Moving tanks

[Delphinus]

How many people have moved houses/apartments, and taken their reef tank(s) with them? Would you do it again? Or would you consider tearing it all down, and starting from scratch once you're moved?

I'm kind of not sure what I think is the "less unfavorable" option? :confused: :question:

[UnderWorldAquatics]

I have moved many many tanks for customers, its not very fun, I dont like it, but I do it if they want to pay, it helps if you have extra tanks setup to hold livestock but I have done it without many times too. I say go for it, its very doable, just not fun. How not fun? I charge $1000-$1500 to move a fully stocked 150-230gallon. Good pay for one days work, but what a pain in the ass, re-plumbing fitting, dirty equipment, heavy loads...

[EmilyB]

You are only moving across the city Tony...I think it depends on what you really want to keep. I have lots of air pumps and pails heheh... :smile:

You just have to do some planning at both ends...likely not much different than a ...longer....tank change over.. :razz:

[Buccaneer]

Well Tony ... this is a subject that I have given much thought if we were to find a larger home in our neighbourhood ... as you know it would be no small feat to move my tank/sump/refugium but I figure if I had a couple days it would be doable ... a few large rubbermaid stock tanks or kiddie pools ( one for fish / one for rock / one for corals ) ... first thing would be to move all of the livestock to new house ( beg borrow or steal extra lighting/heaters/skimmers etc for the few days needed ) ... then to move tank/sump/refugium/reactor/skimmer/lighting

If I were to move I would have prebuilt a larger tank to be assembled in the new house ( new dimensions would be 96W X 60D X 30H ) so would need a bit more time compared to a ready to fill tank

Planning I think would be the key to success and of course a little help from your friends :mrgreen:

[mpishi]

i moved my reef setup (plus several freshwater tanks) across town last winter and probably spent more time planning the move than actually moving

it was pretty successful losing only a coral banded shrimp (coincidently when i moved the reef within the same building, the only loss i suffered was my first cbs :question:

i had lots of fresh saltwater on hand and bought a 50 gallon rubbermaid tub as a temporary tank (heater, skimmer etc - 2 days with only NO lights but i figured it was a necessary stress

if i had to do it again i would but not in winter if i had a choice

there was a lot of stress since it took the reef a good month to settle and return to its former glory

[MitchM]

I think that the biggest obstacle is time.
Time to let the new water to cycle.
Time to let the glue for the plumbing fittings cure.(as long as you already have the plumbing layout and all the fittings right there with you and don't have to make a million trips to the fitting store :evil: )
When I moved my 204g last year, I also had that empty 180g, which I moved first. I did have time on my side, but I can't imagine moving without having a spare tank, and a 1 month overlap. You could transport the old water, but like UnderWorld says, what a hassle. Your precious fish get stressed, your corals react, you have heat issues, water movement and quality issues....

oh yeah...then you need to move your furniture too. :razz:

Mitch

[AJ_77]

Tony: Keep the 72 bow (duh, right), but take the opportunity to replace/upgrade that scratched 75 finally. I think with the moving of the species tank, you'll be plenty stressed enough. Decide what you really want to keep from the 75, and go from there. You can even get people to coral-sit for a while if needed. (I think Jon might have some room left. :wink: )

Like Deb says, it can be a full or partial rebuilding - either way, a great chance to get the setup you want.

New home, new tank - isn't that that the rule??

:biggrin:

[SuperFudge]

If i had to do it again......id have sold it all and started over.

In retrospect i toyed with the idea for a good while before i moved, and decided i did not want to pay for it all again,so id move them.
That was mistake #1.....i lost 90 % of my SPS including a few that were atleast soccerball sized....these are not so easy to just maintain in pails...mostly because they didnt even fit in most of them. :cry:
So now i get to start over anyways.

My Major mistake was the fact that i didnt really plan it out, but in the midst of purchasing a home and moving in within a couple weeks, renting trucks and all the other junk involved it just doesnt leave a whole lot of time to plan.

But in reality my reef stuff had to be placed on the backburner...you probably have a whole house worth of other stuff to move too right ?

I also considered setting up my new system before the actuall move and just transfer corals...that would be the best and the least amount of losses, but for me it wasnt an option..i found my wallet and accounts were getting sucked dry from down payments, property taxes and such.

I had my prized piece placed in a friends tank when the others started going...and im so happy i did...and thanks Jamie!.

If you have friends nearby, and they have a little room, i would take your favorite peices to them, sell the remaining, and move your reef stuff along with everything else...it will save you a jar of ibuprofin and alot of sleep.

owell...it begins anew ! :mrgreen: , now that i think about it, and am in the midst of doing it again....thats most of the fun.

Good luck with yours Tony.

