cross country move

[footballdude2k3]

who has done it? did you keep everything or start over? I am moving in a bit over a year. as of now i am planning on upgrading to a bigger tank when i move, hopefully a 90-120. i wanna know if you kept most of everything or dumped it before you moved and started over.

[cubsFAN]

when i moved to california from kansas i started over. i got really lowballed on a pretty cool tank, but i had to sell because time ran out. It was my first tank and survived a lot of foolish trial and error. In the end it was better for me to start from scratch, but it broke my heart to give a lot of pricey LPS and my whole set up for a couple hundred bucks. If you plan ahead you might not get stuck in a pinch like I did.

[java]

how big of a tank? makes a huge differance

[footballdude2k3]

only setting up a 20 long since i know i am going to be moving, setting up bigger when i get moved.

[Mr James]

40g breeder only 5.5 hour drive though. all fish lived.

[tkeracer619]

start over

[cody6766]

I just moved my 33g cube from Oklahoma City to Pensacola with a ton of success.

I was lucky enough to have a great LFS in Edmond loan me a 5lbs oxygen tank to help along the way, but other than that no special tools were needed.

I bagged each SPS and LPS individually, bagged my nice zoas/palys individually and tossed the misc. zoas and palys together in one bag and the yumas in another. Fish (4 small ones) were bagged individually with a good deal of o2 in the top of the bag. I left a little o2 in the coral bags, but not much for fear of exposing them to air.
The bags were placed in a good cooler the night before the trip and about half the water was moved to buckets. I put my LR in 2x 5g buckets and filled them to the top with tank water. I also made up an extra 10g of salt water and 5g of RO/DI.

We drove 17hrs w/o stopping for sleep and began heating water and acclimating the livestock to the 20L temp tank. I got them all in and safe in about 3 hrs and went to bed. I used a bare 20L for the temp tank for a few days. I just sat my canopy over the top and put a heater and powerhead in one side.

My only casualty was a very small chips acro. I have a monti that was beginning a recovery before the move that may be regressing, but it's not a goner yet. I blame the 4 days in less than stellar conditions in the temporary tank for the chip's acro, not the move. It was polyped out the day after the move and slowly declined.

I made the change to a drilled 40 breeder today, so the coral and fish are now out of the temp tank and in their final home. I actually just finished the final adjustments to the sump a few minutes ago.

Are you setting up a brand new tank or are you moving a tank you've had for a while? I don't know if I'd set up a new tank just to move it soon. I think I'd wait unless I had a good 6 mos to let the tank mature. I"m not sure how much that would help, but I'd assume it'd make life easier if your tank wasn't young.

Oh, I didn't keep my old sand bed. It was about 2 years old and had some nice, smelly anerobic areas. 17hrs in the back of a UHaul with an inch of water surely stirred up some nasties that I don't want causing a small cycle in the newly set up tank. I bought new sand for the 40br. I'll wash and reuse the old sand down the road sometime. I have an oceanic 90g in a crate that's calling my name.


Long story short, a small tank with a well planned move is definitely doable. Just don't cut corners.

[footballdude2k3]

thanks cody, one question, what is a 5 lb oxygen tank?