be considered. When I viewed new homes - I would consider where the tank would be located - or possibly even in wall.

As for the actual move - no exp there, but as I understand it - it's helpful to consider it as a huge water change for the tank. Ideally you set up large drums that could be used for transporting the water with LR etc.

Are you staying in -state?

[insane]

Here is another thread on moving advice that you might find helpful.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1745652

[Elysia]

Thanks insane. I have done some searching on this topic, but "moving" sort of gets you all kinds of threads.

Phil, I believe our current plan is to stay instate (or possibly upper MD), although sometimes there is talk to moving to CA or OR (we have family in CA and I would love to garden in OR.)

With our current home being on a concrete slab foundation (and it being a ranch), I never had to worry about where I was going to put a tank. Now I've got to figure out if floor joists look solid, if homes have proper subflooring, if they have copper line (most seem to), and what sort of outlets and wiring they have -- some homes don't even have grounded outlets.

[SharkBait_Mtl]

OMG! no grounded outlets.

for your safety and family's safety you absolutly need to have a ground on your aquarium.

I have done many moves. (mine twice and several others for work) with no loss.
try to keep as much water as you can since you will be adding another tank to the system. If in total you do more than 50-60% you might experience a little cycle.

discard the sandbed. keep about 1 cup per 100lbs of new sand to seed it.

this is how I would do it If I had to do several trips

1.transport enough water to make a 50/50 in your new tank.
2.transfer all livestock
3.transport the rest of the water and tanks to new location
4.set them up

when transporting the rock use 5g salt buckets with lids and keep your tank water in the buckets to keep the rock in water throught the teardown and rebuild. that way you have absolutly no die-off

It took me and 3 friends 14 hrs to move a 90g with 60 sump, corals, fish, and equipment about 25km. fully set-up at the new location.


as for things to look for to have around an aquarium, when searching for a new house:

floor drain!
at least 1 dedicated grounded circuit to the breaker box.
a worksink nearby


good luck

[HUNGER]

thats about right

Originally Posted by SharkBait_Mtl

OMG! no grounded outlets.

for your safety and family's safety you absolutly need to have a ground on your aquarium.

I have done many moves. (mine twice and several others for work) with no loss.
try to keep as much water as you can since you will be adding another tank to the system. If in total you do more than 50-60% you might experience a little cycle.

discard the sandbed. keep about 1 cup per 100lbs of new sand to seed it.

this is how I would do it If I had to do several trips

1.transport enough water to make a 50/50 in your new tank.
2.transfer all livestock
3.transport the rest of the water and tanks to new location
4.set them up

when transporting the rock use 5g salt buckets with lids and keep your tank water in the buckets to keep the rock in water throught the teardown and rebuild. that way you have absolutly no die-off

It took me and 3 friends 14 hrs to move a 90g with 60 sump, corals, fish, and equipment about 25km. fully set-up at the new location.

good luck

[Names Brucey]

All this talk is scaring me. I am also actively looking to move (in state) but moving a 180 and sump, biocube 29, and a 30 high seems more than intimidating. I don't think I have enough salt buckets!!!!!!!!!

[insane]

Brand new 5g buckets & tight fitting lids can be bought for about $4.00 per set at most home improvement stores.

[Elysia]

House hunting just got more interesting!

The next home we are scheduled to look at had all of the electric removed from it when an Amish family moved in. We are pretty sure that new service has been put in, but I'm not sure if that will mean that there will be limited outlets and such (because one wouldn't want to rip up the floors, walls and ceilings to run lines, would they?)

The last home we looked at (the one w/out grounded outlets) was built in 1951-52 but had some elements of the original 1908 home (like the basement.) I'm pretty sure that one didn't have any sub-floor.

Some of the outlets in our current home aren't grounded, but thankfully enough are. Currently, all my tanks are 55 gallons or less (looking to upgrade during the move), but I have five of them (and that doesn't count the systems that are 3 gallons or smaller, or the 3 amphibian set ups.)

So, as you can see, I can use all the advice I can get!

Oh, and I'd say that about a third of the homes that we have looked at, including ones built relatively recently, have had only 100 amps. Why would anyone build a house in the last decade with only 100 amps?

