Advice on moving.

[Vampyr]

Well, I have to move my 72 Gal. aquarium on next sunday. I will have a 125 Gal. set up (Barely) at the new house, but it will only be up for about 3 days by then. I am planning on pulling about 20 gal of water, a couple pieces of LR, and as much substrate as I can get to on thursday and setting up the 125 to get it started. I wish I had more time to let the tank cycle but under the circumstance, the best I think I can do is transfer as much of my biological filtering ability with as possible. I am rather worried about the the various corals even more so than the fish and inverts. they will have to ride in buckets for about 8 hours or so before getting back into a tank. When I pull them on sunday, the rest of the rock, substrate, sump, powerfilter and so on will be going onto the 125 as well as as much water as I can transport out of the 72.

Well, now to the questions (since the forum search function is down at the moment) Does anyone have additional tips to help increase the survivability on the transfer? I'd hate to loose more than half of the mushrooms, and the pom-pom xenias are just going like gang busters.

[hgbarwick]

I think you should move your 72 gallon and set it up. That way you can let your 125 gallon cycle.

[Vampyr]

basically everything from the 72 is going into the 125. Partially to try to reduce stress by having a hopefully ready to go bacteria filter sized for the biological load, and as insurance incase of tank breakage during the move. This has got to be the worst part of the move.

[hgbarwick]

well its sounds good. You just never know when you move a tank. Good Luck!

[DaveG99]

if you put every thing from the 72 into the 125 you will have a very very small cycle. You can put everything in right away. I did it and it worked fine and I only had a 50 gallon that I put in my 125.

[dragonladylea]

one suggestion - put the entire contents of the 72, water and all in rubbermaid tubs. That way you save on the cycle time. Best investment I ever made was the tubs. Plus you can use them after the move for storage etc.

[SERVO]

I moved my 180 7 hours away. I placed all of my corals into a system that was "cycling" for only 6 weeks. I wish I would have just transferred everything into tubs and went from there. THe nice to know is that your mature rocks will really help. Be dilligent on your water tests and hope for the best. Are you going to disturb your sand bed? That is where it gets risky. If all you have are mushrooms and other softies, you should do ok. Be careful with the xenia, they don't move well. On the bright side, if you can keep one stalk alive, 8 months later you'll have 1000. Good luck!

[Vampyr]

unfortunately I will have to disturb the sand bed. It is way too heavy to lift the tank with that much sand. I will have to do what I can to try to keep the anerobic areas anerobic...