Moving out of state, any advice?

[CrabbyCrabs]

I'm moving out of state. About an 8 or so hour drive away. Any tips on doing it without killing everything? Thinking of bagging everything separately, floating in preheated Coleman coolers or similar. Drain tank water into food safe buckets, same with a majority of sand. Have fresh rodi and saltwater ready at new location. Break down tanks. Bag live rocks in tank water and float in coolers. Thinking one cooler for livestock and one for tank sand and live rock. So 4 coolers total, 2 per  tank, they are only 20 gallon tanks. Move. Set up tanks with half old water, add live rock/old sand, big bottle of biospira, fish, coral, etc and pray?

Any advice would be appreciated. 

[Lazyreefer]

I think most people would say to just use new sand I have done it and used a qtr new live sand and then just normal tropic eden the rest of it. It is also easier as well, good luck though should be all fine looks like a good plan. 

[Exodus]

Get something set up with flow and filtration at the new location before you even begin breaking down the tank. Try to match the parameters as closely possible with the what they currently are. Have another large empty container near by with RODI Water & Mixed on hand. 

Your idea of moving the livestock is as good as any besides tossing the sand(you don't want it) Upon arriving to the location move all livestock into the new large empty (tank, tote, Bin, trough) whatever with the water it's in and a heater. This is where you will begin acclimating the corals to the newly mixed setup on location. Replenish the water used for acclimating with the fresh salt mixed up, once acclimated move everything over, toss out all the old water and empty that initial bin. Don't worry about lighting for now it's not important. You now have a day or 2 to work on Setting up your tank where you want it, getting it filled, heated, and parameters set. As long as temperatures are similar, there will not really be much need for acclimation as both will be near zero nutrient environments. (if you are only going to be a couple days don't bother feeding) 

edit:

I also want to make note of something, If at all possible it would be best to get that livestock bagged and in the coolers and on their way to the new location before bothering breaking down the current setup, the longer it takes to get everything broken down and packed up before setting off; the longer those corals sit in those coolers. If that is not possible, I would highly recommend the tank breakdown be the last objective moving from the location and you have 2 -3 friends helping you who know exactly what to do beforehand in terms of breaking down. This way you have one person loading up coolers and getting them on the truck while the others are emptying the tank, disassembling, and packing up whats possible. 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Exodus

[TaylorW]

Everything sounds great except use new sand and even water, little beneficial bacteria in tank water and when I used same sand had a nasty algae outbreak for a long time. Turns out old sand hangs on to phosphates! I've had several tanks now over a few years and now just buy new

[CrabbyCrabs]

Ok. A few questions to clarify. I have a new reefer 350 and a used reefer 170 I can setup in the next 2 weeks at new location. Only problem is.... I will be gone for several days as I make trips back and forth. My current tanks are a max nano and nuvo 20. The max nano has a crack and don't expect it to live through the move, why I picked up a used 170. I do have a brand new 150 gallon trough. I have new sand I can add to both and toss old save a cup to help establish bacteria. 

So I fill new tanks with sand/water. What about rock? I do have new life rock that's been cycling and new life rock that's dry. I want to reuse my current rock as a lot of coral are growing on them. Advice? 

Do I set up the trough with the new or old water to float everything in? Or do I float in the new tanks? I will be using the same salt brand mixed to the same salinity so parameters should be close since I do 25% weekly water changes now. Do I cycle new tanks with Dr Tim's ammonia or? Do I just use new life rock temporarily until it's cycled then remove what I don't want when I put my old rock in?

Any ideas on where to get safe heavy duty bags for transporting/acclimating my current rock? I have plenty for the fish and frags just not the big pieces of rock. 

Are any coolers safe that I can just partially fill with the old saltwater and put rocks directly in without bagging them? They always smell like plastic and worry about leaching chemicals.

I have no friends that can help. Just my girlfriend and I moving. 

I will be buying an rodi. Since no saltwater stores where we are going. Thoughts on the best one. The city water is well, with no chloramine or chlorine added. Seems very hard according to the water report. Spectrapure won't return my calls. Was thinking of the 6 stage megamax cap unit.

[CrabbyCrabs]

Best way to limit a cycle? Last time I moved there was none but it was a local move and I added biospira just in case. I do have a very large rbta I would like to not kill, along with everything else of course. I will put a few pieces of filter foam in back sump to collect more bacteria.

