Moving a tank?

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dheck

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 4, 2008
Messages
33
How much trouble is it to move a tank? I am in a rental right now and will eventually move. I am starting a 90 gallon reef and was just curious how hard it would be to move everything. What is the easiest way?
 
Well if you plan ahead and have some help it isn't that hard. You just have to be careful when doing it. I moved my 72 about a year ago, only a few feet but I still had to take everything out and all the water out to do it. The easiest way I know of to do it is to have a couple of 32g trashcans (about $10 from walmart) on hand. I had one filled with newly mixed SW ready to do a PWC. I also had the use of an unsused outdoor 90g pond. I pumped the water out of my tank into the 90g pond and put all my LR in it. I had a 30g tote that I pumped water in from the tank to put my corals and fish in, I had a power head and a heater in the tote to keep the water moving and temp up. After I got all the LR, fish and corals out of the tank I was able to slide the tank to it's new location. Moving one from one house to another will be more difficult because of having to transport the rock, coral, fish, tank and stand. The way I would do that is to do a PWC the day of the move and save the water from the tank and move it to the new house. Have a PH in the that water and a heater ready to receive the fish and any corals you have. You are going to need to have some water ready to refill the tank and I would use as much of the old water as possible to keep things at a constant and not shock everything in the tank. After you get everything moved and set back up I would do a PWC within a day or to. This is an all day thing by itself not counting all the other stuff you will be moving. I would make it the last thing or the very first thing that is moved and dedicate the whole day to the project so you can take your time and do it right.
 
It`s not really hard. When the time comes you`ll just need to put everything in totes and move carefully. The only thing you dont want to keep will be the sand. Alot of trash will be transfered causing a super spike IME.
 
Just leave them attached and place in totes otherwise you risk damaging your corals :)
 
How fragile are these things? I mean do they need constant waterflow and temperature if they are only going to be moved for an hour or so?
 
I would think just bagging them and placing them in a cooler with a heat pack would be sufficent since that is how they are shipped. However I would reacclimate them to the set up by dripping them once you get them there and thier tank reestablished :)
 
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