Moving to the Bay Area

[pbrasafp]

I have been checking out this reef club forum for about a month now. It looks like I will be moving to the Bay area in about a month or so and would like to know if I could get some help. Right now I live in Portland Oregon and I'm trying to work out the logistics of moving my 40 gallon reef. Not much as far as livestock goes. Pair of clowns and a cleaner shrimp. Along with some zoo's, a few corals and about fifty pounds of rock. It's about a sixteen hour drive for me and I'm worried about my tank friends. Do any of you know if some of the local fish stores will pet sit? I will probably be living in the Mill Valley area and would be working in Oakland. Has anyone ever tried a move like this before? I'm wondering if I could leave the sand and a few gallons of water in the tank and put everything else in ice chests and hopefully be able to avoid a long tank cycle. Not sure if this is a bad idea or not and would like to avoid it if it is. Thanks in advance.
Craig

[prodman]

I think If you have a lfs bag your fish and corals with some oxygen they should be fine. And you should not have any tank cycle if you keep the lr. So if you can also plan on packing 40gallons of nsw I dont see why you could not set up your tank when you arrive. Alot of work but possible. And if all you need is tank space I have a 20g set up with lr and no fish so I could hold your fish and shrimp. But i live like 40min from mill valley. Either way welcome to the bay area.

[teachermark]

16 hrs.? I know it's not too much of an issue, but I have family in Seattle and it takes about that much time to get from here to there. I think you're looking at a 12-13 hr. drive. Unless, you're taking a huge moving truck at about 50-55 mph the whole way. Anyway, i'm sure you'll be able to find a store or a hobbyist who will help you out... Welcome to the area and be sure to check out our club.

[racrumrine]

Having moved a couple of tanks, the worst part of your plan is leaving the sand with some water in the tank and expecting to be able to put your critters right back into the same tank with the same sand.

The drive will totally disturb and jostle the sand bed. No matter how careful you are, it will stir up so much crap that your fish could get sick. During my first tank move (which was only 20 minutes away), I did basically what you are planning to do and I lost 2 out of 5 fish within a few days to some unknown disease. I had to place the rest of the fish in a QT tank for several weeks to treat them and save them.

For the best chance of success, you can either throw out the sand bed and start over; or, plan on setting up a holding tank for your critters to live in while your original tank settles down in its new location. After you are convinced that everything has settled down, you can transfer the critters from the holding tank back to your main tank.

For the drive, you'll want to transport all the critters individually in their own bags or containers. If you pack them well, the temperature shouldn't go down to much during your drive.

What kind of lighting do you have now and when do you plan on making the move? I live near Mill Valley and depending on when you make the move, I could help you with the logistics or extra tanks and equipment. Feel free to send me an email at racrumrine@yahoo.com

Best of luck,

Roy

[willieboy240]

aahhh... another homeboy in our hood. yeah i live near Roy too. i can help too if you need...

[Nukeproof]

If I were you, I will sell off all the livestock and just setup here. If you have some you can't part with, bring those and have one of us keep it for you until you are ready. There are more selection and the prices are probably better here. For example, Alameda Aquatics, which is near Oakland, sells their cured liverock for $2-3 a pound. You could buy new bags of sand and ask us locals for a cup of sand to seed it.

Patrick

[pbrasafp]

Well the liverock I could reuse I'm sure. Livestock I will probably sell, don't want to let the poor guys die because I want to keep them. I've just heard of some success with someone over on TRT that moved from Portland to Kansas with her fish and they survived. I very well may have one of you fish sit for a month to let my tank cycle again. I was pretty sure that I would have to lose the sand idea. Didn't sound practical when I wrote that. Teachermark, yeah I know it would probably take 12 and a half hours but I figure from tank breakdown and maybe some other unforseen events that I would add a few more just in case.

