i recently relocated my 55g tank from oklahoma city to houston and i lost 1 snail and 1 emerald crab in the process, this is how i did it. I got 4 tall water coolers, not like kentwood but like.. gatorade coolers, the kind that construction workers have on the back of their trucks.. with the removeable, screw on/ push on lids, lined them with heavy duty trash bags as a just in case. and 3 "beer" coolers, you know the ice coolers with the lids and insulated.. little drain spout on one side.
THIS IS WHAT I DID
i filled up the tall coolers first draining as much water as i could bagging up my corals in the process. once i was pretty low with my water i removed my LR that was not in the sand , i did this so i wouldnt stir up alot of trash plus its alot easier to catch a fish with very little water for him to swim around in lol. i removed my base rock, caught my fish and removed all of my sand b/c i was planning on replacing it all, i wanted to go with a black sand bed and BAM.. tank is now empty, fish are happy they have space and a rock to feel safe. corals all bagged and everything has a handle and a lid.
COOLER#1- I took one of my nice rocks that would not move around in it and i put all my fish in it, filled it with water from my tank.(maroon clown, mandarin. pink bar goby and lawnmower blenny) with the jarring of the water and the rock it got excellent circulation i basically made a 5 gal. cooler into a basic temp nano tank minus the lights.
COOLERS# 2-4 water from my tank and LR
*the tall gatorade type coolers held about 20g of water*
TYPICAL BEER COOLER#1-2 i put a pillow in them and bagged up my corals/ inverts, etc i saved on space by bagging like things together or things that were small and would not damage each other.. like all 3 of my zoa plugs went in the same bag..all together the corals and inverts had about 3-5 gal of water(i used alot of water in the bags and double/ triple bagged most everything
5gal water jugs X 4 (typical ones we prolly all use for water changes and FW top offs), so that gave me another 20 gal
so i ended up with about 43-45 gal of my original tank water,
