Moving Reef

dodgr31

dodgr31

Member
My wife and I are selling our home and I am going to have to somehow move my 100g reef. Just the thought scares me! I am looking for any pointers, tips etc. I have no idea where we will be moving, since the house has not sold yet. I know we will be moving across town for a bit (rental) until I retire and we move again out of state. Any help would be appreciated
 
dodgr31

dodgr31

Member
I should add, about 150lbs live rock, 9 fish (including an Achilles Tang) and about 40 different coral.
 
C

cristiangarcia

Guest
I recently moved into my apartment. I moved about 7 miles away and my tank that I have is 55 gallon. I have had my tank for about a year. I was like you and wasn't quite sure what to do so what I did is I took my fish out put them in two 5 gallon buckets... my hermits and anomes and other misc..in a serperate 5 gallon with a few live rocks. I put these all in a 20 gallon tank that was set up...(maybe if you have a friend that has a tank you could toss your fish in for a day or two till you get setup). Now with my 55 gallon I put the rest of the water as much as i felt was ok to take (in a van) in 5 5gallon buckets( or as much as you would like). I ended up dumping about quarter of the water out so when I moved my tank no water was left. Ithen took the sand cleaned it seperatley since it was empty anyways and I'm sure there was bad bacteria in it that hadnt been touched so it would b a good thing..i think(correct me if im wrong). after that cleaned out my tank and evrything else so basically a good ol fresh new tank!! Took the tank to the apartment..set-it up..put the buckets of water in and put in the rocks and remaining new water in and let it sit for about 2days. after the 2 days put my fish in and after that all went well. I guess my advice just do it and try not to worry about it....maybe some fish might get lil stressed obviously but after your settled just go from there and be happy its done with. sorry for the long reply-cristian
 
bill109

bill109

Active Member
i havent tried it but have read it here on swf.com
use rubbermaid containers and fill it with ater to the brim and cover it with your live stuff in it. filling it limits sloching of water. it makes sense but idk if it works.
use hot/cold packs depending on where you live and where your going type thing lol
if you use rubbermaid totes versus a bucket it gives more room to transport stuff especially fish.
good luck. it sounds like you have a beautiful tank.
 
big

big

Active Member
I moved mine in May of 07 and with all the tubs etc. I still had an issue with the substrate. It most likely will cause somewhat of a spike a few days after setup. If I had to do it again the critters would be housed in a second container till the spike from moving the substrate passed. A good idea is having a second tank (big container of some kind) at the new site ready before the move to hold everyone till the spike passes. I also removed a large amount of my substrate just because of stressing the tank during the move. It was about four days till mine "settled down". It may be several days till you can safely reintroduce you critters.. Another issue for me was losing the coralline on the back glass, it is hard not to. Watch the prams closely after the new set upl...... Good luck it in not a fun thing to do..........
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
IMO you really need a couple of tanks. Personally I'd suggest go and find a 55 gallon and set that up in your new house. With a couple of power heads and maybe a hob skimmer or some sort of inexpensive filtration. Then move all the livestock and some of the lr into the 55. Then go back and move your big tank. Set everything up. Let it cycle if it does cycle then move everything into the main DT. Personally I'd use buckets or ice chests to move the fish.
 
tru2037

tru2037

Member
I moved my 100g from my apartment to to my new house, it was a big task but this is how i did it.
1 new 55 gallon rubbermaid drum
about 5 5gal buckets
new or clean garden hose
I put the drum in my truck, which was by the door and pumped the water from the tank into it. I put all the LR in the drum as well.
I put the fish in a 5gal bucket w/ lid. A few more 5gal buckets had the substrait. Then I just dumped what I needed for a water change. Then the tank was empty, so I moved it and did everything in reverse, just allow time for the substrait to clear a bit.
The only problem I had was that I had 20min drive and the water temp did drop a good amount even in the summer temps.
 
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