[CrabbyCrabs]

I can pay a small consultation fee if anyone can setup a checklist, in order, that I can follow and go over a plan of action. And maybe help when that time comes. Planning on moving tanks mid July. That gives me roughly 2-3 weeks to set up new tanks and cycle them.

[Higher Thinking]

10 hours ago, CrabbyCrabs said:

I can pay a small consultation fee if anyone can setup a checklist, in order, that I can follow and go over a plan of action. And maybe help when that time comes. Planning on moving tanks mid July. That gives me roughly 2-3 weeks to set up new tanks and cycle them.

If you're looking for consultation material, I'd check with @badxgillen for sure. 

[youcallmenny]

Bert indeed had a ton of very useful advice for me during my move.  

[Exodus]

I do have a brand new 150 gallon trough.
Excellent!! Have this ready, filled with New Salt water, flow, heat and filtration at the new location ahead of time.

I have new sand I can add to both and toss old save a cup to help establish bacteria. 
Toss the Sand! There's not enough trace bacteria to be concerned about, your live Rock in the system contains plenty.

So I fill new tanks with sand/water. What about rock? 
No Fill The Trough, and don't worry about the Sand yet (As mentioned above)

I do have new life rock that's been cycling and new life rock that's dry. I want to reuse my current rock as a lot of coral are growing on them. Advice? 
Good, your going to need your current Rock Keep it and worry about the Other Stuff when the time comes, right now we are transporting corals.

Do I set up the trough with the new or old water to float everything in? Or do I float in the new tanks? 
Set it up with new water, we want absolutely no nutrients in the water column to start out with, Corals love new fresh water, and you don't want to float the corals in this, corals don't live for long in bags. You want to acclimate the corals to this water as it will be holding the corals for a few days.

I will be using the same salt brand mixed to the same salinity so parameters should be close since I do 25% weekly water changes now. Do I cycle new tanks with Dr Tim's ammonia or? Do I just use new life rock temporarily until it's cycled then remove what I don't want when I put my old rock in?
It's good you have the same salt, but ensure you match the salinity, and use the calculators on BRS with some sort of 2 part or whatever your dosing with to match whats in the current setup. Add some Dr Tim's if you like it won't hurt anything, but don't go adding rock that's not cycled into the mix or you will just add headaches.

Any ideas on where to get safe heavy duty bags for transporting/acclimating my current rock? I have plenty for the fish and frags just not the big pieces of rock. 
Not positive, I save all my bags from the LFS, maybe hit one of them up and ask if you can buy some?

Are any coolers safe that I can just partially fill with the old saltwater and put rocks directly in without bagging them? They always smell like plastic and worry about leaching chemicals.
Excellent Question, Though considering the primary purpose of  cooler I just consider them to be food graded plastics and wouldn't waist too much time worrying about it, though if I'm wrong feel free to correct me on that. Also you probably want to grab some of the stick on heat pad things to put on the bottom of the lid to ensure they stay warm on the trip up @R-3 can you chime in on the brand or what these are called?

I have no friends that can help. Just my girlfriend and I moving. 
Ouch that's a bummer! Post a Wanted Help on the forum, state your location and the date, offer something like free beer & pizza similar to that nature, allot of great people here in the club know how much moving sucks and its a good possibility you can find someone to help you get all packed up ready to go (especially since your dealing with Nano's) Just be respectful of their time and have things ready to be packed up and loaded when they get there so their not standing around watching you load couches.

I will be buying an rodi. Since no saltwater stores where we are going. Thoughts on the best one. The city water is well, with no chloramine or chlorine added. Seems very hard according to the water report. Spectrapure won't return my calls. Was thinking of the 6 stage megamax cap unit.
Get whatever you feel like, I have never used a Spectrapure, I currently uses a BRS unit & my TDS is Zero, As long as quality construction is implemented and quality filters are obtained, not sure how you could go wrong with any brand.

So what you Missed is this, You need a 2nd container Maybe an old tank or tote or whatever to take with you or have on site that when you get up there you will take all the livestock from bags and coolers and add to this With the Water you saved from your tanks or that resides in the bags and coolers.(of course with a cheapo powerhead/pump etc and a heater) You will slowly be taking water from that 150 trough and adding it to this container for acclimation. The point is to move everything from the water all the rock and livestock came from into the 150 Gallon trough. You can just of course skip this and acclimate the bags and coolers individually as this is ultimately what you are doing, but I figured grouping it all together opposed to running 15 or more drip lines seemed like an easier method for acclimation, though feel free to use whatever method it is you do.

