Moving 3 Tanks, experienced advice?

[Sneaker]

I am moving in 2 weeks, I have the following:

1 reef tank w/: leather coral, star polyps, button polyps, live rock, mushrooms, watchman goby, flame hawk fish, 2 clowns, cleaner shrimp, emerald crabs, red tips, blue leg, fan worms...

The other 2 tanks are not that hard, one is a fresh water and the other a 10gal nano...

Can anyone please provide me with some hints and tips I may not be aware of?

 

[reefobsessed]

I just moved a 35 gallon & a 45 gallon into a 120. The best advise I got was make sure you take everything out of the tank including the sand bed. It could crack your tank or loosen the seals if you dont. I would suggest good planning such as exactly were it will be set back up and avoid any suprises like not enough power outlets in the new spot. I would also try to keep air exposure for rock, corals, and fish to a minimum of possible. Good luck

 

[SquishyFish]

Its pretty simple.

What you'll need.

1. Large rubber maid tubs (3)
2. heater for each
3. power head for each
4. clean (new) dustpan
5. 5 gallon buckets
6. 5 gallon water jugs

Start by prepping the holding tubs. The drain water from the tank into the tubs. you should have a small power head and a heater to maintain the temp in each tub.

1. Start draining the water into the rubber maid tubs...take it down to the top of the rocks.
2. Carefully start removing the rock and corals and placing them in the tubs. You should have one for rock, one for coral, and one for fish.
3. Once all the rock and coral is out, start dipping fish. Cover the tub when done...the darkness will help keep them from stressing as much.
4. Drain any remaining water into the 5 gallon jugs.
5. Scoop out the sand w/ the dust pan into the 5 gallon buckets
6. Putting them back in you want to go sand, water, rock, coral, fish. Remember to plug the heater and the power heads back in when you get to the new location while they are waiting to be put back into the tank.

It sounds obvious, but remember when you move the fish and corals that they must be inside the cab of what ever truck your using to move them. Even a short trip on anything but a warm summer day can cause problems.

That all make sense?

 

[William]

I just brought my SW tank home yesterday.

I put all the rock in the rubbermaid container with water ro cover

Livestock I could catch [ Arrow Crab, Hermits, Snails ] in a cooler with water to cover.

They survived the hour drive back to my house quite well, ALtho my Anenome decided to move from his rock during transit into a cave in the same rock, however everyone made it undamaged and happy.


Just remember, Wrap your tanks in thick blankets, and if you think you have enough blankets for padding, put one more on.

The last thing you want to do is get home to set up your tank only to realize your tank has gotten broken in transit

 

[ellisz]

Decided to bring this thread back as I am going to be doing some moving in a few weeks.

I will be moving from the upstairs to my basement.

Water:
I would like to keep all my water. Transporting 90 gallons of water to my basement might be tough with 5 gal containers. Could I use a new garden hose and pump the water out the window to my basement? I had read to not use garden hose before but I don't think I want to get 50ft or more of clear tubing.

Rock:
Should I go ahead a dip all of my rock to remove any unwanteds? I don't want to cause any die off if I can avoid it but I do have a mantis in there some where.

Sand:
When adding the sand back to the tank, should I expect an ammonia spike from a mini cycle? I am debating on removing part of my DSB to seed a new fuge I plan on starting at the same time. Not sure if I want to add new sand or just revert to a SSB.

Do most add there livestock back to the tank the same day, if possible? Seems like it might be better to have them in containers until the tank is clear and levels looks good. I want to re-paint my stand but I don't want to hurt my livestock.

Thanks