Moving my tank

SirTony76 · #1 04/02/2007, 11:51 AM

Hey Everybody, I am a college student with a 29 gallon tank.

I hadn't planned on moving until graduation, but I got a summer internship that will require me to live with my parents for the summer. I am going to have to move my tank and am slightly nervous about this.

I won't move in until the second week in May, but I want to make sure I do this right. Right now my plan is to get about 6 5 gallon buckets and save all my water. I want to keep my live rock in water as well as my pumps and stuff that have coraline on them.

What I am concerned about though is my substrate. It is crushed coral and I thought I read somewhere that stirring that stuff up can release some stuff that will kill your fish. Should I be worried about this? Also, I have quite a bit of coraline on the walls of my tank--is this going to cause my tank to "cycle" again after I get home and put everything back together? I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks a bunch.

TP

tkeracer619 · #2 04/02/2007, 12:00 PM

Buckets are a good plan.

Now would be a great time to throw away the crushed coral and get some real marine substrate. Do not put the CC back into the tank.

The coraline might cause some problems but I doubt it. Just start getting water ready for a water change.

buoymarker28 · #3 04/02/2007, 12:09 PM

How far you moving it?
how much, if any lr do you have?

since it sounds like you are going to be moving again at the end of summer then this is what i'd do

forget teh deep sand and go barebottom until the end of the summer. if you want to go back to dsb once you move again then fine.

SirTony76 · #4 04/02/2007, 12:14 PM

It will be about 150 miles it is moving. I have about 30 lbs of live rock. I may have been unclear during my first post--I don't think I have what is considered a "deep sand bed" but between an inch and two inches of crushed coral, depending upon where my fish have dug it up. How would my hermit crabs like a barebottom tank?

andyjd · #5 04/02/2007, 12:18 PM

the latest reefcast talks about moving tanks.

buoymarker28 · #6 04/02/2007, 12:19 PM

i'd take out the crushed coral...IMO it doesn't do much good and eventually you're gonna scratch up the glass.

Go get some of those 5 gal water bottles and put about 20 gal of your water in them..so you need 4

don't worry about the pumps and stuff...just ship those dry
if you have some of the boxes of styrefoam then pack up your live rock in them. cover them with wet moist newspaper.
baggie up your fish.

setup the tank at your parents house with bare bottom
add your rock
add 10 gal of new salt water.

wait 8 hours
acclimate your fish

pray..

SirTony76 · #7 04/02/2007, 12:26 PM

buoymarker--Do you think my rocks should not be transported in water or that they don't need to be?

Also, what is the logic behind waiting 8 hours to put my fish back in their home? Thanks a bunch.

TP

buoymarker28 · #8 04/02/2007, 12:30 PM

You don't have to wait 8 hours, but i would wait a llittle bit of time to let the new 10gal worth of salt water settle in alittle. I figured you wouldn't mix it unitl you got to your parent's house.

Live rock - you'd be shocked how long live rock can stay out of water without too much of a problem. Keeping it moist for 4 hours until you can get teh tanke set back up IMO is not a that big of a difference.

In a perfect world you would move it all in water. But then again the more water you move the harder it is going to be to move it all.

handapanda · #9 04/02/2007, 12:50 PM

I recently moved 40 gallon five hours away (and upgraded to a 65 while I was at it). I just got a big rubbermaid container, put all the water and live rock in it, and bagged the corals and fish. I ditched my old sandbed, except a little to seed the new stuff.
Everything worked fine.
I would agree with the others and ditch the crushed coral.
If you don't want to get a rubbermaid, just use buckets and put the rock in with the water.

Rustylugnuts · #10 04/02/2007, 12:55 PM

Ive moved my 29 recently without problems. While I didn't move as far the tank was in pieces for about 8 hrs. I used the buckets for the livestock and a pair of 10 gal totes to move the LR/w water.I have a 4" DSB and rather than mess with it too much I left it on the bottom of the tank with about an inch of water covering the sand (kinda heavy but with 2 people pretty easy to move). Once the tank and supplies were @ the new house I moved the fish from the buckets to a tote with a filter (i didn't clean the filter before i moved it figuring it would be easier on the fish) and heater. After that I placed the rock back in the tank along with any old water that wasnt being used in the temporary qt tote. I mixed up enough new saltwater to to fill the tank (ended up being a 40 to 50% wc) and let it run for a few hours to get it up temp and stabilize a bit and then acclimatized the livestock over the next hour and let em loose.
Its been at the new place for about a month with no casualties. It looks like you have the right idea for the move, the only thing I can think of is adding a battery powered air pump to the bucket with the livestock.

SirTony76 · #11 04/02/2007, 07:37 PM

Just out of curiosity, what are the pro/cons to going barebottom? Maybe I will just leave my tank barebottom for all of next year because I will be graduating in may of 08.

TP