The 150 Gallon trough becomes your holding tank for a few days while you can take the time to properly set up the new tanks. Lighting & Feeding isn't so important as getting the new tanks positioned, filled, heated etc. Then once they are up and going and parameters are similar you can begin acclimating the corals from the trough to the new tanks (As mentioned since no feeding and water is fresh as long as they match temperatures,  not much acclimation will be needed.  I once helped someone move 2 tanks just across town who had absolutely no prep work done at all, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and it was frustrating for everyone involved.

[CrabbyCrabs]

Thank you Exodus. Just a clarification. I set up the trough with fresh salt, heater, skimmer, power head. Have 2 second tanks ready to go as I don't want to cross contaminate the two nano systems. Put each respective livestock and rock into each tank and slowly add the fresh trough saltwater to them. Then move all livestock to the trough? Is that wrong? 

I plan on taking my reefer 350 and 170 this week. Will set them up then next week add the new saltwater or? I can take trough too. I will be in house full time on the 7th so I can cycle those tanks and trough. The 350 will be up temporarily till my gf gets her nano up there, my nano is moving up to the 170. 

Maybe I'm not following correctly. I am a diesel mechanic after all. I do have 2 150 troughs but one was used for outdoor water storage. I can buy another if needed.

[CrabbyCrabs]

Moving the tanks will pretty much be last thing to empty house. Will come back the following weekend to move bed/TV of girlfriend and kid. When moving the livestock starts that's it for that weekend, since it's a 7-8 hour drive one way

[Exodus]

You got it correct.

So I might be misunderstanding this, you are moving the respective 350 & 170 up before you move the Nano's & Setting them up? If that's the case Skip the entire trough part and just set up both the new tanks as they are going to be and acclimate the corals to the tanks when you get them up there. I was thinking you were breaking down the current tanks, moving the corals then setting the tanks up again. If you have 2 tanks you intend to use and intend to have them fully setup, filled, flow, heat, filtration, lighting etc... then there is no need for the trough that step is simply there to buy you time to setup the tanks.

[TaylorW]

Oh gosh I just read your basically just swapping over everything to larger tanks?? Well geez if that's the case I've done that lots of times!! (My upgrading addiction) Try to have your tanks set up heated all that stuff at your new place ahead of time, add your sand probably wait 24 hours for it to settle. Your live rock has all your beneficial bacteria so add all or as much as possible first when you get to your new place, I usually wait a bit then your corals and fish. It's really much more simple if you just look at it as an upgrade! You just have to travel a longer distance so be more prepared for that part and you're good!! I've never once had a noticable spike switching tanks, as long as you have it setup ahead of time which it sounds like you can just preparing everything else (rocks, coral, fish) for the move is what you probably need to prepare for most. I thought you were setting up your other tanks after you got to your new place, if you have the luxury of setting up your "upgrade" tanks a few days in advance, getting salinity, temp correct then adding new sand you're basically ready to start immediately acclimating your rock once you arrive. I'd definitely recommend doing rock first, then corals and fish. At least that's how I do it. I've swapped tanks, upgraded, moved them, I've also added Prime to the moving water in the past, I've shipped hundreds of fish and it's a great trick for shipping water. If you use new sand (maybe save some to seed) and all or mostly new salt water chances are you'll have little or no noticable cycle. I remember at first my corals would look a little beat from moving but soon after would look crazy happy I'm guessing from all that nice clean water [emoji3]

 

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[TaylorW]

If you want I have some Prime left if you want it it's yours, not sure exactly how much is left but a little goes a long way so just let me know. And if you want that $20 RODI from kjlife I can probably pick it up for you if he still has it, and just pay me the $20 (or even trade for coral or whatever) and I could meet you or your girlfriend Friday or Saturday? He lives close by so no biggie, that is like I said if he still has it. I was almost thinking about grabbing it anyway just because it's a great deal lol

 

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[TaylorW]

