Moving my tank, need advise

[djcanis]

I am moving my 30 gallon tank this week and I want to do it with as little problems as possible. Here goes the plan. I have two brand new rubbermaids for my 20lbs of CC, and my 45lbs of LR. each can also hold about 6 gallons when full of stuff. I have two 5 gallon buckets and two 3 gallon buckets for water and livestock. I plan on putting a fish in each, and splitting up my clean up crew (2 pep. shrimp, choc. chip star, marg. snails, and scarlet hermits). It's a 2 and a half hour drive, but I think they should be fine. The fish are a 4 stripe damsel, a sebae clown and a pair of true purc. clowns.
Any suggestions. Please let me know and thanks.

 

[reef-addict]

I've moved my tank so many times recently, the one key thing you need to make sure is that all of your livestock is NOT in the same bucket as your rock. No matter how careful you are, someone is gonna get crunched.
The other this is, make sure someone on the other end has dechlorinated or filtered water waiting on the other end. I had a buddy who moved once and lost like 90% of his water and had nothing waiting on the other end.
Also, if possible, try and change your timing up on your lighting a week or two before so that moving falls at nightime (or the dark period).
Any direct questions, post em and I'll try and answer them. Oh, what kind of car are you moving everything in? The rubbermaids usually work well, and, dont fill the water to the top of them, only about 50-65% full. Once you start drivin, that water starts making big waves.
GOOD LUCK :cheer:

 

[djcanis]

Dodge Stratus. The rock and coral are going in the trunk. the livestock will be buckeled in the back. I am only going to have about 8 gallons of water waiting. I was hopoing to use the water in the tank now. 2 five gallon buckets will only have water, no livestock. Will this be OK? Light sched. will be tough. I'm not at home with the tank and tyhe move is Sunday.

 

[sleeper]

Just try and be as careful as possible with respect to moving each of your containers. I moved my 29 this weekend (although only within D.C.) and nothing died. In fact, my colt coral got dislodged and now looks better than even in its new spot!
I really think keeping everything as tightly sealed as you possibly can make it is important too.

 

[murph]

I would suggest having some sort of ammonia locking agent with you also. A couple of hours probably wont hurt your livestock but any delays can equate to rapidly rising ammonia levels in the buckets with your fish. Using these agents is how they get the fish to the states from oversea on long flights.
I suggest the use of this so much my rep is going to be "murph; the better aquarium keeping with chemicals guy" but in reality I use these agents in only a last resort or emergency situation.
Not to jinx you and I wish you all the luck in the world but you know how moves can be. You may be facing that emergency situation and a 7 dollar bottle of Amquel could save you quite a bit of money in live stock.

 

[jdragunas]

You might want to have more water waiting for you. The water in your rubbermaid tubs will probably not be usable, as they will be full of gunk from your LR and CC.

 

[djcanis]

I'm gonna have 22 gallons of good water in the end, with the rest going in tomorrow. I have TLC whice is a bacteria and nitrate remover and ammolock. Should I put ammolock in the tubs with livestock on the way up and then use the tlc in the tank when it is set up?

 

[mbrands]

Use the move as an opportunity to switch out your crushed coral for sand and to get rid of the damsel.

 

[djcanis]

Move went well. All is good. I will post pics tomorrow. Tank looks wonderful. Couldn' t make the switch to LS like I wanted, $, I'm a poor college student. Thanks for all the help.
Brian

 

[hermitkrab]

Glad I wasn't you. Moving my 40g would be a pain. Glad eveything went well.

 

[djcanis]

SO all didn't go well. Things were good for the first 24 hours then hell in water. Woke up monday emperor dead, by noon the 4 stripe was dead, and by 3 the clown was gone, next morning all the snails were dead, and 1 of the hermits. all that survived was the perc clown, the 2 pepermint shrimp and a blueleg hermit. Now my tank is cycling, ammonia is down near zero, nitrites are dropping, and my nitrates are throught the roof. ? what I did wrong, but it sucked.

 

[mbrands]

Originally Posted by DJCanis
? what I did wrong, but it sucked.
Are you asking what you did wrong? My guess would be that you released a lot of waste that had been settled in the crushed coral. That waste created an ammonia spike and thus a new cycle.
Just a guess on my part. Sorry for your losses.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by mbrands
Are you asking what you did wrong? My guess would be that you released a lot of waste that had been settled in the crushed coral. That waste created an ammonia spike and thus a new cycle.
Just a guess on my part. Sorry for your losses.

When I moved the tank that I bought from a lady, she had cc in it. It didn't kill my fish like that. However, it did do a little mini cycle though, but not a full one. It went by quick and no harm was done to my fish. The ammonia spike could be caused by the LR too!!! Sorry about your losses!!!

 

[ryand5]

well if you let the gunk from your cc and lr settle for about an hour or you know untill it clears(time varries on amount of bactiria in sand)then you should be good to use the same water. ive had to move my 30 meny times back and forth from school to home.. and then we moved again in the summer... anyways, i would leave about 1/2 am inch of water over the sand and leave that in the tank. then use the two 5 gallon buckets for the rock keeping in mind that the water should cover them up. then use the other two buckets for fish and cleanup crew. when you get there put the water and lr in first. after it settles then id aclamate the inverts let them get in and do a quick clean up,and then the fish last. also try to make the rocks the same way so it isnt so stressfull
thats just me tho