MOVING ??'s

[ReefMedic1]

Hello! I am moving to an apartment thats within the same city (25 min. drive) and had a question about moving a 75 gallon tank that is pre-drilled. How would I keep all the 75 gallons of water, in (12) 5 gallon buckets? OR is there a better way? All I have is live sand, i was almost done cycling. I also have a wet-dry and a cabnet stand with it. I am using a U-Haul Truck, thanks in advance for any advice on my move that is soon!

[Bous]

I just had my 125 moved for me. The guy pumped the water into 32 gallon trash cans then put my live rock and corals and fish in them. I loaded the cans into my moving truck and used power heads to move water around over night. worked great. now that i know how to do it i will do it myself next time.

[boviac]

I've moved several times and simply premade and mixed about half to 75% of new water at the new location and used that as well as sometimes new sand for my moves. Most of the water I saved was that with which I moved the rocks and coral in cooler's. Water will slosh around quite a bit during road travel (turns, starts, stops) so be careful moving corrosive saltwater in an unsealed container. That being said I've never moved SPS or clams - only softies and LPS.

[Sports Girl]

I just moved a 60 gallon tank to a new town an hour away from my old place about two weeks ago. I used four 5 gallon (brand new) buckets for my livestock (corals and LR w/anemones) and bagged my fish w/bags from my LFS (floated them in the buckets). The rest of the water was divided up between two 32 gallon trash cans (one brand new, one used, both lined with two trash bags). Pumped the water out of the tank into the cans and back into the tank after the move with tubing and powerhead. The water was divided up enough to carry the buckets by myself and the cans were easily carried by two people into the house. Lost one fish (my mandarin, it was dead when I first pulled it out of the bucket when we got to the new house), but my pair of clowns and all corals and inverts made it just fine and are doing great since the move. Since you don't have livestock, should be a pretty easy move. If all else fails, you can always start a new cycle.

[shuturhole316tx]

Take as much water as you can and you will probably have a mini cycle, but it will only last a week of two.

[ReefMedic1]

thanks everyone! I also have a 32 gal trash can, but when filled even with two people carry, its still heavy! I might go for the 15 bucket method

[ACBlinky]

I'm moving to another city on August 31st, so I can sympathize with you - it's stressful!

Because I can't mix water in the new location, I'm planning to take all the water from our 3 tanks (!) plus some newly mixed water to replace any foul shipping water, rinse rocks, or whatever else pops up.

What we're doing is collecting 5g water bottles - someone in our building uses one-use, non-returnable bottles for their cooler, and whenever one appears in the recycling room we grab it. We're also hitting up family and friends for any water cooler bottles they've got sitting around (people seem to hoard them for some reason!) Clean water will travel in the bottles, as well as water from the tanks (each will be labeled). Fish and other livestock will travel in 5g buckets and Rubbermaid bins. We've got a dolly to help transport the bins, so people won't have to carry a sloshing container filled with 20g of water.

I've decided not to bag my fish, as I think they'll fare better in larger containers that are open to the air for oxygen exchange. They're going to be traveling for about 1.5h, and then they'll have to sit in their containers while we set the tanks up again. It's easy to just throw airstones/powerheads in the buckets once we get to the new apartment, rather than opening a bunch of bags which will probably have varying pH and be full of ammonia by the time we've arrived.

We're going to be moving about 150g of water, 12 fish, 4 shrimp, 2 crabs, ~10 hermits, ~10 snails, many corals, and ~125lbs of rock - not to mention 3 tanks, light fixtures, stands, a sump, filters and other equipment. I'm having nightmares about the whole thing. I think you'll be fine moving just sand and equipment, just take it step by step.

[andyd1480]

I just moved and it was only a 40 gallon tank. I went against bagging individual fish. Instead I took a large, round bucket, lined it with two heavy duty trash bags, filled it with water and placed the fish in there. Make sure more than enough of the bag is in the bucket and the wrinkles will provide some protection and keep the water from sloshing around.

Also, try and save as much water as you can, but also start making a lot of fresh water on the other side. I thought I had made enough, but I would've liked to have more fresh salt water mixed. After you pull all the rock and stuff, there's gonna be some water your gonna wanna throw out.

As for corals: I actaully had some huge SPS pieces which i put into styrafoam boxes and placed wet (salt water) paper towels on top of them. For staghorn sps, its no different than high tide!

Good luck!

[burton14e7]

I might be moving to Texas from California in the next couple months...not sure what I'm going to do! I've done a few moves within the same county and that wasn't a big deal but now I'll be going across states.

[illal]

Originally posted by shuturhole316tx
Take as much water as you can and you will probably have a mini cycle, but it will only last a week of two.

only if you try and reuse the sand