Like Exodus said no need to fill up troughs, I'd personally put rocks in a cooler or buckets with water depending on how much you have, put corals in bucket(s) or cooler with water, and fish separately in a bucket with a lid but not snap lid closed completely, just cover basically with the lid to keep them somewhat calm. Maybe keep a Tupperware type container with a few scoops of your old sand to seed the new, make sure there's water in it. You can add a few drops of Prime to the water of all buckets/coolers containers to illiminate any ammonia, I would bet everything will be just fine. I've used old blankets, towels to stuff around the buckets or coolers to keep them from falling over, keep them snug and in place better. Add the seed sand to the new, I just dump it in little mounds here and there, acclimate all the rock and livestock to the new tanks, corals may look a little crappy for a while but odds are they'll perk up in no time. In my experience the corals would eventually look crazy happy from nice clean water [emoji16] so far I haven't lost anything doing it this simple way.

 

 

 

[CrabbyCrabs]

I will be bagging everything and buying some of those coleman 7 day coolers to move stuff so it stays warm on the drive. I don't think I could keep buckets warm enough for a 7 hour drive. I've got a source for large fish bags, I can't find anything large enough for the rock though. 

Another question. How do I aerate the water while moving them? Do I not worry about it? Do I get an oxygen tank to blow up the bags before rubber banding them? Is welding oxygen good enough or medical grade? What about those heat packets places like wwc use when they ship stuff, where do I get those? 

How do I acclimate my rock to new tanks, in a bucket one at a time with a drip. Then transfer right into tank? Then wait a few hours for fish, inverts, corals. Maybe biospira after adding rocks before livestock. 

[badxgillen]

Looks like you have a lot of good info to go on here, swapping into new tanks makes it much easier than breaking one down and re setting it back up again in a new location. As far as transit I would't get too worried as long as things are separated enough and kept a good temperature in the transport vehicle. Just think about when you get fish or corals shipped to your home, that can take way longer than 8 hours and they are just packed in a styrofoam box.

[TaylorW]

I wouldn't even try to put rock in baggies, it just won't work. Just place your rock either in buckets or coolers with just enough water to cover them, depending on how much rock you have it may be easier to split it up into a few buckets because they're heavy. It's a good idea to bag the fish individually and especially the more fragile corals, place baggies in buckets. If you're not the best at bagging fish practice!! I've shipped hundreds of fish so I've pretty much got it down but it took practice. I attached a quick crappy video that shows how I twist the bag to be filled with air. It's basically pinching it off at the very top. Fill up the bag about 1/3 with water, pinch the very top of the bag tight with your fingers so no air leaks out and twist the bottom of the bag around until it's nice and tightly closed, if you do it correctly you should have a good amount of air in the bag, keep practicing until you have that part down, it should be 1/3 or so water and mostly air, wrap a rubber band around it tightly and then I usually wrap the excess length of the baggy around the rubber band part again tightly and use another rubber band. If you squeeze the bag no air should escape. It's not necessary to airate, make sure you have plenty of extra heated saltwater to replace in the tank what you remove to acclimate. I'd personally start acclimating rock immediately, I wouldn't drip acclimate rock just start with something like a 1 cup measuring cup and start removing a cup or two of bucket water tossing it adding cup or two of tank water, repeat  until mostly tank water then add rocks to tank quickly. Make sure to rinse rocks some by swishing them first before adding to tank. You can either already be drip acclimating fish and corals or wait til after rocks are added, I've done both. Its easier to dump all fish out of bags into bucket at once to drip acclimate, same with corals in their own bucket. Thats also when you will need to start replacing all the tank water youve been removing to acclimate, that's why having a garbage can or something with extra heat and salinity matched water is good to have ready. I'm sure others have done it a bit different or in a different order but I've had success doing it this way

Edited June 26, 2019 by TaylorW

[CrabbyCrabs]

Question on the coolers. Are they safe to just put saltwater and rocks directly in? Do chemicals leach out of the plastic? Do I rinse them with vinegar or anything before use? Thinking of 4-6 of the Coleman 48 quart white ones. Cabela's has them on sale or Walmart has the cheap ones also. Im using coolers to keep temp from dropping too much on the drive. Buckets would just be cold and I worry about die off on the rocks that way. Maybe it's a non issue.

I am ordering a spectrapure megamax cap 5 stage and extra pre filters and di resin. Also getting the booster pump. That cost adds up quick. I may have to build a degassing setup though after talking to spectrapure since co2 can kill di resin.