[pbrasafp]

Roy, I'm running a 400w 10k over my forty gallon. Ten gallon sump and a five gallon fuge. I'm actually not really sure when I'm moving. Was thinking in November but my company is saying that it might be sooner. I have a meeting this afternoon, well interview actually(trying to move up the ladder) and hopefully I will know then or atleast find out very soon. I will shoot you an email as soon as I find out the details. I do have a little twenty gallon truvu that I'm thinking about setting up down there to house the fish before I move the rest of the stuff. I'm coming down there in two weeks to check things out and If I find a place I will set that up and let it cycle while I make the move. I will just need to hook up with someone near by to get a cup of sand. But I'm leaning towards the idea of someone holding them until my main tank cycles. For a future frag of something of course.
Craig

[racrumrine]

Craig:

I can give you a cup of sand when the time comes. I have been actually thinking of pulling even more sugarfine aragonite out of my 180 tank. When I moved and set up my 180 last year, I started with the DSB idea; however, I really don't like the look and I'm thinking of reducing the sand level by 1 to 2 inches. If you want some of it, we can make a deal for more sand.

Since you have another tank to use as a holding tank, here are a couple of ideas.

1. You could bring the tank down now and I can find a place to set it up for you. When you bring your critters, we can toss them into the tank while you're taking your time to set up your main tank.

2. Since I already have a lot of warm water in my tanks, you could drive down with all your critters, and bring your holding tank. On the day of your arrival, I can plan on doing a water change. Then, I can supply you with aged, warm water to set up the holding tank for your critters. For them, it shouldn't be anymore tramatic that bringing a critter from the LFS and acclimating it to a new tank. You could even bring some of your water to mix with mine; but, then you would have the problem of waiting for the water to heat up for awhile.

3. Another option would be to float your bags in my tanks to keep them warm while you are waiting for the water in the holding tank to warm up.

On my 180, I have 400W SE MH lighting with 14K bulbs. I have no bugs or problems and normally I quarantine everything in other tanks. I recently bought some other MH lighting; but, I haven't figured out what to do with it yet. Perhaps by the time you arrive, I might have MH capability over my QT tank. My problem right now is I haven't found the canopies to hold the lights yet.

Best of luck,

Roy

[pbrasafp]

This is what I love about this hobby. Everyone I have encountered in this obession has been so very kind. Roy, I like your second idea. Makes the most sense to me. I don't think it would be necessary to mix water. I think a long float or drip line would be fine. BTW if you are not too concerned with the looks of the hood for your QT tank, I might be able to help you build one. I built the hood for both of my tanks. I'm going to rebuild the one for the forty gallon but I really like the look of the one on my twenty. I made it without using any nails or screws and it looks very clean. I will try to get some pics of it soon and I will email you with them. Again thanks for the offer Roy, that is very generous of you. I will let you all know when it get's close to my moving date.
Craig

[racrumrine]

Welcome to the Hood.

They're not many of us in our area; but, we all help eachother out.

Send me an email when your plans firm up.

Best of luck,

Roy

[Hammer]

Just a couple months ago I moved from central TX.
No salt water casualties.
I got a nice ice cooler (one that keeps stuff cold for 5 days or something like that). I already had an inverter.
I drain nice CLEAN water from the tank into the cooler. Not too much, but about half full or so. I drop in the tank heater, some live rock (mainly what the corals are attached to), and an air bubbler.
Plug the heater and air pump into the inverter and you don't have to buy anything expensive (like 12v pumps, etc). Heck, I plug a power strip into the inverter and charge my cell phone, tank stuff, etc. during these trips.
Everything stays warm and plenty of air. The cooler really helps to keep the temps stable, and it's hard to splash out of a cooler with the lid closed.
Everything does fine without the light for a short period.
And you can use the cooler as a temp tank until the main tank sets up.
Btw, I purposely set my last tank up as a BB just for the reason of moving. Talk about an EASY move!

[pbrasafp]

I thought about going bare bottom but I really like the look of the sand bed. Yes I know it would be a longer cycle but I want to get a mandarin goby some day. I like the cooler idea. I will have to do that. Did you put your fish in bags in the cooler or did you let them swim with the rock in the cooler?

[racrumrine]

It would be safer to bag everything individually.

Best of luck,

Roy

[pbrasafp]

Oh I agree Roy, I was just curious how Hammer did it.

