Logistics of moving 16 hours with tank, 3 'homeless' nights

[waterlily]

I have a big problem, not sure how to handle this. I am moving from Virginia to south Florida in July. I have a 24 gallon nano-cube with two clownfish, a tuxedo urchin, lots of live rock, frogspawn, and ricordia. This is a well established tank.

I have to be out of my current house on Friday, July 16. Plan to stay in Virginia overnight on Friday, then drive to Florida. Will need to spend Saturday and Sunday nights in some sort of temporary lodging. We close on the Florida house on Monday, July 19.

I know that the tank can be moved with the fish in it. My plan was to move most of the rock to a large bucket and drain half of the tank volume of water into the bucket with the rock to submerge it. I would leave the livestock in the 24 nano-cube. The tank is light enough to move with the reduced water volume, although it is still fairly heavy. I know I can't leave the fish and corals in my car. They have to come into whatever lodging (motel) I get. This sounds like a huge pain in the backside, but I can't figure any way around it.

The buyers of our house have indicated that they would like to keep the fish tank because they think it's "neat". I doubt they have experience with marine reefkeeping, although the system is established and fairly easy to take care of.

Is there any easier way to deal with this move and the fish (one that does not involve moving a 24 gallon tank in and out of motels), or should I just leave the tank here with the house?

[Namnuta]

For the amount of trouble it sounds like, and the risk to your livestock. I honestly would just leave the tank for the new house owners. Unless your very attached to your livestock.

[Dakk]

I moved my 55 gallon in January across the state & this is what I did. I bought 12 of the 5 gallon buckets from home Depot, only wound up using 10 but it's good to have extras. Have heaters & bubblers available. My tank was dry for about 32 hours & made it with most of everything surviving. I lost 2 fish because I was only expecting to have the tank empty for 8 hours & did not have the bubblers available.

For you I would grab 5 of the 5 gallon buckets & get everything out. Moving a tank full of water is not good, even if the tank does hold the water could slosh while you are moving it and cause it to tip over. Just move the buckets around when you need to & leave the tank in the moving truck. If this will take 3 nights I would recommend not feeding the fish during this time. They will survive for 3 days and the food would affect the water quality.

I know the task seems daunting but once the tank is setup at the new home you will appreciate the effort of having your setup instead of selling it off.

[DreamMachine]

for a 24gal tank I think you would be able to move everything into a big plastic bucket and just move it into the lodging to plug in heater and air pump. Keep some 5gal buckets around for replenishing salt water or evaporated water.

Good luck!

[DeathWish302]

I have the same approaching event happening in a couple weeks (minus not relocating straight to my new living quarters). If your putting the LR in some buckets, why not pull all but the last little amount of water out and move the fish in these seperate 'water' buckets. I'm assuming you will not be removing the heater and pump from the nano, so you could fire the entire tank back up once your at the hotel.

My plan is as follows on July 1st:
1) Wake up and pool all my move items (i.e. coolers, buckets, hose, various-sized deli containers, etc.).
2) Pull Ricordia/zoas out of the 12gal Aquapod and place in deli containers in cooler.
3) Drain a couple gallons of tank water into two 5gal buckets and rangle the 2 Onyx clowns from the remaining water and place in these buckets.
4) Drain remainder of water and dump last 1/2 gal into 3rd 5gal bucket.
5) Scoop sand into 3rd 5gal bucket just previously mentioned.
6) Rinse tank out.
7) Place cooler(s), tank, glass stand top, stand, and buckets in car.
8) Drive 9hrs to Detroit area, and in nealry reverse, reassemble tank.

This 12gal move will be a small-scale 'dry' run for my main display that will be moved once a stable system is up and running at the new location after about 3 weeks. Truly, I don't think a move that can be driven in about 12-16hrs is not a huge issue. The hassle of setting up the tank at the hotel and tearing down the following morning may be a pain, but how obsessed are you? I just cannot lose the 3+k in livestock I have acquired over the years. I'm too attached and not even a shroom am I willing to part with. If you truly love the hobby and are obsessed, you will find a way to make it work. Otherwise, save your time and hassle and let it go.

I'll let you know of any problems I encounter or any MUST-HAVE items post-move.

[davidtsx]

I'm moved my old 300 gallon tank from Florida to Norhtern Virginia a couple of years ago. A lot of people make it harder than it needs to be. If done right you won't lose anything.

Go to wal mart and buy a 10 gallon tank a cheap heater, and air pump with air stone. The tanks are cheap something like 13 bucks. Then go to HD or Lowes and have them cut a piece of acrylic to fit in the groves of the ten gallon tank and some silcone. Drill some holes in the acrylic for air in the tank. Not to many but maybe 5 in the center. Then use the drill and make two indents for the heater power cord and air tubing for the air stone.

