Guides for Moving Reef Aquarium

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flanque

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
740
Hi,

I will leave the topic to explain what I want to achieve.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thx. :)
 
First thing I would do is read the article we have in our articles area on moving an established aquarium. The article was written with FW tanks in mind but the general process is the same for SW.

How far do you have to move? Is the info in your sig what your moving?
 
i once had to move my 9 gal reef aquarium 15 miles to the near by school for a friend of mine who is a marine bio teacher and wanted it in his room. i started by dismantaling most of the suff, and i got it into my car as fast as possible. i first took out the pump, the n turned off the heater stuff like that, then i took all the live rock out and rapped it in damp newspaper and put it in a box. then i took out halve the water and picked the aquarium up and moved it. im not shure how youd physicaly move larger aquariums, but good luck
 
There is a link in my sig to the articles area not to mention a link at the top of the page below the banner.

Its never good to move an aquarium with water in it. The reasons are numberous but a few of them include:

Excessive weight causing undue strain on those moving the tank and the seals of the tank itself
 
Where I am moving is about 10-15 minutes drive away. My friend offered to house my inhabitents whilst I move the rock, etc and he only lives about 5 minutes away driving so perhaps it would be better to leave them in his aquarium whilst I move and ensure that the bio-system is back up to scratch?
 
I would not put them in another system. The stress can be greater that way than putting them in buckets with your tank water. They would have to acclomate twice vs once.

Follow the article and put all your rock in tubs or buckets, keep as much water as you can and put the fish in buckets with tank water. Transport the tank empty and put your substrate in buckets aswell. You will need alot of buckets and tubs to do this move.

Set the tank up at the new place and put the fish back in. There should be minimal afffect to the overall biosystem as long as you do the move non stop. if you tear things down last and set the tank up first you should only have the tank apart for an hour or so if that.
 
As far as water goes I have several barrels which I use to purchase new aquarium water.

I was thinking of keeping the rock in a transport tub of aquarium water whilst I move. That way they keep fully wet.

I want to change the substrate from a fine sand bed to a gravel bed so this is the ideal time to make such changes I think.

Is it wise to change the substrate during this time? I also intend on cleaning the algae off the hard to reach places.

Any thoughts?
 
I am moving in about a year. I thought of putting all my corals in a kiddy tub and hook up the heaters to maintain temperature and using the same huge rubbermaid containers I use to make my RO water to hold the original water from the tank and put the fish in one since my containers are dark to keep the fish calm (or will this have the reverse effect?) and then put the rock in rubbermaid containers, as well as the sand. What I am stuck on is the refuguim. I wil have mangroves in there with roots. My fuge will be a 30 gallon container. Yikes! Do you have a fuge also? If so, what are your ideas for moving it? I think the kiddy pool idea for the corals would work well mostly because you can easily see how they are doing in a busy time as it would be to move. Is this a possible idea? FF, can you use a kiddy pool? Then again, if you do not have tons of corals, would a 30g rubbermaid work? My main concern with moving is keeping the temp and everything stable while I am busy moving the tank.
 
My immediate thought is that if you get a new uncontaminated contain of some sort and use aquarium water along with the heaters then it should be okay.

Moving a marine aquarium is not meant to be done I think...

I'm going to use a product called Stress Coat and Stability to help reduce stress on the inhabs and help keep bacteria levels up high.

It's going to be on my mind for some time until I move so I will keep this thread updated with my thoughts. I have to read the article first though as well.
 
I agree, that is why when we move it is going to be permanent and we are going to have tile floors ahead of time. Right now we want to buy the house we are in. If we do, the tank has to be moved anyways because the carpets need to be replaced. My thoughts are....this can only happen once, so what ever I put down has also got to be permanent.
 
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