Moving help with Biocube 14

[iDream]

hey all of AA, i need your help!

my fiance and i are moving in about a year, and moving into in an apartment will require sizing down for us, though she only has 2 tanks, i have 6 p) and we won't have the room for all of them, so we've decided on bringing 1 tank each, her biorb life 8G, and my biocube 14. i know it's preemptive but id rather be ready early and know what to do to make as few trips as possible (1 preferably lol) since our area we're looking at is an hour and a half away

her tank will be easier to work with since its only freshwater, but my tank, also being my first endeavor into saltwater, i'm in the dark about this =/

my idea was to drain half the water into a 5G bucket and putting my two clowns, firefish, and CUC with my one coral frag into it, then putting my LR in a plastic bag with a bit of water to keep it moist, and leave about a 1/4" of water in the tank about the sand and transport the tank with that, obviously bringing the rest of my water in another bucket, here are some of my concerns:

will my fish and CUC live? what do i do with the lid on the bucket?
will i need to re-cycle my tank?
how long will my fun extra life on my LR live out of water?

IS MY IDEA GOOD?!?!?! idk what to do!

please help!

 

[Sadielynn]

NanoReefing.Com - Your ultimate guide to saltwater aquariums

NanoReefing.Com - Your ultimate guide to saltwater aquariums
HTH sadie

 

[pat8you]

Not a bad plan but i would alter it a little bit.

Take about half the water out of your bio cube and put it into the 5 gallon bucket with all your rock. Seal the lid up tight so it won't leak all over. Leave the fish and coral in the tank with the remaining water and the lid on. This way you don't have to try and catch your fish and put additional stress on them. Try to stir things up as little as possible when your taking the rock out. It would be a good idea to do a good cleaning/water change where you siphon the rocks clean a day or two before the move. You would have to step on the breaks pretty darn hard to slosh water out of the tank but put some towels around it just to be safe. Make sure you have another 5g bucket with mixed saltwater ready to go so that when you get to your new place you can top it off with clean saltwater. Discard the water that is in with the rock. It will probably be pretty nasty.

will my fish and CUC live?

Yup, my fish, coral, and CUC all made the two day 20 hour drive from florida to chicago this way.

will i need to re-cycle my tank?

Nope, since your rock will be underwater the whole time you won't have hardly any bacteria die off. Do a few extra water changes over the week after you move though. You will stir up some funky stuff that has been trapped in rocks or spots with low flow. If you run any of the sponges in the back of the bio cube make sure you clean them daily until your tank settles down again. If not put a filter pad or sponge back there for a couple days to help take the big stuff out of your water.

Good luck with the move.

 

[Sadielynn]

Please do NOT transport a cube with anything in it , they tend to crack remove every thing keep a small amount of sand from it and reseed a new sand bed,granit you will get diatoms but they will go away after a few days/weeks ... When reloading the water swish the rock to remove sediment and use a pump to put the water back over the rocks to prevent a sand storm , then run a tandum filter (HOB works great for this) to remove , any extra yuckies ....

 

[Jimbo7]

You would be fine with any and all of these suggestions. Pat moved his tank from daytona beach to chicago with the method he described with no problems. Be sure you have plenty of extra water pre-mixed to your current tank parameters just in case.