Moving across town...advice please!
 

We have a 150 gallon marine reef aquarium established about three
years ago. We have a 4 to 6 inch sand bed and about 200 lb live rock.
Thriving within are numerous corals, critters and fish.

We're moving across town in a couple weeks and need advice about the
daunting task of accomplishing the move of our aquarium.

There are two of us, and we know we can handle the empty tank and
accoutrements. What's the best way to move everything else?

We've got a Ford F-150 truck. It's about a 30 minute drive between
the two locations. We're moving from a first-floor location to a
first floor location. We're in Atlanta, so we're expecting outdoor
air temps to be cooperative.

We'd greatly appreciate tips, pointers, advice, etc, from anyone who
has accomplished a similar move.

"Danny B." wrote in message
...
We have a 150 gallon marine reef aquarium established about three
years ago. We have a 4 to 6 inch sand bed and about 200 lb live rock.
Thriving within are numerous corals, critters and fish.

We're moving across town in a couple weeks and need advice about the
daunting task of accomplishing the move of our aquarium.

There are two of us, and we know we can handle the empty tank and
accoutrements. What's the best way to move everything else?

We've got a Ford F-150 truck. It's about a 30 minute drive between
the two locations. We're moving from a first-floor location to a
first floor location. We're in Atlanta, so we're expecting outdoor
air temps to be cooperative.

We'd greatly appreciate tips, pointers, advice, etc, from anyone who
has accomplished a similar move.


i moved a 125 FO and a 55 reef about 30 miles. each took a complete day to
move and setup, and except for the tank itself, i did it myself.

save as much of the water as possible. lots of 5 gallon water jugs (see if a
company near you has 5gallon water cooler bottles you can 'borrow' for a
day). i found a source for square 7 gallon jugs, which don't waste any space
when nested together. lots of the largest coolers you can get/find/borrow.
go to the fish store and get plastic bags and see if they'll lend/give you
styrofoam boxes.

bag everything individually. put in coolers. put live rock in coolers
covered with water. put live sand in coolers with some water. (this will
make them HEAVY, so don't fill the cooler). i left about 50% of the live
sand with just a little water in my 55 when i moved it.

move everything loose that you can beforehand. everything may not fit in
your truck for one trip. you obviously have to move the tank, stand, and
water in the first one, then go back for the livestock for the 2nd trip.
doing this lets you set it up in the 2nd location, lets the water settle
out, temp change, etc. leave someone there in case it leaks, or watch it for
a while. things break when you move or adjust them.

if there are any changes you were planning on for the plumbing, that would
be the perfect time to do it.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

"Danny B." wrote in message
...
We have a 150 gallon marine reef aquarium established about three
years ago. We have a 4 to 6 inch sand bed and about 200 lb live rock.
Thriving within are numerous corals, critters and fish.

We're moving across town in a couple weeks and need advice about the
daunting task of accomplishing the move of our aquarium.

There are two of us, and we know we can handle the empty tank and
accoutrements. What's the best way to move everything else?

We've got a Ford F-150 truck. It's about a 30 minute drive between
the two locations. We're moving from a first-floor location to a
first floor location. We're in Atlanta, so we're expecting outdoor
air temps to be cooperative.

We'd greatly appreciate tips, pointers, advice, etc, from anyone who
has accomplished a similar move.




One main hint is to make the tank the last thing you take down in the old
place and be the first thing you put up in the new one. That way you have
the least down time on the tank possible.

With a tank that size, it's going to be too heavy to move with anything left
in it, so even the sand has to come out. This is where I'm willing to bet
someone is going to disagree with me, but I would rinse the sand before
putting it back. The sand becomes a nutrient sink and once it's disturbed
that much, you face a the chances of a major release and the resulting water
quality problems and a possible large algae bloom. Even if you have to use a
hose and kill off most of the benificial bacteria, to me it's better than
letting everything trapped in the sand loose in the tank.

Most of the rock will survive out of the water for a few hours if it's kept
damp, alot of companies ship rock dry for over 24 hours and it does ok. A
rubbermaid container with a lid works great for this.

If you want to save some of the old water to go back in the tank, you can,
but it's not going to wipe out your tank if you don't.

Your LFS usually has coolers left over from fish shipments and doesn't mind
giving them away. Bum or buy a few fish bags from them while you are there
and bag your fish the same way as if you were taking them home from the pet
store.

