need tips for moving large reef tank

[zeddy]

i just bought my first house and i have to move at the end of may. unfortunatly i have to move my well stocked 100gal reef tank and contents. i sort of have a plan how to do it but am wondering if i could get some advise from any one who has done this before.

[Pazil]

Great excuse to buy a bigger tank.. Get it up and running and then transfer everything over :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

[mark]

^ that is ideal, but here's another thread (http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=51188)

[zeddy]

if i had the money i would unfortunatly buying the house took away all my fun tickets for a while but the thought is always in the back of my head

[Johnny Reefer]

Lift with the legs. :wink:

[Ryan]

Lift with your legs is a good idea.

For moving the inhabitants I would use rubbermaid containers. Lots of smaller ones compared to bigger ones as the bigger ones are harder to lift. Either way you do it this isnt going to be fun.

[JTaylor420]

i've been involved with a few tank moves i'm not gunna lie it's stressful anyway u do it. get some premade salt mix made at your new house, some fresh water on hand just incase as well. siphon water into buckets/styrofoam containers for fish/coral garbage cans work great for water/rock also get some new substraite and keep like 30% of the old stuff to put at the bottom and new stuff on top (worked for me i had 0 losses on my last move) then just try and have a game plan and stick to it, buy some booze and pizza and get some fellow reefers or friends to help.



Hope this helps, Good Luck

[zeddy]

thankyou all for your advice, and i'm not going to lift the tank thats what freinds are for lol. i have a month to prep and three days for the move. also my house is only two blocks from my house now.

[Mrfish55]

I went to the local ice cream shop and asked about ice cream pails, they are about three gallons each and they had hundreds of them. Made it real easy for me, just started filling buckets and add a piece of rock or coral to each one as you go, three of us moved the entire contents of my 180 in about three hours.

[Johnny Reefer]

Lift with the legs. :wink:

.... i'm not going to lift the tank thats what freinds are for lol. ....
Even better. Excellent planning :biggrin:.

[Powertec]

We moved our 180 twice in a a matter of 6 months. Could think of much better things i would like to do:)

But here is how we did it. If you can try and dedicate a whole day to get it done. Buy lots of heaters and rubbermaids.I drained enough water into a few rubbermaids that would cover the fish enough but still be okay to carry it without getting water everywhere. The first time we didn't bag the corals and alot got stung so the second time it was easier to bag the corals and let them float in a rubber maid.Considering you have a short distance to go you can take them all over,get heaters and airstones going and can focus on getting rocks over in the same way. Just make sure they are submerged and heated and you have alot of time. I ended up getting the longest rubbermaid i could for the rocks. And it fit 180 pounds of rock in it no problem and about 50 gallons of water.Then we got the tank to the house and transfered as much water as we could. We used water jugs that we got for water coolers. You can get the caps for them at any water store. That way all the water doesn't come out. Alot of places if you tell them what you are doing will give them to you for free you just have to pay the deposit on them which you get back of course:)

Then get the Ro hooked up with a garden house so you can just run it directly into the tank...And if you managed to get 1/2 to 3/4 of the old water its just a big water change....Add salt mix,heat and then add your critters...lol

We weren't as lucky the second time as i know now my ro unit got damaged in the move and i just thought it was low pressure so it took 4 days to fill it up from 1/2...So my fish,corals,rock,and nems sat in rubbermaids for 5 days with no issues.

It is the most stressfull part of the move thats for sure. So if you have a whole day just dedicated to that it makes it much easier!!

Good Luck and i hope this gave you some ideas!!

[Adam NS.]

Keep as much of the original water as possible. As someone said have a new batch of water mixing and up to temp in the new house.

Also doesnt hurt to have a power filter handy, you will be stirring things up pretty good.

Adam

[banditpowdercoat]

Lift with the legs. :wink:

Lift with lots of friends legs is a better plan LOL

[parkinsn]

I am about to do the same thing sort of..... I am moving my 120g, however im moving it into a 168g :biggrin: This is my 2nd time moving my SW tank. This is my plan. Im going to have the new tank about 1/3 full and 2 garbage cans of pre mixed water ready to go. I have lots of old salt buckets so i will transport my fish in the buckets (1 in each bucket 3/4 full of water) all my rock will be going into 2 other garbage cans with as much water as i can get in them. I got some styrofoam boxes from the LFS to put my coral's/nem into.

Talk to your LFS and see what they have for containers that you can borrow or have, and keep as much water as you can. Try not to stir up your substrate, add new if you have to. Try to get your friends that have some knowledge of SW or at least if they have moved a FW tank before that should help you in the panic. Definitely dedicate the whole day to do it. Hope this helps you.

[zeddy]

I went to the local ice cream shop and asked about ice cream pails, they are about three gallons each and they had hundreds of them. Made it real easy for me, just started filling buckets and add a piece of rock or coral to each one as you go, three of us moved the entire contents of my 180 in about three hours.

that is an exelent idea and now i'm craving icecream thankyou

[zeddy]

i found a perfect solution to move my 100gal reef. i just bought a 150gal tank and am borowing 2 45gal drums to move the water in.

[belzebuth]

yes this sounds best. Keep as much of the water as possible. Let me know if I can help you in anyways:biggrin:

[zeddy]

yes this sounds best. Keep as much of the water as possible. Let me know if I can help you in anyways:biggrin:

dan from aa is lending me a 45gal drum and styro containers between that and a new garbage can i should be ok. but if you want to help me move it all your more than wecome

[Robw]

I have moved my 50 gallon about 4 times with no problems. Used Rubbermaid tubs for the rock and salt buckets for the fish, corals and anemone. Saved as much old water as possible and topped off with newly mixed saltwater. I took out the sand bed and washed it with the garden hose. I filled a salt bucket about half full with sand then sprayed the garden hose into the sand with a pressure nozzle until the water flowed clear. Got lots of debris out this way. Never had an ammonia spike or livestock loss.

[belzebuth]

Zeddy,
If you need more containers, you can have the garbage I use for my water change and the rubber made bins used for my tank move last Feb. I also have many heaters and air pumps if you need any

45 gall drum...wow that will be heavy:lol:

[zeddy]

thankyou everyone for your advise. i moved last weekend with major problams i wont go into, but i had a ton of loss. i lost 6 fish tonnes of snails my banded schrimp and about 5 corals and pollup colonese. it took a week of water changes and work but i think i got it under control. the only bonus to all this is i get to restock lol

[banditpowdercoat]

Sorry to hear about the loss, Glad to hear everythings moved and back on track

[Leah]

OH NO, I knew the beer thing was a bad idea!

[zeddy]

OH NO, I knew the beer thing was a bad idea!

beer is never a bad idea