Maybe moving houses soon, an advice on how to move my tank?
- Thread starter 23cnhit
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Large rubbermaid containers is usually how I see it done. Try and keep most of the rock and coral underwater, but you want the water level to be pretty low in the containers. When you are setting up the new tank, you can essentially use mostly new water and it will basically be like a very large water change.
Here's what I did 6 months ago...
Tank was the last thing I moved into my new home
<ul>
<li>make new water at my new home knowing I'm not transferring all the water</li>
<li>buy new sand - didn't want to bother with trying to wash old sand</li>
<li>rubbermaid container big enough to hold rocks, fish, & coral</li>
<li>drain enough water from tank to be able to submerse the rocks & coral</li>
<li>empty and wipe down tank (had to cut some PVC - so had to pick up some connectors at HD to put back together later)</li>
<li>move rubbermaid container to new house garage (had it on rollers and strapped down on a flatbed trailer)</li>
<li>add heater, air, & water flow in rubbermaid with livestock</li>
<li>set up new tank and plumbing (had to cement some new joints due to cutting before)</li>
<li>put new sand in and fill the tank half way with heater and let it sit overnight for sand to settle</li>
<li>move livestock over using some 5g buckets so I don't get my house all wet</li>
<li>move as much water as I can from the rubbermaid and top off remaining new water</li>
<li>set up lights, controller, etc.</li>
</ul>
Tank was the last thing I moved into my new home
<ul>
<li>make new water at my new home knowing I'm not transferring all the water</li>
<li>buy new sand - didn't want to bother with trying to wash old sand</li>
<li>rubbermaid container big enough to hold rocks, fish, & coral</li>
<li>drain enough water from tank to be able to submerse the rocks & coral</li>
<li>empty and wipe down tank (had to cut some PVC - so had to pick up some connectors at HD to put back together later)</li>
<li>move rubbermaid container to new house garage (had it on rollers and strapped down on a flatbed trailer)</li>
<li>add heater, air, & water flow in rubbermaid with livestock</li>
<li>set up new tank and plumbing (had to cement some new joints due to cutting before)</li>
<li>put new sand in and fill the tank half way with heater and let it sit overnight for sand to settle</li>
<li>move livestock over using some 5g buckets so I don't get my house all wet</li>
<li>move as much water as I can from the rubbermaid and top off remaining new water</li>
<li>set up lights, controller, etc.</li>
</ul>
Lol, a 42gal is nothing. Just get a few coolers and some buckets for the water.
I moved my friends 54g corner in 3 hours when he moved last month.
Drain the water into a few buckets, put the live rock in a cooler or buckets and cover with a wet towel(rock is perfectly fine out of water for hours, unless it has coral on it)
Put fish in a bucket by themselves(have a heater for this one while you set it all back up), coral in on their own as well(watch that what goes in each one cant sting other stuff).
Leave the sand and about 2" of water in the tank, move everything and reverse the process.
Its really not as complicated and scary as you think it will be. Just take your time.
I moved my friends 54g corner in 3 hours when he moved last month.
Drain the water into a few buckets, put the live rock in a cooler or buckets and cover with a wet towel(rock is perfectly fine out of water for hours, unless it has coral on it)
Put fish in a bucket by themselves(have a heater for this one while you set it all back up), coral in on their own as well(watch that what goes in each one cant sting other stuff).
Leave the sand and about 2" of water in the tank, move everything and reverse the process.
Its really not as complicated and scary as you think it will be. Just take your time.
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Both the above posts are good advice. I definitely agree with putting the livestock in more than one container and separate as needed for safe travel.
this....
its a 40g.
i would just drain the water in to four 5 gallon buckets. put lr in there. or if you have alot of coral growth try a rubbermaid bin. drop the water to 20% with livestock still in it. (barring the move is less than an hour or so away) then reset it up. use a friend?
longer trips will require a rubbermaid bin and a bubbler.
if you had a 200-300 gallon system... that would pose a bit more of an issue.
We learned from our experience. We moved in October and moved only about a mile away, but we had pretty high fish loss. Our corals all did great, and everything that survived moving to the tank thrived.
Our lesson learned: Separate even more than you think. We had asked around the club at the frag swap and the meetings, had asked at our LFS and everyone mentioned separating rock, coral, and other livestock. What we learned talking to people after the fact, separate even more! Inverts separate from fish and fish broken down in to smaller groupings. Think about when you bring fish home from the LFS, they don't typically put multiple together unless they are small and similar.
We had saved containers from the coral expo and frag swap and any time we had bought them after that weren't just plastic bags so we put all of our fragile corals or ones that could sting others in those containers and did just like we did bringing them home, put them in the cooler with tank water and they were fine. We float acclimated when we got everything set back up at the new house just like it was the first time.
Recently, a friend bought our 40 cube from us since we upgraded to a 75, and that move went flawlessly. We put each fish in an individual container. We just used kitchen rubbermaids (actually, the Kroger brand because we got a pack for $1 a while back). They were able to get it home.
I would advise, if your move is flexible enough to do this. Move all the other stuff one day and move the tank alone another day. We found the tank was a project in and of itself because it wasn't just bring it in and place it like all the other furniture. So, we were able to move all of our other furniture and boxes one day and then do the tank another day. That was a big help so we didn't have all of that going on while we were moving the rest of the house.
Our lesson learned: Separate even more than you think. We had asked around the club at the frag swap and the meetings, had asked at our LFS and everyone mentioned separating rock, coral, and other livestock. What we learned talking to people after the fact, separate even more! Inverts separate from fish and fish broken down in to smaller groupings. Think about when you bring fish home from the LFS, they don't typically put multiple together unless they are small and similar.
We had saved containers from the coral expo and frag swap and any time we had bought them after that weren't just plastic bags so we put all of our fragile corals or ones that could sting others in those containers and did just like we did bringing them home, put them in the cooler with tank water and they were fine. We float acclimated when we got everything set back up at the new house just like it was the first time.
Recently, a friend bought our 40 cube from us since we upgraded to a 75, and that move went flawlessly. We put each fish in an individual container. We just used kitchen rubbermaids (actually, the Kroger brand because we got a pack for $1 a while back). They were able to get it home.
I would advise, if your move is flexible enough to do this. Move all the other stuff one day and move the tank alone another day. We found the tank was a project in and of itself because it wasn't just bring it in and place it like all the other furniture. So, we were able to move all of our other furniture and boxes one day and then do the tank another day. That was a big help so we didn't have all of that going on while we were moving the rest of the house.
