Moving tips please

[Hayden]

I planning to be moving to other area
Any tips on moving my fishes and corals safely? (130 gal tank)
Was thinking about putting them in container with heater on (bring maybe half of water?) and work on the tank set up asap

 

[sharis100]

Get or borrow a trough and set up in new location with basic life support. That way you can move your tank with less worry. Also using a cooler and closed buckets for transport in vehicle usually works if not too long in transport. When you get to new place, make sure you have good water, your rocks, basic filtration/lighting/temperature controls in place in temporary holding container. Then, rebuild and reset up your system. Whatever time you think you need, probably double that time and make sure you have redundancy just in case. We have used brute trash cans, plastic fish ponds and troughs all as temporary set up holding bins when moving systems.

 

[ActiveAngel]

Ditto on all the above.

Buckets and coolers will work for transport. For cross country transport, i have also used portable air pumps to aerate the water. Lids are essential; there will be lots of splashing.

Make a plan in your head, write it down, and mentally rehearse it. This will allow you to troubleshoot and predict issues. Then, the day of the move, follow your plan.

However long you think it will take, i'd say triple it. Stuff happens. And prepare to not sleep well on the first night, either due to staying up late solving issues or due to the stress that hits most people.

Have lots of extra towels on hand, extra pre-mixed saltwater, extra freshwater, extra glass thermometers (they are both the most reliable and are super cheap), and a small amount of water conditioner (just in case its needed).