The morning you leave put the fish and coral in the tank put the top on and seal it closed with the silcone. If you have a power converter (if not you can get one at wal mart or don't worry about it because it's not really need it) plug that into your car then plug the heater and air pump into that. When you get to the hotel then take the tank out of the car and plug it into the hotel.

Put all of the rock in buckets with water and close them so that they don't splash all over the car.

This will get you three days or so, just make sure you feed them before you start your trip.

Best of luck on your trip and enjoy FL, I sure do miss it.

[MJT82]

One piece of advice I'd offer ANYONE moving a tank is have a supply of fresh saltwater available just in case...

[DeathWish302]

Originally Posted by MJT82

One piece of advice I'd offer ANYONE moving a tank is have a supply of fresh saltwater available just in case...

....or a LFS that has graciously offered to donate buckets, RO/DI water, SW or packing materials free of charge! Get to know your LFS in the new area, as they may be your best friend in time of need during the move. I hit up a local store, which I'll remain unnamed due to commercial concerns, when I visited to secure an apartment. They offered emergency supplies or any help I needed during the larger DT move. It's times like these that will let you know which LFS will help you in a pinch for your continued patronage.

I never got that at my internet-based LFS!

[dogstar74]

I used a rolling coleman cooler, I drilled a hole in the top, and added a battery powered air stone. I put several rocks in the bottom of the cooler so they wouldn't slide around too much, then put in the livestock. Closed the cooler and sealed the edge with shrink wrap packing tape. Put the cooler on a couple of towels and headed west from Des Moines IA to Utah! Stayed the night 1/2 way there, I didn't lose anything during the trip.

that was for a 90 gallon tank. I had a mature emperor angel, and a large desjardin tang too.

I put the mushroom rocks in buckets with salt water and other live rock. They didn't look so hot when we got to where we were going, and the water had gotten very warm, but I rinsed them with fresh salt water, and put them in the tank and several days later they were looking ok again.

I agree that haveing a large supply of fresh salt water would do you well. Probably enough to do a 100% change. That way you could perform two days worth of 50% changes if needed, and while another several gallons are mixing up.

Good luck on the move
Aaron

[sslak]

Just a 24g cube should be pretty easy. I would put all the livestock in 1 bucket with a heater/circulation pump and plug that in where you are lodging.

The rock would probably be decent if all you did was bucket it and bring it into the hotel so it isn't out in the car. Room temp of 72 isn't all that far off for a few days...I think you could pull it off. Maybe you can just get 1 air pump with multiple airlines coming off it and aerate each rock bucket in the hotel room.

In an ideal world the rock would be heated/circulated as well...depends how attached you are to the tank and livestock I guess.

As others have said, have fresh saltwater mixed up in advance, or find a LFS near the destination that can hold some for you, they may even agree to hold your livestock if you drove it down a few days in advance.

[waterlily]

Thank you. I was hoping on not moving the fish out of the tank, just to save them the stress, but it would be much easier to not have to move the tank in and out of the car.

[ilovesoda]

Make sure you don't feed the fish a day or two before moving. You don't want poop in the unfiltered water.

[jcolletteiii]

I like the cooler idea. I moved a 12g nano mixed reef from Mass. to SoCal. Took 5 days, and was not a real problem. It was quite a bit of work, and if I did it again, would definitely go with the rolling cooler - makes carrying livestock unnecessary.

I used a big plastic storage container with a snap-on lid - doubled up in case of a crack developing. Inside this, I constructed two separate compartments out of light diffuser (eggcrate). In one I out all of the liverock, and LR that had very robust corals attached to it. The second, larger compartment had corals only. One side had softies and LPS - I separated them from each other by placing them in clear plastic drink cups attached to the eggcrate with a single ziptie each through the cup bottom. For sensitive corals, I bought some plastic sandwich containers and put a bunch of holes through the lid. The only fish - my orange firefish, just swam around. I used a 50w shatterproof heater, and an mj900 for circulation. Both were plugged into a voltage inverter purchased from radioshack. I had the AC in the truck on the entire time, with the heater set to 78. Water tep was stable this way the whole trip. I suggest having 2 5 gal water jugs on hand for the trip and salt where you can find it easily. In one jug, I had fresh salt water, and the other fresh RODI. That way, if I had an issue, I could get to emergency water quickly. I only had one fatality, a gorgeous 4 color open brain - and I think that was because I also had a finger leather which may have released some toxin during the trip. Good luck!

[Dan]

Have moved fish and inverts several times. I use 5 gallon buckets (salt buckets). The lids have heater and air tube siliconed in. An inverter supplies the electricity. Be sure to stay below the rated wattage. The buckets are divided by eggrate as necessary.

I would be concerned that a fish aquarium is not made for the stresses that come from water sloshing around in it, so recommend you empty the tank and move livestock in more sturdy containers.

Dan