Moving tank

[reefguy24]

I need to move my 24ga nano tank 10 miles up the road to a new apartment.

I'm going to be donating my 2 fish to the local fish store as I don't want to put them through a move and whatever else. This assumes that a clownfish and purple pseudochromis can be caught. I'm pretty sure I can catch them.

So all I have to worry about are 8 coral frags (the biggest being a zoa that has grown exponentially on a rock) and a Maxima clam and the clean up crew that includes 2 emerald crabs.

I plan on taking all live rock out and putting it in one 5ga Home Depot bucket. Then pouring tank water in.

I plan on taking another 5ga Home Depot bucket and putting all coral frags and the clam in there, then pouring water. I'm going to attempt to catch the two emerald crabs (and 2-3 hermit crabs) but not sure.....maybe I should just leave them in the tank with 1" of water?

Then siphoning out the rest of the tank water into however many other Home Depot 5ga buckets and that's that.

Put all buckets in my car, then the tank, then drive to new place.


My question is this: Once I'm at the new place.....and because I have a fine particle sand bed.....when I start to pour in the tank water into the tank.....isn't that going to create a huge sandstorm inside the tank? Will the coral frags and clams be ok? Or should I get a battery operated pump and light while they wait in the 5gal Home Depot bucket for the main tank to "clear up" a bit?

Or does anyone have any suggestions? My new apartment is a 15 minute trip from my old apartment.


I'm really not looking forward to this.


//edit

I already talked to several live fish stores where I live...they all want $200 to $300 to make the move for me. Screw that.

[Reefmedic79]

The sandstorm should be ok for most of the corals, and some giant clams can handle some mild sediment in the water, but some can't tolerate it at all.

If you put the rock in the tank first, and use a small pump to pump the water onto the rocks, being sure not to allow the water to flow directly onto the sand, you should be able to fill the tank with a limited sandstorm.

[danderso]

Sounds like a solid plan. I would keep the fish and leave crabs and snails in the bit of water. They should be fine. And +1 on pumpng the water back in slowly over the rocks. I have moved a 75 and a 29 without any problem in the basic fashion you described. Good luck.

[addictedreefer]

You should be able to make the move without a problem. I have moved nanos from Boston to NY before using pretty much the same process as you describe. You can avoid the sandstorm if you add the water slowly and are sure to pour it over the rock.

Also, no need to give the fish away . . . they should make the move just fine.

[klwheat]

One other thing, not sure if you know this...when you take the clam out, try to get it into something under the water to transfer. You want to try to avoid having it completely out of water totally exposed to air.

[peacetypes6]

youre going ten miles everything will be fine. that break down and set back up shouldnt be more than four hours. thats a fraction of the flying time between wild and wholesaler. thats just a reference, if youre in MD i can give you some pointers

[living_waters]

Keep your fish and instead of splashing water over your rock just place the hose on the glass that's what I did you will get a gentle water fall into the tank than having splash everywhere by using rock

[JAnwyl]

When pouring the water back in the tank pour it onto something to minimize the cloud you create. (like a little plastic container or something.) Pump is a good thought (to pump water out of the 5 gal buckets cause it will allow a controlled stream). Pump buckets as low as possible till all are as low as can go. Then pour rest of water out of buckets into tank. (do that last after all 4-5 buckets are pumped out)

Make sure during drive over to new place that tank is on some sort of padding, cracking it on moving day would add whole bunch of complications, plus it would just suck.

Also don't get rid of the fish.

[reefguy24]

Wow, look at all the replies....I take it everyone in here has had to deal with a tank move or two in their lifetime.

Thanks and I will be buying a pump (amazon?) to do that method.

And thanks for the "moving the clam underwater" idea.

[UMass14]

Sounds like you have a solid game plan. Good luck with the move!

[blacklabz]

I had to move a tank as well. I placed a plastic garbage bag (new, unused, of course) over the sand and filled. There was no sand kicked up at all.

