Moving a 200 gal. Reef tank...any suggestion?

[carlos]

O.K. folks this my dilemma. I currently have an Oceanic 200 gallon tank with approximately 150- 175 pounds of LR, corals and fish. I always thought the tank coud use more corals, and LR. At any rate, last week I ran into someone who was selling another 200 gal reef tanks for a really decent price. This tank came with approx. 200 of LR and a bunch of corals and around ten 10 fish (2YT, 1BT, 4clowns, 2nasso, 1pseudo chromism and a hawk). So yes, I bought the darn thing and immediately moved the coral to my other tank.
I am going to put the LR ( some of it) in my old tank - no a problem, however, I am still working out the details on moving the tank to my house. I don't really want to set it up right away since there are a few aesthetic things I would like to do before I put it on display or sell it if my wife don;t let me keep it). Also, the tank is well established and I don't want to kill everything in it by shutting everything off. As far the fishes go, I would like to keep some of them but I already have a full house! What are my alternatives?

 

[q]

You could use this as an excuse to set up a couple of smaller tanks ( 30 gal or so ) to house some of the fish and live rock.
As far as storing it with out shutting it off and not killing things you have got me.
[ June 14, 2001: Message edited by: Plato ]

 

[coralbeauty]

I have not done this type of move, and in general, I do not write about things I have not experienced, however, the idea is interesting. So I am only brainstorming.....
How deep is the sand bed in the tank you are going to move? My worry is that if it is real deep you might stir up a lot of "bad stuff" when you take it our of the tank to move the tank. Unless you have a crane I can not see how you could move the tank with the sand in it???
So get two 55 gallon new clean garbage cans. Put the sand in one and the LR in the other. Filter and heat both separately and add light to keep the rock relativily healthy. As for the fish, do you have a LFS that will buy them from you or hold them for you if you want them later? The iother idea is to set up a QT and keep them in there for a while.
When you go to set it back up check the quality of the water in the LS, it might be fine. The LR, providing you give it enough light, it should be fine.
So again, this is just off the top of my head.............
Good luck,
Connie

 

[tjswanson]

Ya know what would be a very neat thing for you to do? My LFS has 2 200 gallon tanks that run on the same filter, so then it's like a 400g tank. I think this idea is perfect. You could have a full blown reef on one side and Fish only on the other. If you have the room, eventually I'd put the tanks back to back and run them on the same filter. But that might be more trouble then what it is worth. Just an idea. TJ

 

[misty927]

Why don't you ask your lfs to house some of the fish for the time being or sell the fish you don't want to the lfs? Just a suggestion....

 

[misty927]

Why don't you ask your lfs to house some of the fish for the time being or sell the fish you don't want to the lfs? Just a suggestion....

 

[carlos]

You gang have interesting ideas. I think it is innevitable that I take the fish to the LFS until I get everything going. I already have 4 55 gallons trash cans that I will be using and I have spare pumps a light fixtures that I can use as well. My friend offered me a 55 gallon tank that I can use for just in case. TJ... I really like your suggestion but unfortunately the tanks are not designed the same. ( rectangular and pentagonal). Besides, the only place that I would have room for would be outside in the yard. It would sit right next to the dog house. The one side will have a heck of a reef. The other side, my wife will have me in it starving to death and begging for brine shrimp. However, there still always the chance that she may like the idea but... I am not taking any chances.