Cannedmulder Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 What is the farthest you have moved your tank and how did you go about doing it? We live in Central Oregon right now and we are having to short sale our house! I am very sad about this but in the process obviously we will have to eventually move! As there is no work for my husband in CO we are looking to move back to be near his family in the TriCities Washington. It is a 4 hour drive. Obviously I will have to have take down time and set up time added on to the 4 hours. I know most stock comes from somewhere else and is in bags for up to 24-48 hours! I know that isn't ideal and that isn't what I want to do but what is the best way to move a tank? I really don't want to get rid of any of my stock so I am looking for help! What should I do and how should I prepare to do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Ashland to Portland. Overnight in a hotel. Livestock in a cooler. Powerhead and heater while in the hotel room, sloshing around in the moving truck while driving. It was not fun, but is doable. Sorry to hear about the move and the short sale. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Sorry to hear that you have to short sale your house. How large of a tank will you be moving? How many fish and what other livestock do you have? Hopefully you'll be doing the move when the weather isn't so hot or too cold. Having to worry about heaters and air pumps can be a real hassle. I also had a 4 hour drive when I moved the contents of a 120 gallon tank. I used two large coolers for the livestock and corals. I didn't have to move the tank and all the water cause everything was going into an established 180 gallon tank. I did the move in late spring and the outside temperature was in the mid 70s so the coolers were able to keep the water temp constant without heaters. I had approximately 150 lbs of live rock and assorted corals. I only had 2 large tangs and each one went into it's own cooler so I didn't use any air pumps for oxygen. They made it fine, each cooler held approximately 25 gallons of water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Try to find a place to set up a tank where you are moving before you move there. Get it set up and cycled. Ship all of your livestock to it. If that is not possible, then you may have to do it like Dennis did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny503 Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 check out Seahorse website, it does show how to move tank :-) http://www.seahorse-nw.com/Moving.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowpunk Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Could contact a store in that area to house your corals for you so you can take the time you need to get the tank up and running properly again. That way you can bag them and send them with whoever leaves first and only have 4 hours of downtime. If you don't like the idea of that then try to pack them as safely as possible and get a battery powered air pump and maybe bring a powerhead just in case. Once your to your new house plug in a heater or get an icepack(whatever you need) and try to get it to slowly come back to the starting temp. Remember though, sometimes the worst enemy of a coral can be another coral do your packing carefully, because they are already gonna be pissed off about getting moved around a bunch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCR Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Bag it all up leaving air in the bag. Live rock and sand into plastic tubs. Not too heavy!!. Take as much water as you can. Hard corals should be re moved from large rock. Rubber band them onto Styrofoam up side down so they float. Take another bag and rap the coral so it doesn't punch holes i n the bag. (on the inside of your float bag. Your main concern will be heat. When you get to your destination you can put the fish together with air stone and the extra ta nk water you will be taking with you. Other option is a large deep Brut trash can with air stone for the fish. Again the biggest threat is the heat and of course splashing salt water with sudden stops or starts. See if your LSF over there has extra boxes so you can keep it as constant as possible. Contact them now so they can save some for you. Something won't make it so accept that. But you can do it. Anybody on the other end that can make up salt mix before you get there would be most helpful. Sorry about the sale. I wish I could help more people. I'm a Mortgage broker. Every body is getting screwed in this recession, that some are saying is ending. The only end I see is,,,,, well not. Just too many good people jammed up by all this. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannedmulder Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 Thank you all for the advice! My husband is up there now looking for housing and jobs. I can't set up the tank before hand because the tank is set up here! It is a 120 gal. I have a hippo tang, kole tang, maroon clown, perc clown, corris wrasse, dusky jawfish, yellow watchman, pistol shrimp, arch eye hawk fish, starry blenny, sally light foot, hermies, peppermint and cleaner shrimp, snails, sand sifting star and I may be missing someone but I don't think so. zoas, mushrooms, torch, frogspawn, hammer, birdnest, other lps and softies, plus many others I just cant think of, leathers. What about the zoas crawling up my tank. Do I just say oh well to those? They aren't anything special! I could probably get my 50 gal drum up there and start some salt before we move but that obviously wont fill the tank so do most LFSs have salt water you can buy? I know they have RO water. I will talk to my LFS first and see what they can help me with!