Moving from Saskatoon to Calgary

[dwerbs87]

Hey everyone, figured this would be the best place to ask for tips on pulling off a move like this.
I have a 140 gallon aquarium with a dozen fish and a bunch of live rock and not too many corals at the moment, with a couple inches of sand.

What would be the best way to go about moving all of this 5 hours away? I was thinking of buying a couple rubbermaid garbage cans to hold water, rock, and fish. My thinking is large tubs of water will hold temp for longer, or should I get a dozen or so 5 gallon buckets?

I heard that if you have sand you should just get rid of it and start over when moving, is this the case?

Any other information you guys have will be VERY helpful.

[FishyFishy!]

For a move that far, I would recommend getting a big power inverter, so that you can run heaters and bubblers/powerheads. Throw the sand away. And get the biggest bins that you can so that there is maximum water volume for the fish (so that harmful levels of phosphates/ammonia etc. build up slower). Keep the most aquarium water that you can, and make sure that you can make up a fresh batch of satlwater quickly when you arrive at your destination to fill up the aquarium.

Follow that, and you should be fine. I've also used glass aquariums with a plastic wrapped tops (selephane sp.?) thats taped to the top. make a small hole the in the middle to vent. I used a heater and air pump w/stone and did a 3 hour drive. It worked flawlessly.

[Dearth]

You can also use styrofoam container in a box or bin which will also help with retaining heat for your fish/coral/inverts and use as much of your original water as possible.

Just remember after setting up your system everything will be grumpy and unhappy for a few days keep an eye open for sudden changes

[Trevor W]

If it was me I would get a temporary tank thats big enough to house the fish maybe a 50 or a 75? Or just something to.temporarily house the fish for a couple days. I would take enough water with me to fill the temp tank for the fish. I would bag and pack the fish as if they were being flown across the globe. Rock would go in rubbermaid totes. when I got to Calgary I would setup the temp tank and acclimate the fish. That would allow me spend a couple days mixing salt and getting my main tank setup. If you are leary about packing the fish or corals just go to bayside and talk to Colby Im sure hed be more than happy to help show you how to pack them. Or you could sell all the fish and buy new ones unless your attached to them or they are not common. again this is just what I would personally do. Many different ways.

[Baker]

Originally Posted by Trevor W

If it was me I would get a temporary tank thats big enough to house the fish maybe a 50 or a 75? Or just something to.temporarily house the fish for a couple days. I would take enough water with me to fill the temp tank for the fish. I would bag and pack the fish as if they were being flown across the globe. Rock would go in rubbermaid totes. when I got to Calgary I would setup the temp tank and acclimate the fish. That would allow me spend a couple days mixing salt and getting my main tank setup. If you are leary about packing the fish or corals just go to bayside and talk to Colby Im sure hed be more than happy to help show you how to pack them. Or you could sell all the fish and buy new ones unless your attached to them or they are not common. again this is just what I would personally do. Many different ways.

+1