Moving! What do I do?

[jarice1978]

I am moving in less than 2 weeks. I have a 55 gallon tank with:
LR
snails
crabs
shrimp
4 fish
Crushed Coral
Sand
I am only moving 12 miles away. How am I going to move this thing?
My idea was to get 10 or so of the 5 gallon water bottles to transport the water so I do not have to recycle the tank. I am having problems finding the bottles though. I was going to leave just enough water on the bottom for the inverts to survive while moving the tank and put the fish in a bucket and tranfer to a ten gallon tank until the main tank is ready. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[nacl-man]

What I did was similar.
First things first:
Go to Home Depot and buy about 10 or 15 5 gallon paint buckets w/ lids. Wash them out with vinegar and fresh water.
Make about 20 gallons of fresh saltwater, trust me you will more than likely need it. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Put as much water, rock, and substrate as you can into each of the buckets, leave one or two buckets w/ just water in them to put your fish and inverts. Leave about 3 with just water, nothing else.
Empty the entire tank... do not leave any water or substrate in it... the tank will already be heavy enough to move, you also don't want that weight distributed unevenly during the move.
When you get the tank to your new location set it up, level it off and put your substrate back in. Then add all of the water from the three buckets w/ no fish or rock. This should give you a decent amount of water to submerge your rock. Keep adding water until you feel you have enough to put your fish back in.
I noticed you have a 10 gallon... I didn't have that option when I moved but I would have liked it... if you can put your fish in the 10 gallon w a few bits of rock from your tank, a PH, and a heater for a few days until the display settles down (it is going to look like a bomb went off inside your tank, but don't worry it will be ok lol).
When you put your fish back in remember to re-acclimate them, your water is going to be all sorts of weird from the move (it should settle quickly) so it is a good idea to re-acclimate.
Moving is also a good opportunity to clean all those places in the tank that never get any TLC
Good luck!

 

[jarice1978]

Thanks! Looks like I am heading to Home Depot! Looks like it is going to cost at least $60.
Another question???
Right now I have Crushed Coral and Live Sand. Crushed Coral is on the left side of the tank and Live Sand on right. I am thinking about getting rid of the Crushed Coral and replacing with Sand. Where, and what kind of sand can I get to put in the tank? I am planning on keeping the sand that I have. It is white. I would like to stick with that color if possible...