*WINK WINK* you know who you are!! And I will start with rubbermaid tubs and the other suggestions. We wont be moving for at least a month at the minimum if not 3-4 months but I want to be prepared!! Thank you all again for your suggestions and keep them coming if you have anymore that havent been said yet! I know not everything will make it but I want to try my best to have as much as I can make it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downhill_biker Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 I think I had one of the furthest moves. Eugene to Salt Lake City. Went like crap though, guess that means I know what to do based on the bad decisions I made. I recommend coolers for coral and fish, individual bags. Then put rock in buckets and cover with water. Get rid of all the sand and buy new sand. Should work out nicely for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 set up a small tank in Tricities for just the stuff you REALLY want to keep. If you can't do that, the best bet is to sell all you can and then buy new stuff after the move! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brokenzoa Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 I agree with the new sand part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannedmulder Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 I just bough new sand 3 months ago when I moved into this tank.....ARGH....at least I know what sand I can get now for cheap! All my old sand from my old tank is still sitting in the street in front of my house!!! Why can't rain just wash it away or better yet why cant the street cleaner come more often!!?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Zoas growing on the tank can be scraped off. Or they may be able to live for a couple of days with a wet paper towel over them. As long as they stay moist, they should be OK. Sell off anything that is not your favorite. It is better to have a few choice pieces survive then to have most everything die. If you can have saltwater made up at the new location, or a LFS should sell both RO and salt mix water. That way there is room for spillage. Can you set up a temporary tank before the move in the new location. It can be as simple as a rubbermaid tub with a powerhead or airstone. That way once you do get there, there is a place to quickly plunk the livestock you decide to move. Otherwise, fish and corals can live a couple of days in buckets or coolers with minimal life support. The corals may get mad or brown out, but they will still live. Corals can even live a couple of days without sunlight, as long as there is enough oxygen. Keep as much rock underwater as possible, in a bucket or cooler. That will prevent too much of a cycle. If your sand is only 3 months old, it should be fairly good to keep it. Just don't fill a 5g bucket with sand. It will create an anaerobic (no oxygen) area at the bottom that will kill anything in the sand. It would be better to have a 2-6 inch layer of sand in every bucket/cooler/etc. that you are taking. Spread it out and it should be fine. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hahn Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Canned, Tell me what I can do to make your trip easy? I have a 450 gallon empty tub, etc. http://mcsac.org/ is Tri-cities, Wa forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COReefer Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Canned, Tell me what I can do to make your trip easy? I have a 450 gallon empty tub, etc. http://mcsac.org/ is Tri-cities, Wa forum. wow this is a generous offer christy. This could really help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny503 Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 For my moved from PDX to Grants Pass, I bought myself a DC to AC converter. I poor all the water into couple 5 gallons buckets and and put all the fishes and CUC in it. None died. For corals I had the luxury to take them down from PDX to Grants PaSS slowly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannedmulder Posted August 6, 2009 Author Share Posted August 6, 2009 Canned, Tell me what I can do to make your trip easy? I have a 450 gallon empty tub, etc. http://mcsac.org/ is Tri-cities, Wa forum. Holy moly this would be a god send! I was looking on craigs list for a small tank that I could set up and have ready to put things in but we dont have the money to buy anything right now! I would love to be able to have your help. I don't know just when we are moving! But it is a 90% chance after talking with my husband tonight that we are moving. He has to get his electrical liceanse transfered up there but he already has a interview for tomorrow and many resumes out! Our house is up for sale now but that doesn't mean we have to live in it until it sells! I was thinking it would be easiest to move coral and other critters first then rock then tank but didn't know where to put it all. I was going to buy rubbermaids but didn't want it all to stay in those long! If you have a way I can store things that would be great until the tank is up!! I will look at your forum and start chatting on there also! Thank you for the link!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hahn Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 The neat thing about people in this hobby is most love helping each other and learning. I have moved one system over 500 gallons in Seattle 2 times. It was mainly using 155 gallon tubs. I have a 155 gallon tub in Seattle now. What is important is water movement for oxygen or gas exchange and temperature. Temperature and Ph are the two most common killers of animals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.