Moving in below ZERO weather

carter3

Member
I'm moving to a new apartment and I don't have a clue to the best way to move my tank. Here is what I have.
55 Gallon tank and stand
sump and skimmer
30lbs lr
40lbs ls
2 damsels
1 clown
I live in Chicago it's very cold now. Can someone plese help.
 

coralreefer

Active Member
pretty much the only suggestion would be to tear down your tank and store fish in a heated bowl, coral same as fish, and package your water in buckets
 

jpc763

Active Member
If it were me (and it gets cold here too), I would get a 20g Rubbermaid container (or 3) from Wally World and a heater for each. I would use a power inverter (thingy that plugs into your cig lighter and allows you to plug stuff in) and plug those heaters in. Put the fish and sand in one and the rock in the other. If you got 3 rubbermaids (they cost like $5 each) you could set one up in your appartment and transfer the water a bucket at a time both directions.
If you add a PH to each rubbermaid, you can leave the fish in there for a little while in your new place.
 

2cold2fish

Member
I have done this twice...in cold weather.
I made half new water at the new home. Couple days in advance.
On the day of the tank move I bagged everything like you just bought it at the LFS, put it in styrofoam and transferred from warm house to warm car to warm house (no prob)
Back to the old house (gonna be an all day event) Bottled half my water, new trash canned all the LR, broke down all the tank equipment. (cleaned in the old house)
First time I tried to save the sand (didn't work so well)
Second time I trashed the sand and added new
Take everything cleaned to new house and reassemble. I tried to do this as fast as possible to avoid die off on the live rock.
next morning I started acclimating my critters
I did see a mini cycle and some algae blooms at first but I didnt lose anything except a green Chromis (bag broke).
The more help you have the easier. BTW I moved my tank dead last.
It's a good time to ditch the damsels, they're mean.
 

grubsnaek

Active Member
Originally Posted by 2cold2fish
I have done this twice...in cold weather.
I made half new water at the new home. Couple days in advance.
On the day of the tank move I bagged everything like you just bought it at the LFS, put it in styrofoam and transferred from warm house to warm car to warm house (no prob)
Back to the old house (gonna be an all day event) Bottled half my water, new trash canned all the LR, broke down all the tank equipment. (cleaned in the old house)
First time I tried to save the sand (didn't work so well)
Second time I trashed the sand and added new
Take everything cleaned to new house and reassemble. I tried to do this as fast as possible to avoid die off on the live rock.
next morning I started acclimating my critters
I did see a mini cycle and some algae blooms at first but I didnt lose anything except a green Chromis (bag broke).
The more help you have the easier. BTW I moved my tank dead last.
It's a good time to ditch the damsels, they're mean.

very well put
 

nycbob

Active Member
the fish is pretty hardy. they can live in a bucket w heater and powerhead for a few days.
 

carter3

Member
GREAT!! all that sounds good and very simple, I thought I was doomed. I'm not moving very far and thought my couple of critters would kick to bucket. I've had the damsels over a year and my maroon clown was gift from my kids on mothers day so I'm attached to them all.
Next question how do I remove the sand? How much water do I take ? What can I clean the equipment with the wet-dry, skimmer, and powerhead? I'll upgrade my lighting after the move.
Thx every one!!!
 
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