[Aquattro]

THe last time I moved, I had 2 days. For the first time I actually hired movers, so that left me mostly free to deal with the tank. The move went smoothly and I didn't lose anything. In fact, I tried to lose a tomato clown, and somehow the little **** made it back into the tank.
As for the movers, it cost me about the same as renting a truck, paying gas and insurance, beer and pizza, etc. Took the guys 5 hours total. I'll never move my own stuff again! Well, 'cept the tank :razz:

[Canadian Man]

I got lots of room in my sump for livestock and corals Tony :cool:

[Delphinus]

Thank you all for the comments. The move is not until April (we're building the house) so there is time to plan this out (or more realistically, there is time to second-guess myself a LOT... :redface: )

The tanks, and their ultimate fate, are definitely a source of .. ah ... "interesting topics of debate" in my household as the weeks go on. :rolleyes:

There are definitely some things I really am very sentimentally attached to (fish, anemone[s]). But in all I think there probably really is too much to try and move without seriously testing the limits of friendships. So I guess in the next little while I will probably have to make some decisions...

Even if I tore-down the SPS tank though, and put the fish into the ritteri tank (even temporarily) I don't think I can put two Zebrasoma's (desjardini and a flavecens) into one 72g tank ... :sad: don't know how I'll work that issue yet. Maybe one will have to be babysat somewhere else for a few weeks. Would sure hate having to impose upon the fish though the ordeal of being caught more than once... :neutral:

I do appreciate all the comments though. Knowing that others have gone through this or are considering it themselves is somehow a little reassuring. I'm pretty sure any move will be nightmarish but as long as the nightmare can be manageable .......

PS. Thanks for the offer, Jonathan! It's a pretty safe bet I'll be hitting you up for that favour... :biggrin:

[Buccaneer]

Hey Tony ... I can also offer some coral/fish sitting services as well ... I will have some more space available tied into my existing system ( when we drill that hole in the sump :wink: ) ... I will chat with you about it long before you have to decide what to do.

Cheers

[Delphinus]

Thank you Steve! We'll be in touch... :biggrin:

[MitchM]

If coral/fish conflicts happen with other tanks Tony, I've got my 204g for corals and 180g sump for fish that you can use also. I've found that I can partition my sump with eggcrate to temporarily separate trouble makers.

Mitch

[spikehs]

If it were me, i would jump at the op to get a bigger tank!, but thats just me. if you do upgrade, any idea on size?

[Quinn]

Go big Tony, go very big. Like 8x3x3 - that would be 540 gallons! Or a 6x6x2, which would also be 540... what a sweet tank, could go right in the middle of the basement or something. :mrgreen:

[spikehs]

you have to atleast double the biggest cowtown tank (is that Jon ?!?!) :mrgreen:

[Son Of Skyline]

Thank you all for the comments. The move is not until April (we're building the house)

What a perfect time to build a monster in wall dream tank! Might as well build your house around the mother of all reef tanks :razz:

[robbyville]

Hi Tony,

Firstly, if you need volunteer help I would be more than willing (Maybe the wife as well), we are looking into plumbing set ups and want to learn more anyway!

Secondly, we have moved our tank twice now, once from California all the way to Whistler. Try stopping off at a pet store each day for O2, and doing baggy water changes from stored water in a hotel room! Still, we only lost one fish in the move. Like someone else mentioned, we used movers for everything but the tank which allowed us time to figure it out. by the same token, we also only have a 60gal uniquarium so truthfully there was no plumbing to set up since the sump/fuge are built into the tank. I think that with some planning and the opportunity to do the move over a couple of days you should be fine. Worse comes to worse, couldn't you plug the holes, set up tank only and then install the plumbing? Not sure on that one.

Help is here once you figure out how you want to proceed!

Best,

Rob

[EmilyB]

Wow, Rob...that is quite the accomplishment :cool: Fish on yah !

[Doug]

I moved 600 miles and across the street. :lol:

When we moved here, from the north, I sold most of the livestock. The rest was moved in tubs, with airstones or small powerheads, run from an inverter. I put a new tank in the house.

Then there was the move across the street, in a wheelbarrow, in the middle of a Manitoba winter. :lol: Everything came that trip.

[mnoll406]

Hey Tony,
Been there, done that. Let me know if you need help. Moved a tank from Strathmore to Calgary. Planning is the key. Bring as much old tank water as possible, and have lots of saltwater ready to go. Got a 60 gal. garbage can from home depot, and got 60 gals of bottled RO water from grocery store. I then used the empty bottles to transport the tank water. In the end you can return the bottles to get your deposit back :biggrin: . Once again the key is planning. Only lost one coral, a alveopora attached to a rock. Definately not a fun experience.

Mike