help moving reef tank!!

[jfoxx81]

Any time I have done a tank transfer, I:

Remove the LR first, making sure it is submerged in tank water. If it is a short distance and time between setups, then a powerhead or bubbler isnt really needed. Other wise, you need to keep the water oxygenated through surface agitation, or the bacteria will crash.

Coral attached to live rock can be carfully bagged, or set in egg crate in the bottom of their own buckets.

All non agro fish go in their on 5 gallon bucket. All agros in a seperate buckets, shrimp and snails in a seperate bucket, and crabs/hermits in their own bucket. It is ok to put multiple hermits in one container. From there I try to save as much of the tank water as I can.

Your replacing the sand, which is a good move on your part and will save you trouble with ammonia spikes from stirring up the crap that settles on it. You will experience a mini cycle though with new substrate, so just mind your water qaulity.

Make sure you keep your water at a stable temperature as best you can. I also like to have about 30-40 gallons of premixed saltwater stored the night before the move for just in case. Nothing sucks worse the making big batches of saltwater when your in a hurry.

Keep in mind that you will need to reacclimate your fish. Water parameters will not match at all (in most cases anyways). So temperature acclimate and then drip your fishies, inverts, corals, etc....

It sucks, but take your time and everything will come out fine (or close to fine).

thanks so no heating for the water just keep it circulating? and im driving about 2 and 1/2 hours...

 

[Heathd]

thanks so no heating for the water just keep it circulating? and im driving about 2 and 1/2 hours...

Well, if you are putting all your livestock in a car with heat/ or a/c I dont see it being an issue.

 

[RedDwarf]

You don't need to keep the water circulating or heat them if it's only a few hours. Think of the live rock as if it was low tide and it was exposed to the air, as long as it's damp the bio die off should be minimal.

Snails can be bagged together but for the hermits, depending on their size either bag them in small groups or individually.

As suggested, make your water ahead of time and give it a chance to stabilize. Depending on how the water is at the new place, it will most likely be different if your making the saltwater your going to have to slowly acclimate your fish and inverts back into their tank. Now plan on the move and getting the critters back into their tank taking about twice as long as the trip to the new place.

The fish, inverts and corals will be find for hours if you don't shove them all into the same small container for the trip. Think of the trip they went through from the LFS to your tank originally. LFS put O2 in the bags to extend the time the fish and corals are in the bags because they can be in there for hours and hours before they get home (I'm talking like 6 hours). If you are going to bag your critters ask the LFS if they have any styro boxes that you can have so you won't have to worry to much about the temp change.

Best of luck to you.

 

[scalesandfins]

sorry i didnt see this sooner. i just moved my 90 reef about 3 months ago. i would just put all your rock into trash cans with enough water to cover them and bag up all your corals and fish and put your sand in 5 gallon buckets. thats how i would do it.
everythin should be fine in there own bags for a few hours as long as you give them some fresh air every so often.
good luck with the move.
oh and for the fuge i would just move as is if possible.
well this post was useless
i didnt read the others. oh well. needless to say i agree

 

[jfoxx81]

You don't need to keep the water circulating or heat them if it's only a few hours. Think of the live rock as if it was low tide and it was exposed to the air, as long as it's damp the bio die off should be minimal.

Snails can be bagged together but for the hermits, depending on their size either bag them in small groups or individually.

As suggested, make your water ahead of time and give it a chance to stabilize. Depending on how the water is at the new place, it will most likely be different if your making the saltwater your going to have to slowly acclimate your fish and inverts back into their tank. Now plan on the move and getting the critters back into their tank taking about twice as long as the trip to the new place.

The fish, inverts and corals will be find for hours if you don't shove them all into the same small container for the trip. Think of the trip they went through from the LFS to your tank originally. LFS put O2 in the bags to extend the time the fish and corals are in the bags because they can be in there for hours and hours before they get home (I'm talking like 6 hours). If you are going to bag your critters ask the LFS if they have any styro boxes that you can have so you won't have to worry to much about the temp change.

Best of luck to you.

thanks man all sounds good i feel a little better about the situation still not ready to make it happen though

 

[RyanP]

I would just soak a towel in tank water and throw it over the rock instead of tryin to keep it submerged the whole way. Also agree on replacing the sand with new.

 

[thisissimple]

I leave the rock and sand in a brute, and covered with tank water. Dont worry too much about this stuff. No matter what you do there will be some die off. Driving usually agitates the surface enough to keep this die off to a minimum.

I would either put all the fish in individual bags as discussed by red dwarf or put them all in a cooler with a battery powered air pump. You can get inverters to run off your cig lighter to run heaters and air pumps as well. corals that can be bagged, should be. ones that can't should be very carefully propped up in their own heated cooler. The nice thing about bagging is that you can put the individual bags in a cooler and then add a heat pad to the cooler to keep them warm. Be sure to monitor this temp during the trip; to high or too low will be catastrophic.

x2 on the separating peaceful and agro fishes. all snails in one bag, hermies in another. this is actually a great chance to get rid of your hermit crabs. I don't use them any more, and don't miss em at all. You wouldn't believe how much longer my snails live. I replaced all the hermies with cerith snails. I wouldn't go back.
good luck.