[DJGonzo69]

How about using one of those power converter that you connect to your car cig lighter. I mean if you have a powerful enough converter you can power a powerhead & a pump with a airstone. You can have all your corals & livestock in a big rubbermaid bin.

[pbrasafp]

Not really worried about water flow. I think there will be plenty of water movement from the car. I've already started my planning for this. Got a thirty gallon icechest, power converter for the heater and bubbler. Liverock will be in the bottom with fish and inverts sitting in bags on top. Probably bag up some of the corals to protect them as well. More than likely hook up with Roy so he can pet sit while my tank cycles. I'll pick up some live rock down there for the tank cycle and a cup of some live sand from Roy as well. But I'm also thinking of selling off my livestock, besides the rock, and just starting over. I'm just really attached to my clowns. Marlin and Coral (for the kids I'm still atleast two to four weeks away from the move. BTW I will be down in the Bay area this weekend looking at some places to live. Maybe check out some LFS's if there is time. Looking forward to meeting you all.
Craig

[Hammer]

I let the fish swim around with all the corals. The only LR in there was what the corals were attached to. Which means one LARGE rock, and other small pieces.
I went to a truck stop to get a good price on a power inverter. 600 watts is what mine does.
Then just hooked a heater and air bubbler to it, very simple.
No need for water movement, your right on the motion of the car will provide more then plenty.

The sand is the hardest part about moving, it will cause the worst part of the cycle, and to keep it going. It's amazing how much crud builds up in them over such a short period of time!
I have moved tanks with sand beds, and DSBs before, but the BB was by far the easiest move I have ever made for salt water.
Just get a cooler that will keep the water in when it splashes around. I had some water get past the lid a couple times, but otherwise it was a flawless move.
Btw, I only had a few fish, a mithrax crab, and a snail or two for the trip, so giving them half a cooler of water was plenty of space and room. I didn't have a ton of corals in there (I was moving a nano after all), so I didn't bother bagging the fish. I felt they would be far less stressed out if they could hide in their rock while travelling, rather then sit on the bottom of a plastic bag,,,, again.
The cooler really does help make it easy to keep the temperatures stable. Mine barely changed any, so I was really happy about that part.

[pbrasafp]

Thanks Hammer. I have just a little bit more rock than that so that may pose a problem. Although, If I do two icechests, with the corals and fish in one and the rock with nothing on it in the other than maybe it would work. I'm just worried about the rock moving and slaming one of the fish. Most of the rock that I have is two pound pieces or smaller. I just did the drive down to San Fran. in about 11 hours with only one stop for gas. I think if the fish are in bags they will not be to traumatized by the move. I still have one more interview with my company this week to find out if I get the job. If not I am moving down in early to mid November for sure.

[jedininja]

If you could possibly, I would bag all the fish and corals and then put them into ice chest and then leave all the rocks in another ice chest. If you put all the fish and corals in one chect, the corals will slime up from the stress and proximity to other corals and then could affect other corals and fish. It might not be a hige deal, but I think I am just the cautious type, so thats what I would do.

[pbrasafp]

That's pretty much the idea. Liverock will be in a bucket and fish, corals and rock with stuff attached to it will be in the icechest with the heater. Fish, loose corals and frags in seperate bags. I'm bringing my twenty gallon this weekend to have it setup before the move. It will be barebottom. The only thing that I can think of needing is a pendant light to keep over the twenty gallon while the main tank cycles. If anyone has one I could borrow or has one to sell, I would be eternally in your debt.

[pbrasafp]

Hey I posted on talkinreef.com and they mentioned me on the show. Let me know your thoughts on what he said about the move.

http://www.talkingreef.com/podcasts/QA3-TR-Ep14.mp3

[Sheldon337]

I would advise against the bags. I would buy a cheap power inverter and run some air stones and some power heads off your cigarette lighter. I did this when I moved 6 hours. Didnt lose anything. I also left a little water covering the sand and used a temp tank that was running when i got where i was going.

[racrumrine]

Sounds from your other thread that the move is in progress.

Best of luck,

Roy