moving rock in trailer in cold climate

I will be transporting my reef, for the most part its just rock with alot of
decent life on more than half of them. i will be using a 20ft livein trailer
type and make a one way travel-journey up north from southern california
with a 60 gal reef that needs to run off inverters. 300 watt heater will
kill the bateries in no time. how cold can i let these things get? i can
reset the tank in washington for a few weeks, then its once more on its way
all the way north to alaska to even colder drives. i have a few crabs left,
a snail or two, a million small snails that i DONT want dead, small
starfish, only two yellow polpys left from greenhiir algae massacre,
mushroom that went from fully healthy to the size of a dime, and a very
small patch of pink stonys. i do have a few buckets with lids, would be
nice to put rocks in there with water and put lids on it and let them reach
60 degrees, this will kill them though right? so if this wont work then i
thought of a place where i could just transport the tank 1/3 full of water
with all rocks laying flat and heater on bottom with top of tank sealed for
splashing. trailer power will be good until overnight sleeps when truck
generator isnt charging batteries, the heater i cant see being on all night.
hmmm, i wonder propane heater underthe glass? heehee i could just see the
burnt sand spot in the middle now... (glass doesnt break when heated if
touching water, only if its cooled with cold water when hot.)
i also would like to take all of the live sand out and keep it in a bucket
and let it get 50-60degrees, or do i need to treat this stuff with more care
too? any help appreciated. thanks.
wolfhedd

Have you considered placing life items in several smaller containers and
placing each container in a bigger styrofoam box like cheap "cooler"?
You could also take with you a box or two of heatpacks - they keep
relatively high temp (105F) for more than 30 hours so if you place
2-3 heatpacks inside the styrofoam box near the containter with water
it will keep it from droping the temp too much...
Animals are relatively more resistant to colder temps than to hotter.
If you make the temp change to be slow and low temp not last too long
I would bet you will have very high survival rate. Also, think about
ventilating containers during the trip with some inverter powered
air-pumps but make sure air-pump is pumping warm air because you will
have significant temp drop with such cooling depends of air temp...
Goof luck.

What has possessed your mind to make you relocate from California
to Alaska?????? :-))

I live in Ft Wayne, Indiana its about 4 hours drive to Terra Haute, the home
of Inland Aquatics. Its the other side of the state, but they are the
closest ( and one of the best stocked) place for DSB kits, and other strange
inverts and Macro algae.

When I go there in winter, I take Igloo cooler, we place about have the
cooler with bags of Specimens, the other have of warm water, and after the 4
hour drive home, I am within a few degrees of normal temp.

Steve

"wolfhedd" wrote in message ink.net...
I will be transporting my reef, for the most part its just rock with alot of
decent life on more than half of them. i will be using a 20ft livein trailer
type and make a one way travel-journey up north from southern california
with a 60 gal reef that needs to run off inverters. 300 watt heater will
kill the bateries in no time. how cold can i let these things get?


Heat Packs may help a little, but that is a long and potentially cold
trip.

If it were me, I would hook up the inverter to your tow vehicle while
traveling... This will keep things charged up. If you use decent
wire (12 guage or so for a long run), you should be able to keep
enough juice pumping into your batteries to keep things going.

Wrap some good insulation around everything to minimize heat loss...

oh man, why? the sickness of vehicle traffic, the breathing of smog, the
arsenic and chromium 6 and flouride in my drinking water that gave my most
precious female dog bone cancer who i lost two years ago, the lack of wild
salmon and caribou to seed my sled dogs in this area(lol), poisened foods at
the grocery store, stress from all the hustle and bustle, the dependence on
oil, the quest for renewable energy and log cabins, living in tranquility
using my sled dogs for travel in sub zero winters to get to store and back,
and to the river and back, and to hunt to get my food, the pure love of it,
survival instinct, hunting trapping only my subsistence, and i have 8 sled
dogs that are dying to go!!! I love it, right now its going to get down
to -20 degF sometime this week in Fairbanks where i plan to settle somewhere
in the woods just outside one of the towns... :-) big smiles....
i like to climb mountains in winter storms(well used to when i was a bit
younger, still want to conquer Denali and will try) and did an ice climb up
the north face of Mt. San Gregornio once as well. I love expeditioning and
am not married yet and in my very early 30's. now maybe that would better
explain it ??.. heeheehee
wolfy

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
Have you considered placing life items in several smaller containers and
placing each container in a bigger styrofoam box like cheap "cooler"?
You could also take with you a box or two of heatpacks - they keep
relatively high temp (105F) for more than 30 hours so if you place
2-3 heatpacks inside the styrofoam box near the containter with water
it will keep it from droping the temp too much...
Animals are relatively more resistant to colder temps than to hotter.
If you make the temp change to be slow and low temp not last too long
I would bet you will have very high survival rate. Also, think about
ventilating containers during the trip with some inverter powered
air-pumps but make sure air-pump is pumping warm air because you will
have significant temp drop with such cooling depends of air temp...
Goof luck.

