oceanlover
Member
Several months ago I scored a nice deal on Craigs List and bought a 140 gallon glass aquarium- used but in great shape. Life has been hectic and I haven't been able to start-up the new aquarium. So FINALLY this last weekend we started by moving our existing 90 gallon reef aquarium.
First of all, my husband found this great "furniture mover" at the rental place. We were able to move the tank by draining just some of the water out (which we saved to add back). We did not have to remove the fish or corals! We didn't break our backs either. If you need to move an aquarium, try to find one of these to rent because it sure makes the job a LOT easier.
I am attaching a full tank shot (sorry I just have a point and shoot camera) to show that the 90 gallon tank moved easily and succesfully. We didn't lose any coral or fish. I've been testing my water daily and there are no spikes so we were succesful in keeping the sand and rock intact without creating a cycle.
We had a couple of pleasant surprises with this move.
I had two dendrophyllia polyps that I checked on to be sure they were safe after the move. I was surprised and DELIGHTED to find three baby dendro polyps growing also!!!!!! (I know this picture is not great but it is the best I can do.)
The last surprise was a shocker. There was a little splash in the water return. We looked down with a flashlight and found one of our baby clown fish! It has survived for months in there! I have a well established aquarium and a sump full of pods so apparently he got enough food to grow, [We didn't see our clown's eggs until they hatched this summer. By this time, the majority of the itty bitty clowns were eatten by the other fish. My teenage son and I managed to net and save only 9 babies. I isolated them into a breeding net basket and fed them tiny little foods until they grew to an adoptable size. 7 were adopted out and I had two baby clowns left when the net was jostled and the two baby clowns were dumped into the main tank. I could not catch them, they were too darn fast. By the next day there was only one baby clown left and he had joined his parents in haunting our anemones.] So this was the baby clown I thought had been lost/eatten and yet he survived! He is the same size as his brother but is not nearly as orange as the other three clowns. He was a devil to get out of the water return but we finally nabbed him and he is again in the 90 gallon tank! Maybe his orange will darken now that he gets real light every day.
Hopefully it won't be too long until I can start the tank build thread on the 140 gallon tank. It has been moved into the house but we need to re-plumb it before we add water, rock, and sand.
First of all, my husband found this great "furniture mover" at the rental place. We were able to move the tank by draining just some of the water out (which we saved to add back). We did not have to remove the fish or corals! We didn't break our backs either. If you need to move an aquarium, try to find one of these to rent because it sure makes the job a LOT easier.
I am attaching a full tank shot (sorry I just have a point and shoot camera) to show that the 90 gallon tank moved easily and succesfully. We didn't lose any coral or fish. I've been testing my water daily and there are no spikes so we were succesful in keeping the sand and rock intact without creating a cycle.
We had a couple of pleasant surprises with this move.
I had two dendrophyllia polyps that I checked on to be sure they were safe after the move. I was surprised and DELIGHTED to find three baby dendro polyps growing also!!!!!! (I know this picture is not great but it is the best I can do.)
The last surprise was a shocker. There was a little splash in the water return. We looked down with a flashlight and found one of our baby clown fish! It has survived for months in there! I have a well established aquarium and a sump full of pods so apparently he got enough food to grow, [We didn't see our clown's eggs until they hatched this summer. By this time, the majority of the itty bitty clowns were eatten by the other fish. My teenage son and I managed to net and save only 9 babies. I isolated them into a breeding net basket and fed them tiny little foods until they grew to an adoptable size. 7 were adopted out and I had two baby clowns left when the net was jostled and the two baby clowns were dumped into the main tank. I could not catch them, they were too darn fast. By the next day there was only one baby clown left and he had joined his parents in haunting our anemones.] So this was the baby clown I thought had been lost/eatten and yet he survived! He is the same size as his brother but is not nearly as orange as the other three clowns. He was a devil to get out of the water return but we finally nabbed him and he is again in the 90 gallon tank! Maybe his orange will darken now that he gets real light every day.
Hopefully it won't be too long until I can start the tank build thread on the 140 gallon tank. It has been moved into the house but we need to re-plumb it before we add water, rock, and sand.
