aqua-ed Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 Hello again good folks! So as I am set to finish college, I will be moving out of C-town and am taking my tank with me. My plan is to move back to S-town and stay with my parents while I work on a farm for the summer, then I'm off to Dallas to start my teaching job in August. Any advice on moving my tank? It will need to come with me to Silverton in June after school gets out, hang out there, than over to Dallas with me when I get some digs there in August. I would appreciate any advice, cautions, experiences, or tips you may have! Tank specs: 25g+10g sump, wrasse, clown, goby, xenia, ric, zoos, sps, purple gorgonia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 No problems! Just get a couple of medium sized coolers. Put about half of your stuff in each cooler, add enough water to keep it submerged and move it (only have 1/2 to 2/3 water in the cooler or it may spill). When I moved from Ashland to Portland, I had a 45g tank, and moved everything (even with staying in a motel overnight) in one cooler. As long as the water temp does not drop too much, and you have water movement (vibrations and sloshing in the car work). If you have anything that is really delicate, you may want to attach it up-side-down to a styrofoam raft and hang it down in the water. That way it won't have an avalanche kill it off. Make sure that the tank is one of the last things taken down, and one of the first things set back up. Or do it on a different day from the "big move" so it is less stressful. Try to keep as much water as possible from the old tank. That way you don't need to make new water right away, and you can keep parameters as similar as possible. When setting up, just get basic life support going (lights and water movement), then you can spend all your time getting all the rest of your stuff unloaded. At the end of the day, or even the next day is when you can get everything else set back up. EXPECT a mini-cycle. If you have sand that you are moving around, there may be detritus that gets dislodged, and starts to decay. Or even anaerobic pockets that are just NASTY! Go with minimum or no food for a day before, and a week after the move. The fish can live with little or no food. Try not to add to the mini-cycle that will be created. Macro-algae may help with this by absorbing some of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate that can be formed. Good luck. It really is not as bad as it sounds. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishiefish Posted May 31, 2008 Share Posted May 31, 2008 crap yes i wish I knew what I know now when I moved my tank....take twice as many bags as you thought you would need, buy a billion hand warmers(on clearance in camping section at wally world) the kind you shake to activate...wrap them in newspaper put under and ontop in those cheap styrofoam coolers, also at wally world and you can use lunch pails too but make sure you run them under warm water to warm the plastic up.also buy rubber maids or what not to store as much water as possible.use duct tape and plastic wrap to keep it from leaking.if you have extra funds go get a electric plug in(like the kind you would use for a laptop)to plug in to the lighter spot, and use that for a heater to put with your precious fish and corals and take a breath of relief when you wont have to check the temp every 5 seconds and freak out about your pride and joy. also buy garlic immunity booster to build them up before ... also just like dnoz said be prepared for a cycle and algae dont feed them the first day so you can see your levels perfectly.feed them extra the day before and if you can try to clean up the tank as much as possible the week before you move. I fed mine in the transport water that i Wasnt keeping just cuz I felt guilty and bad for them.....I moved them 6 hours and had a horrible experence when I got back with setting up and some serious unfor seen plumbing problems....make a plan down to the so small they shouldnt matter details...those little ones bite you in the butt everytime. pm me if you got q's I recently moved my 90 gallon. sorry this is such a messy comment I'm on my work break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mister crabs Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 I ma getting ready to move from Las Vegas to Albany area in a month or so and I know your fears and anxieties first hand! I am planning on getting a big Coleman Xtreme cooler (the ones that are extra insulated) and getting power inverter to keep a koralia and a heater going in the cooler. the corals I am going to take clear plastic containers like you get from a deli at a supermarket and hole punching tons of holes for flow and putting the corals in there to keep them from getting smashed. The cooler I looked at had a divider that would keep half the cooler seperated from the other so I could put my LR on one side and the corals and fish on the other to prevent anytrhing getting squished. Hope any of these ideas helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 Also if you do reuse the sand only use the top 1/2 inch if you can. If you try and use it all there will probably be a big cyano outbreak from everything getting sirred up. I had this problem when taking down a bigger tank and seting up my smaller one. Good luck with the move and also congratulations on the new career(rock2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-3 Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 Yeah I would go with all new sand personally. Ive done this before with no ill effects. Later Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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