As for the corals, Most companies ship them in sealed bags with a minimum of
water, so placing them in coolers or sal****er safe plastic containers will
work. If it's less than a day, an airstone isn't even needed. But if you
want to drop one in once you get them to the new place while you set the
tank back up it certainly isn't going to hurt. If you are worried about them
stinging or touching each other, simply place them in plastic ziplock bags
and set them in the water in the cooler. You don't even have to bother
closing them, you just want to seperate them.

To speed everything up and make getting the tank back up as fast as
possible....if you have the money, large plastic garbage cans in the 35
gallon range are only $12 to $14 at Wal-Mart. Get two or three and have as
much of your water premixed as possible and ready to go. So all you need to
do is put the sand and rock in and fill the tank.

I'm not going to disagree with the last post but think that this is
the best way and well thought out.( I dont know about washing the
sand). I gave my 60 gal to my father and one way to save you back is

if you can get your truck close to the tank your moving

1.Pump the water from your tank directly into the a empty storage
container(s)while its in the back of your truck. ( I used a 12vlt
belge pump and hose)

2.Put the rock in the rubbermaid and fill with tank water and cover.

3.Have a rubbermaid also for the sand once you fill the rubermaid
with sand add some of the tank water to it to keep it all submerged

4.As for transporting the fish
a. take them to your LFS for storage untill you have the tank semi
setup in the new apt.
b.Put the fish into the rubbermaid with the tank water.

oh yea unplug your heater right away when you drain the tank- I
forgot and it heated up and broke when it was not summerged in water.

Hope that helps
Rick

Subject: Moving across town...advice please!
From: Danny B.
Date: 9/1/04 6:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:


[moving a tank with sand bed...]

Here is one nice piece of advice IMO that I can give you. Your tank may be
cloudy after putting the sand and water in. It may be too cloudy to arrange
your rockwork well. Have a diatom filter on hand, preferably a vortex to clear
it up quick so you can get your rock back in the tank. HtH. -M333

I moved mine just a month ago and everything went great.
I bought a couple brand new garbage cans (plastic) with wheels on them to
move the rock in habitants and water. Then I left enough water to go about
an inch or two above the sand bed. We slid the tank off of the stand onto a
piece of 1" plywood and slid it across the carpet and carried down the
stairs to the truck. When we got it in the back of the truck we screwed a
1x2 onto the wood on each edge of the tank to stop it from sliding and then
covered it with a towel and some tape to stop debris from getting in during
the drive. I assembled everything back the next day with a 25% water change
and everything worked out great. I didn't loose anything and even the
toadstool I accidentally ripped in half during the tear down recovered and
is doing great. One piece of advice I would give is make sure you think
about where your putting when setting back up. I selected what I thought was
the best place and now that we have the furniture in I wish I had put it
another 6 feet over from where it is. But I am not about the move it again
:)

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Kelly
"Danny B." wrote in message
...
We have a 150 gallon marine reef aquarium established about three
years ago. We have a 4 to 6 inch sand bed and about 200 lb live rock.
Thriving within are numerous corals, critters and fish.

We're moving across town in a couple weeks and need advice about the
daunting task of accomplishing the move of our aquarium.

There are two of us, and we know we can handle the empty tank and
accoutrements. What's the best way to move everything else?

We've got a Ford F-150 truck. It's about a 30 minute drive between
the two locations. We're moving from a first-floor location to a
first floor location. We're in Atlanta, so we're expecting outdoor
air temps to be cooperative.

We'd greatly appreciate tips, pointers, advice, etc, from anyone who
has accomplished a similar move.

I wrapped my rocks in newspaper and dipped them in some of the salt water I
was discarding.

Do you have any problems with the anaerobic layer of the sand bed releasing
it's toxic byproducts into the tank when you move the sand bed? Or do you
have a deep sand bed?

"Rick" wrote in message
m...
I'm not going to disagree with the last post but think that this is
the best way and well thought out.( I dont know about washing the
sand). I gave my 60 gal to my father and one way to save you back is

if you can get your truck close to the tank your moving

1.Pump the water from your tank directly into the a empty storage
container(s)while its in the back of your truck. ( I used a 12vlt
belge pump and hose)

2.Put the rock in the rubbermaid and fill with tank water and cover.

3.Have a rubbermaid also for the sand once you fill the rubermaid
with sand add some of the tank water to it to keep it all submerged

4.As for transporting the fish
a. take them to your LFS for storage untill you have the tank semi
setup in the new apt.
b.Put the fish into the rubbermaid with the tank water.

oh yea unplug your heater right away when you drain the tank- I
forgot and it heated up and broke when it was not summerged in water.

Hope that helps
Rick