Moving my tank this month and have questions...

[Doan]

My two fish tanks and I are heading to Baltimore from Pittsburgh at the end of the month and I have some questions. First I'll let you in on the plan so far then anyy suggestions you have would be great. Get up at 4am and take down 30 gallon FOWLR save about 15-20 gallons of that water in blue wal mart tote. put fish in with heater poke holes in top. Put Lr in with some water in another tote. As for reef 55 gallon put all shrimps and tangs (and heater?)in tote and thenn put everyone else who is kinda small like the gromis and gobies in bags. All coral and LR with as much water as I can get in another tote to keep everything covered can't have this stuff re cycling on me. transport early to avoid boiling fish and coral in AC and put all the water and stuff in the back of the truck. Hopefully on the road by 7am. get there get set up before heat of the day. Questions.... how do I keep all the algea and coraline and stuff on the back of my tanks from dying during the 4 hour drive? If it all dies and I put everyone back in tanks it is gonna be a mess with nitrates and death of epic proportions. also Is there any thing else I should know or is this kinda like just doing a big 50% water change upon arriving and getting them back up to speed? Does anyone see any holes in my plan??

Thanks for your help I would hate to lose anyone.

Jeremy

 

[schoeplein]

Clean your tank befor refilling to solve your problem. The coraline will grow back. Just keep your rock submerged in water and you'll be sharp.

G'luck!

 

[bound_for_obx]

I would allow more than 3 hours for the tank tear-downs. It took me about 12 hours to teardown, move, and reasemble my 75gal tank back in march. And I was only moving about 3 blocks. I didn't have any help with the tear-down or re-setup. Only with the heavy lifting. HTH

 

[schoeplein]

Took me three days to move from a 75 to a 110 that was about a foot away from each other.

 

[JohnNLuc]

It took me about 7-8 hours to move a tank from one room into another (about 50 feet from its original location) 2 months ago. It was one of my small 46G but none the less took a bit of time.

 

[Doan]

Sounds like a winner thanks. I will give my self more time and scrape all the coraline off. Thanks guys

Doan

 

[Rocket2001]

This maybe a bit obsessive but i was forced to move two tanks at the same time due to a catastrophic failure of my 90gal tank. I suggest you lay out your plan in your head think about step by step what you need to do "in order" and then write it down on a list so you dont forget anything like pluging in heaters or adding water conditioner..i found a plan on paper was very helpful

 

[Bearfan]

I used new 5 gallon pails with lids that sealed from Menards to move my LR 400 miles. They can be sealed 100% so they don't leak and filled almost to the top with tank water. Worked great.

 

[ellisz]

When I moved my rock, I put a bit of water in the bottom of the container, filled with rock and put a wet towel of the top and then sealed. Rock was out of water a few hours and one bucket I forgot about overnight! I saw no ill effects and lost nothing.

I did lose my awesome corraline back wall. It turned white and flaked off. I did not clean the tank but it might be a good idea. That stuff was flaking off for weeks.

 

[AndyH5512]

Thre is a good article in Aqarium Fish Magazine's August edition with tips on moving.