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Blue Ram
02-15-2011, 04:55 PM
This coming weekend I am moving a 120 gal reef setup that I have purchased. I wanted to set out the steps I will be taking for the move to see if there are any suggestions or steps I have missed.
Friday - move fish, coral, live rock and inverts and small amount of sand for seeding. As much as possible, live rock and coral will be placed in rubbermaid bins with as much original tank water as possible keeping in mind we have to lift them. Small coral frags and any coral not attached to live rock will be bagged. Fish and inverts will be bagged. Will I need to acclimatize everything into the holding tanks?
I have two holding tanks ready ( 33 gal and 20 gal) to place everything in. The tanks will have heaters and a powerhead and some light will be placed over the tanks.
Sunday - move tank, stand, sump and all other equipment. Get tank filled, add 60 pds of new sand, put power heads on.
Monday - get all plumbing hooked up, sump and protein skimmer running.

If I don't have any spikes in the holding tanks by Monday evening, I was planning to start moving the livestock into the 120 Monday evening. Will not move it all at once.
My thought was that if I had no spikes after 3 days in the holding tanks I would be safe to start moving. If I had spikes, it would be easier to perform water changes in the smaller tanks.
If I have missed anything please reply. Would hate to lose anything so I'm trying to take all precautions.

sphelps
02-15-2011, 05:21 PM
I've always moved livestock in buckets, each bucket will have some rock/coral in the base and a fish/invert or two. I try to keep as much of the water from the tank as possible to avoid the need for acclimating. Buckets can usually be borrowed fairly easily from fellow reefers.

If the water chemistry is the same you don't need to acclimate them, just make sure you float bags or whatever to match the temp.

patman
02-15-2011, 06:37 PM
I used buckets to move rock and water into 110l coolers which I left on the truck as they would be too heavy to move. Then put fish in buckets also. I found I couldn't put as much into the rubbermaid containers for fear they would break.