[Fish Ace]

100 amps is alot of amps. Total everything up and I bet you don't come close. Now remmember your not going to be using that many amps at the same time. Alot of homes have only 60 and get along fine. Good luck on your move. I know from my military days moving can put alot of stress on the whole family, expect it.

[insane]

Originally Posted by Elysia

House hunting just got more interesting!

The next home we are scheduled to look at had all of the electric removed from it when an Amish family moved in. We are pretty sure that new service has been put in, but I'm not sure if that will mean that there will be limited outlets and such (because one wouldn't want to rip up the floors, walls and ceilings to run lines, would they?)

Oh, and I'd say that about a third of the homes that we have looked at, including ones built relatively recently, have had only 100 amps. Why would anyone build a house in the last decade with only 100 amps?

Any house that has had the electrical removed then someone else had the electrical put back in, the new wiring would have to be done to code and inspected. Codes require a certain minimum number of outlets per room. New wiring will definately be grounded.

Electricians do not need to rip up floors, walls or ceilings to run wires. They drill small holes and use fish tapes, telescoping poles and thin chains to do it.

Additional circuits and outlets are generally easy to install to remove the tanks electrical load from the circuit that the room is on. If the house has a basement, the jobs is pretty easy to do. Even existing outlets can be changed over to an independant circuit easily. Existing wiring can sometimes be used to pull new wires as well.

100amp service is typical in most single family homes. The chances of anyone having every single outlet in the house filled with high amperage appliances and having all of them kick on at the exact same time while every light in every room was on is highly unlikely. Electrical systems in houses are not designed with reefers in mind so we either have to work around that to split up the loads on multiple existing circuits or have additional circuits installed so the other normal house circuits are not overloaded. If a normal light bulb dims when the fridge kicks on then that circuit is being pushed to it's limit but not over it or the breaker would trip.

Two 110v hot wires (=two phase aka 220v), one neutral wire and one ground wire run into most average houses. What is important to save you money is to have the load on the two hot wires balanced. If one wire pulls the power for 75% of your usage and the other one only handles 25%, you get charged as if both lines are pulling the 75% ammount of electricity. Electricians can test this if you are living in the house and you have everything hooked up as normal. A meter is used to record the power usage on the two main wires and will show if the usage is balanced. Power companies can also do the testing for you. If it is out of balance, the fix is usually easy by just rearranging breakers in the breaker box. Doing this test would save a lot of money for people that are really obsessed with multiple large reefs in their house.

When you are looking at the houses, look in the breaker box to see if there are any empty spaces where breakers can be added down the road. When you do pick a house to buy and go to have it inspected, tell your inspector about your reef obsession and let him/her know that you need the electrical to be able to either support your systems as is or it needs to be able to handle added circuits for your tanks. Keep in mind any tank size upgrading you might do down the road. I am adding two circuits for my 180g. One for lights (1,490watts=13.5amps) and one for everything else so the regular circuits in the house don't have to handle the loads.

Avoid any house that uses fuses & if you see post and tube wiring, RUN AWAY! That is the old fashioned cloth insulated wires that stand on ceramic insulators and runs through wood beams inside of ceramic tubes.

[Captain]

Sell all but the best equipment off. No hurry or time schedule to go by, you can rebuild as you want. No need to go through all the extra hassle and expense only to have lots of things die. JMO.

[Elysia]

Thanks for the information about amps -- I guess we are concerned because we are not yet sure if the workshop (w/ things like table saw, drill press, and what seems like 492 other things...) will be on the same box (i.e. in the basement) or if it will on a separate box (i.e. in a stand alone garage or barn.) In our exsiting home, things are usually okay, until someone needs to plug in the vacuum -- then you've got to know the two or three outlets that can handle the way that thing hogs power.

We would like to think that this is going to be our "forever" home -- we have been in this one for over thirty years -- and so we want to make a good decision.

As far as an electrician being able to wire an existing home without ripping up floors and walls, well, I guess that doesn't surprise me. I guess I am more concerned about how many good electricians an Amish family might know.