Tank shut down process?

[Gdel]

So I’m planning on shutting my tank down. Enjoyed the hobby, but I want to be able to vacation and travel without thinking about my tank, and worrying about anything dying.

Does anyone have any advice on how you should go about shutting down a tank? It’s not big, but there’s a lot of live rock and some fish, and other stuff. Should I remove as much rock as possible so I can catch the livestock and offer it for sale? Just sell things off piece by piece? Or maybe I find buyers in advance and just get it all done in a single day? My only concern is that some buyers flake out, and don’t show up as promised.

Thank you…

 

[shanepike]

You'll probably get more for it if you sell everything individually, but there's a lot to be said for putting a number on the whole setup and seeing if you can do it all at once.

 

[TheSeaMonster]

I’m in South Korea for a month then Texas for another month and I have 2 tanks running I have my hydros to dose and check on my salinity and ph and a buddy of mine we’ll go and feed my fish and test the water to make sure things are good when traveling it’s all about preparation and having the right equipment and people helping you out.

 

[project1004]

It’s probably best to sell off the livestocks while they are healthy and have better chances of surviving.

Easiest way to catch and release is simply by draining the water to manageable level and take the fishes and others out. And refill if needed.

You can try to sell the system and equipments together as well. I always had better luck selling on the Facebook market place and others in the past. You get more people looking I guess.

 

[Gdel]

Yes, I’ve been thinking about it and I’ll probably drain it on Saturday and remove live rock that would allow the fish to hide easily. Then I can just scoop them out and maybe transfer to a holding tank, where I can easily catch stuff for sale. I don’t have a lot of valuable livestock, so it’s not high dollar stuff. The only fish that I’m sentimental about are my clownfish and a yellow tang. I need to find a good “forever” home for them.

 

[project1004]

I would try to find a new home for the clownfishes and the yellow tang from the main tank instead of transferring them to smaller tank and stressing them. Granted you are doing all you can, least stress is always the best.

Clowns and tangs go fast so you should be able to find a good home for them first. That way you can take your time taking other thing down as you need to.