6 mo. old tank-moving this month! help...

[regaltanglady]

This is my first saltwater tank so I am trying to do everything the right way.
This tank has only been established for 6 months now & I have to move! But I signed a 1 year lease & I intend to stay longer than that.
Soo...how do I go about moving my tank? (I am moving about 30 min. from my current location)
34 gal Red Sea Max (I splurged!)
(see pic)
Stock:
1 blue tang
1 yellow tang
1 flame angel
4 green chromis
2 cleaner shrimp
1 urchin
1 hammer coral
1 trumpet coral
~20 nassarius
~10 hermit crabs
Also any advice once the tank is in its new place. I know I am lacking in the coral aspect. Also I hope I am not overstocked on fish! I'm not planning on getting anymore (though I can think of quite a few I would still l want, like a little clown)
I am thinking, some blue mushrooms & maybe some sun coral down the road.

 

[uberlink]

Buy enough buckets and/or rubbermaid containers to hold all your animals, live rock, and about 2/3 of your water. Have another half-tank worth of saltwater ready mixed at the new location. Drain the 1/2 of the tank into the rubbermaids. Put the rocks into the rubbermades. Drain some more water into buckets or rubbermaids. With the rock out of the tank, you can catch the fish and put them into the buckets. I usually put the fish and inverts into one and corals into others. Put a heater and air bubbler or powerhead in with the livestock. Really just use common sense as to how you divide things up. Don't put fish or inverts in with rocks that might shift. It's asking for trouble and injury.
Some will tell you that you need to remove the sand from the tank. Probably good advice, but I have never done it because I worry more about stirring it up than about the very slim possibility of damaging the tank. Just be careful and you should be able to move the sand inside the tank, with about 1/4 inch of water left over the top.
The heater and powerhead/bubbler will buy you quite a few hours while you take down the rest of your equipment. Once everything is drained and empty, remove your equipment into whatever vehicle you're using. Only when everything else is loaded should you unplug the heaters, etc. and put the buckets with your animals into your car. (by the way, keep the car running so the ******** is warm).
Head straight for the new place. Bring the animals in first and get their heater/bubbler/powerhead plugged in. Again, this will buy you hours to set everything up. Then pour the new water that you have ready at the new location into the tank. once it's 1/2 full or so, get a heater and some powerheads going inside the tank. Make sure it's not too cool in there, and then put the live rocks in (do your rockwork nicely!) and pour water from the rubbermaids that held the rock into the tank. Get the tank pretty much full. Now hook up your equipment and get everything running. This will take a couple hours, so keep an eye on your critters all the while.
Once you have everything set up and up to temperature in the tank, you should be okay to put your animals into the tank. Keep the lights off during the whole process. It will take some time for the water to clear, but everything should be okay when your lights come on the next morning.
That's pretty much it. By the way, this is obviously a good time to do some maintenance (e.g. changing out any overflow parts you've been meaning to replace), so do that while you're at it.
All in all, it's a miserable and stressful way to spend an afternoon...but that's about it. It's not as hard as it seems. Just use your head, keep your critters warm at all times, and you should be fine.

 

[uberlink]

By the way, you're going to hear it from others, so you may as well hear it now...that 34 gallon tank is very nice but will soon be far too small for those two tangs.

 

[michaeltx]

pretty much what he said
I would like to add that I would take this time to take the 2 tangs to the LFS and trade them in for smaller more suitable fish for you tank. both of these guys need alot of room minimum of a 4ft long tank alot of other people say minimum of 6ft.. the move will also stress these guys opening them up for ich and other diseases from the stress.
welcome to the board.
Mike

 

[lovethesea]

eveything in above comments and remove your rock first. Let the water get cleared up if it got stirred up. Its really hard to catch your fish when the water is stirred up.
good luck it is a messy pain!

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by MichaelTX
pretty much what he said
I would like to add that I would take this time to take the 2 tangs to the LFS and trade them in for smaller more suitable fish for you tank. both of these guys need alot of room minimum of a 4ft long tank alot of other people say minimum of 6ft.. the move will also stress these guys opening them up for ich and other diseases from the stress.
welcome to the board.
Mike

Great point. See if your LFS will give you some credit to come back and get two better fish after things have settled down. Seriously...it's only a matter of time before those little guys become ill in that setup. 75 gallons is the bear minimum for a single tang, and even that's too small with time. You really need more like 125.

 

[regaltanglady]

Originally Posted by uberlink
Great point. See if your LFS will give you some credit to come back and get two better fish after things have settled down. Seriously...it's only a matter of time before those little guys become ill in that setup. 75 gallons is the bear minimum for a single tang, and even that's too small with time. You really need more like 125.
What about the flame angel though? He is the biggest of them all. (my boyfriend does not want to give up the flame angel lol)
Maybe I can keep the blue tang (he was my 1st fish lol)
I would like a clownfish ( true perc, i think its called)
And eventually a mandarin goby!
I had a bicolor pseudo and he was the cutest...until he started killing the shrimp, then he had to go.

 

[michaeltx]

neither one of the tangs are going to be able to housed long term in that tank size. they come down with alot of disease when they are cramped in a tank. contrary to popular belief they do not stop growing to the tank size it will stunt ther growth and stress them out and cause problems like ICH ad HLLE that can wipe out the rest of the tank with ICH and the HLLE can cause massive damage to the fish and take a VERY long time to heal up after proper conditions are made for them. the flame angel is going to alright for alittle while but really needs a larger tank aswell but the main ones that concern me now are the tangs.
as far as the madarin do alot of research on them basic tank setups dont offer the ability to keep their food source flowing and most starve slowly in a small tank.
I would look into upgrading your tank if you are set on these fish though .
i know its blunt not meaning to be though just informative.
Mike

 

[stdreb27]

Your blue hippo tank will get the size BIG. Like I've seen them 10 inches long. And your yellow tank will end up being about 5 inches. The flame angel is going to be your smallest fish very soon, he should be ok in a 35 gallon tank. They don't need as much swimming room, and max out at about 3 to 4 inches.
A 35 gallon tank will be easy to move when I moved my fish stuff, it took 4 trucks and 4 guys to get it all in one day.

 

[uberlink]

Originally Posted by RegalTangLady
What about the flame angel though? He is the biggest of them all. (my boyfriend does not want to give up the flame angel lol)
Maybe I can keep the blue tang (he was my 1st fish lol)
I would like a clownfish ( true perc, i think its called)
And eventually a mandarin goby!
I had a bicolor pseudo and he was the cutest...until he started killing the shrimp, then he had to go.

The flame angel might be okay. It isnt so much about the size of the fish as it is about their need for swimming space. Tangs need a LOT of swimming space, and they are unusually susceptible to disease. Put the two together, and a tang in a small tank will eventually lead to disaster.