What has possessed your mind to make you relocate from California
to Alaska?????? :-))

good idea, and in my case i can see easily adapting by pouring warm water in
there every few hours, but in your case, your saying it was warmer than 80
degrees initially? is this safe? or was there only a two degree temp drop?
thanks for good idea, i have a 32quart coleman i think it is and a small
playmate. would these work? i could also wrap them in blankets... thanks

Another Question; sorry;
shoud i bring my 40 gallon corner tank with me thats outside on the patio
collecting dust, or sell it(opinions). i think it will take up a lot of
space i prob dont have on the move, but it would make a good refugium to
compliment my 60 gal and 6gal sump refug.
space is real limited and money too, so is there anyone out there that
really thinks its of use? or better bought in future when a better than
6gal refug is needed for 60 gall?

wolf.


"Steve Sells" wrote in message
k.net...
I live in Ft Wayne, Indiana its about 4 hours drive to Terra Haute, the
home
of Inland Aquatics. Its the other side of the state, but they are the
closest ( and one of the best stocked) place for DSB kits, and other
strange
inverts and Macro algae.

When I go there in winter, I take Igloo cooler, we place about have the
cooler with bags of Specimens, the other have of warm water, and after the
4
hour drive home, I am within a few degrees of normal temp.

Steve

ok, if i do this, then a problem will be heat, cause my 300wtt heater is too
much for inverter/battery supply i think. but i may have a 100watt heater.
r u guys suggesting ac or dc heater? i only know of ac heaters. on the
pump, i have ac also, i guess i could get all this hooked up to my intverter
and see what happens, without the sump pumps rolling like last time i tried
it may be alot more effieient. thanks again for the advice.
wolf

"Patrick" wrote in message
om...
"wolfhedd" wrote in message
ink.net...
I will be transporting my reef, for the most part its just rock with
alot of
decent life on more than half of them. i will be using a 20ft livein
trailer
type and make a one way travel-journey up north from southern california
with a 60 gal reef that needs to run off inverters. 300 watt heater will
kill the bateries in no time. how cold can i let these things get?


Heat Packs may help a little, but that is a long and potentially cold
trip.

If it were me, I would hook up the inverter to your tow vehicle while
traveling... This will keep things charged up. If you use decent
wire (12 guage or so for a long run), you should be able to keep
enough juice pumping into your batteries to keep things going.

Wrap some good insulation around everything to minimize heat loss...

this sounds like a great time to get on kordans case about there breetheable bags, they
are supposed to have a larger & thicker one coming soon to a store near you, or something
like that. a ton of amquel++ and some of those bags things should last months if you can
keep temp constant. even if you cant get it, think about using the ones they already make.

--
Richard Reynolds

wolfhedd wrote:
ok, if i do this, then a problem will be heat, cause my 300wtt heater is too
much for inverter/battery supply i think. but i may have a 100watt heater.
r u guys suggesting ac or dc heater? i only know of ac heaters. on the
pump, i have ac also, i guess i could get all this hooked up to my intverter
and see what happens, without the sump pumps rolling like last time i tried
it may be alot more effieient. thanks again for the advice.
wolf

"Patrick" wrote in message
om...

"wolfhedd" wrote in message

ink.net...

I will be transporting my reef, for the most part its just rock with

alot of

decent life on more than half of them. i will be using a 20ft livein

trailer

type and make a one way travel-journey up north from southern california
with a 60 gal reef that needs to run off inverters. 300 watt heater will
kill the bateries in no time. how cold can i let these things get?


Heat Packs may help a little, but that is a long and potentially cold
trip.

If it were me, I would hook up the inverter to your tow vehicle while
traveling... This will keep things charged up. If you use decent
wire (12 guage or so for a long run), you should be able to keep
enough juice pumping into your batteries to keep things going.

Wrap some good insulation around everything to minimize heat loss...



Is there any way you can get a small portable generator for the trailer.
Might just be handy for the time in the wilderness too.

Rex


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You've got to be really careful with small generators, for a bunch of
reasons..

1) Most small generators (by small I mean 1000 Watts or so) don't like
to be constantly on the move while running. The bearings aren't really
designed to handle the gyroscopic loads that come from spinning real
fast while abruptly changing direction (i.e. hitting bumps in the
road, potholes, etc). You can really take a few years off of a small
generator by doing this. Ask me how I know

b) Very hard to mount so that you aren't going to set something on
fire!

III) You've got to worry about keeping it fueled on the road - the
small ones only have fuel capacity for around 3 hours or so.

Four) Exhaust venting! They pump out CO and other nasties like crazy
- even a small leak in your trailer will kill everything in your tank
in an hour or two.


The only way I would do this is if I had a pickup. Put the generator
in the pickup bed, and run an extension cord to the trailer somehow.



Budman wrote in message ...
wolfhedd wrote:


Is there any way you can get a small portable generator for the trailer.
Might just be handy for the time in the wilderness too.

Rex