HTH

[JonV88]

I've seen videos where they put the rock in and put a plate over 2 rocks and pour water onto plate

[CoralBeauty13]

We bought a 180gl that was 32 miles away. It came with 150lbs of live rock in which filled with tank water and stored it in 33gl trashcans with lids taped closed. Corals were in 3 5gl Home-depot buckets, and fish( 7 of them )were in two 5gl HD buckets with tank water and rocks, and we put a heater as soon as we got home. Cleanup crew was put in a separate bucket with 2 inches of sand and tank water. All the water everything was in came from the tank, so no stress other than the move, and everyone was just fine. It took a bit over 7 hours to load/unload and start the getting the tank ready to put everything back in. The original water was pumped back into the tank, all the while buying RODI from the LFS and getting it salt mixed.

It took several days to fill the tank full as we didn't want to change to much water at one time. I believe we had just under 75gl of original water, so we filled it up slowly at just 10gl a day. Just keep your water at the right temp in the bucket with the fish and all should be good. Remember, fish travel thousands of miles and go through many transitions before it even gets to you, a 10 mile move shouldn't hurt it. Have fun Moving, which is never fun.

As far as the sand storm, The guy we bought it from also helped us set it up . He put the sand first then, nest aquascaped it , then using a siphon hose put it in between the rock formation where there was minimal flow area, the tank was pretty clear with just the reg cloud flow of a new set up which cleared really fast .We left the fish and others in the buckets until most of the cloudy water was settled which was minimal. Fish were fine, all was great. I will soon be editing a video for youtube to show the whole move and setup and end results.

[reefguy24]

We bought a 180gl that was 32 miles away. It came with 150lbs of live rock in which filled with tank water and stored it in 33gl trashcans with lids taped closed. Corals were in 3 5gl Home-depot buckets, and fish( 7 of them )were in two 5gl HD buckets with tank water and rocks, and we put a heater as soon as we got home. Cleanup crew was put in a separate bucket with 2 inches of sand and tank water. All the water everything was in came from the tank, so no stress other than the move, and everyone was just fine. It took a bit over 7 hours to load/unload and start the getting the tank ready to put everything back in. The original water was pumped back into the tank, all the while buying RODI from the LFS and getting it salt mixed.

It took several days to fill the tank full as we didn't want to change to much water at one time. I believe we had just under 75gl of original water, so we filled it up slowly at just 10gl a day. Just keep your water at the right temp in the bucket with the fish and all should be good. Remember, fish travel thousands of miles and go through many transitions before it even gets to you, a 10 mile move shouldn't hurt it. Have fun Moving, which is never fun.

As far as the sand storm, The guy we bought it from also helped us set it up . He put the sand first then, nest aquascaped it , then using a siphon hose put it in between the rock formation where there was minimal flow area, the tank was pretty clear with just the reg cloud flow of a new set up which cleared really fast .We left the fish and others in the buckets until most of the cloudy water was settled which was minimal. Fish were fine, all was great. I will soon be editing a video for youtube to show the whole move and setup and end results.

Thanks for the info! Can you post the video in a new thread or PM me when you're done with it?

Love to see it in action!

[civics2k]

If you pour the water onto a plate or something similar if should avoid a big sand storm. I moved my 150g with no loss in livestock and no sand storm.

[lrs183]

I will be doing a 12 hour move at the end of 2014 and I am dreading it. A 15 minute hike will be fine with what a previous poster said of about 4 hours of tank acclimation. Honestly I read some ideas from a person who said to get an adapter for a car to which you can plug your heater, air and even a power head to. You could essentially move your live rock and fish in a portable fish tank (bucket or whatever you're using) and I would think your water, fish and rocks would maintain the water quality they had in the tank. At least for a period of time. You could attempt to premix some water for your arrival and just acclimate 15-20gallons of your prior water into it and not deal with a shock. Would probably shorten the process to a good 1-2 hours to make sure the tanks heat is good.

[lrs183]

Just when you get there, put your fish in a closet or something and turn the lights out. Helps reduce their stress. Don't have them being moved a lot. I moved my 55 fresh last year and that sucked but other than some water parameter specifications (heat and salinity come to mind), it can't be too much more difficult. You'll be fine.