moving my 55 gallon, about 30 miles away

[coastie55g]

hey gusy, im moving from my water front rental to a house more inland. anyways... what would be the best way to move all my LR? Would like to have very little die off if possible since some of my LR has some sort of coral attatched to it. whats the best way to transport the coral and fish? Should i hang onto most of my water so when i go to fill the tank,.. it wont have to cycle again.
Another question. I have been thinking of switching my substrate,.. i have something im not really sure of.. its not crushed coral.. its smaller pieces but its not a sand either. can i use what i have and mix in some sand? will the old and new substrate cause problems?
thanks ahead of time!
Chris

 

[coastie55g]

19 views and nobody has any tips?
:help:

 

[xjayx]

consider your self lucky...
I'm moving seven hours away in about a week and a half.
The only thing I can think of is to empty the entire tank down to about 1/3rd the amount of water and soring the rest of the water in a stirophome cooler allong with all my rocks.
The rest of the livestock, I'll leave in the little bit of water I have left...
and just hope everyone makes it alive...

 

[coastie55g]

yeah i was thinking of using the wifes rubbermaid containers and place the rock into them, and then cover them up with tank water.. i am kinda looking forward to this move, cause then i can re-sculpture my tank layout
Chris

 

[a0b915]

Coastie,
I did a move of about 20 miles, and it was pretty easy. I siphoned out the water into new five gallon buckets. Then i put all my fish, snails, crabs, etc. into one bucket, and filled the rest of the buckets up with my live rock and corals. The bucket with the fish could use a powerhead for circulation while you are getting the trip organized, but during transit you will be fine. The sand or whatever you have can be left in the tank with whatever water you can't siphon out. Load up and drive to the new place and then set up as soon as possible, keeping powerheads in buckets when you can. Good luck and hope this helps.
JD

 

[vanos]

You won't be able to lift the tank by yourself if it has sand and any water you can't siphon out so get a buddy to help you out. I can't believe how much these tanks weigh. Now that you're moving get rid of your current substrate and buy some live sand. Maybe 40 lbs. of carab sea livesand.

 

[scubadoo]

Place the live rock in some rubber maid containers with water. Place your current substrate in a container with water. Place your animals in some containers with water . I would not be too concerned about transporting all the water. If you do not transport it all then have some premixed and ready to go.
Add the new substrate to the tank add water, live rock, etc. Place some of your current substrate in mesh bags and place on the bottom. This will help to seed the new substrate. Place any filter media, pads, charcoal, bioballs, etc in a container with water to keep the bio-filter alive.
Do not feed your animals the day before transport..this will minimize waste produced in transport.
Do not increase your current bio-load for at least a month after transfer/moving.
JMO

 

[airforceb2]

I would drain the tank as much as possible. The tank has a very big possibility to buckle under the pressure of carrying it. I had a 55 with 6" of water in it and as I was moving out of the dorms...it shattered half way through the parking lot. Luckily it was a cheap tank!!

 

[gafish]

ok here you go... I just moved to Georgia from Arkansas....
Here is what I did nad EVERYTHING made it here, I drained my tank placing my tank water into a Igloo cooler, I went to a store a bought a battery powered air pump that is used by fisherman to keep minnow alive (cost me about 6.00). and hooked it up to the cooler and placed the fish into it. I also placed my live rock that had my starfish in it and the one that had my curly que on it into the water. the rest of my live rock was wrapped in newspaper that I soaked in the tank water, I double wrapped it and placed it back into the drained tank and I mean drained. I set it up on one end to make sure the water was out of the sand.
The trip took me two days because we stopped overnight in Mississippi, and I repeat everything has survived, I did this over a month ago and I'm looking good.

 

[coastie55g]

kool guys thanks for the tips.. the move is about a month away.. cant wat.. def. going to start new with the substrate.. was evening thinking of a few big nice LR pieces.. if i have hte money and use my smaller pieces to fill in from there..
thanks again
Chris

 

[angelsrock]

when i moved my tanks i bought a garbage can with 55 gallon heavy duty bags. i filled the garbage can when on the truck, took a while, and then tied the top of the bag inside the can. live rock if you put it in a bucket can make it at least a few hours without losing anything. you can also get buckets for the fish as well or you can bag them.

 

[swatskee]

just mover mile 30 ft across the house... what a pain!!! FYI... a 55G with 70lb LS and almost no water is STILL to heavy to carry safely.......... had to empy everything!!!