[CrabbyCrabs]

I only mentioned the compressed oxygen as one local store uses that when they bag their fish. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

[DavidK]

Lots of good info in this thread. Once our house sells I am planning on making a similar trip of about 7 hours to Idaho. I have a reefer 350 as well and keep debating if I want move it or just sell everything. I was thinking about buying one of those 150 gallon stock tanks and tossing it into the back of my truck then removing all the rock from my tank and setting it in there and then siphoning all the water out and into the stock tank while removing all the livestock as well. During the summer months I think temp will be fine and was going to put a battery pump in for circulation. Since it would only be about 2/3 the way full I would hope that the water wouldn't slosh around too much and was thinking about putting a fine mesh net on the top just to keep things in and road debris out. I was just planning on putting everything right back in and topping off with water that I have already made at the new location. 

[CrabbyCrabs]

You must be heading where I am, safe haven, lol. My trip is only longer as I do it with my 02 Tahoe (220k miles) pulling a 7x16 enclosed. The trip tonight was all my empty tanks/stands and my 2500lbs tool box and a bunch of other stuff. Probably 4k in trailer plus my 350, 60 cube, 170, TV, and other stuff in back of Tahoe. Pulled ok with no weight distribution hitch. Couldn't do more than 65 without killing mileage/high revs. 

If you do the open tote, grab some Saran wrap and wrap the top up to help slosh. I was kinda thinking the same idea. 

[TaylorW]

Question on the coolers. Are they safe to just put saltwater and rocks directly in? Do chemicals leach out of the plastic? Do I rinse them with vinegar or anything before use? Thinking of 4-6 of the Coleman 48 quart white ones. Cabela's has them on sale or Walmart has the cheap ones also. Im using coolers to keep temp from dropping too much on the drive. Buckets would just be cold and I worry about die off on the rocks that way. Maybe it's a non issue. I am ordering a spectrapure megamax cap 5 stage and extra pre filters and di resin. Also getting the booster pump. That cost adds up quick. I may have to build a degassing setup though after talking to spectrapure since co2 can kill di resin.  

 

Hmm I wouldn't know about them leaching anything, I have and have used the Coleman coolers for just that, seemed fine. It couldn't hurt to clean with some vinegar water. Heck you can also head to Petco on their fish shipping day and pick up their large styrofoam coolers free they receive their fish shipments in! I've done it several times when I used to ship fish, just call them and ask when they're expecting their next fish shipment and if you can take their styrofoam containers specifically the larger ones off their hands (they just toss them in the garbage) and you won't have to spend a dime on new coolers. I may actually be able to get a few styrofoam coolers from my work for you if you'd like, we discontinued using them so I'll ask if I can grab a few. As far as using oxygen in fish baggies it's really not necessary, it's great if you're shipping longer distances or two day shipping, I've done that myself but for just a few hours or even up to 24 hours you'll be just fine doing it like I showed in the crappy video [emoji23] I've shipped literally hundreds of fish when I used to breed Multi colored Delta Show Guppies and I think out of all those I had two DOA's, which turned out to be the fault of USPS. I've shipped coral same way, very recently actually to someone on this forum. If you want tips on bagging your SPS especially if you have SPS colonies it's a bit different since you'll want to protect them as much as you can from breakage. I'm not a pro at the sps but I've researched shipping them in the past.  The preparation for the move, like bagging and packing everything will likely be the most time consuming but just bag them well, double bag if needed and bring a few extra baggies with a container of extra water in case of any leaky bags you may notice on the drive. If you need baggies I have tons of extra breather bags from my shipping days! Or ask Petco. I can't remember exactly what size I have, but they're 2 mil poly bags so they are a good thickness for shipping. Sent from my BLU R1 HD using Tapatalk 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TaylorW]

Sorry my posts tend to read more like a book lol, but anyway I'd think you'd be better off putting your rocks and such in several smaller coolers and buckets than one huge container because the smaller ones are much easier moved around if needed. And I wouldn't fill the coolers too full with water, just enough to cover the rocks. Remember they will be sloshing around a lot. I'd leave several inches of room on top and use a lid. You don't need to spend a bunch on new coolers, seriously you should call Petco or PetSmart and ask about the styrofoam coolers they receive their fish in, depending on how big of a shipment they get the sizes tend to vary. And I'll ask today at work about the styrofoam coolers we have, we carry different sizes and they all have lids.

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