Need moving/setup advice! quickly!

dad

dad

Active Member
It looks like I may have the 300g. My LFS owner was going to help move/setup the tank. Now he is backing out!!!
I was relying on him very much.
For the move I was planning on getting a U-haul truck, clean buckets,fish nets,ropes,and blankets. What else do I need?
I have never done this before! HELP! is needed here, ;)
And what do I need to do to prepare for the tanks arival? It will be a new DSB of LS(the tank now has none). I was thinking of 1" then the LR then the rest of the LR?
Do I need to aclimate the fish etc again?
WOW, I know this ALOT to ask in one thread but I have to move this reef tank soon! I do not have time to look up everything. :(
ANY, And I do mean ANY advice will help me out. I am investing almost $5000 into this and I do not know what the H$#ll I am doing! Or at least I am worried, lol
The tank is fully stocked with 400lbs of LR and fish. It is a 5 hour drive one way. Am I worried? YES I AM!
Not panicing though. Oh no,,,not me.
Where is my sleeping

[hr]
?
 
dad

dad

Active Member
BTW. If my LFS does backout of this move I will post his store and location!
As a new friend of mine said " He did it to himself".
 
katara

katara

Member
Dad..
with what you've posted you sound ready...you just need one good buddy to help you out.Don't let the stress get to you, just take it easy because trying to rush through any step of moving this could screw it all up.I recently moved 40 lbs of live sand from about 30 min's away and it took about 1.5 hr.s ...I wasn't about to spill a drop!You'll be enjoying the fruits of your labor before you know it!:)
 
twhfan

twhfan

Member
Is it glass or acrylic? If it's glass, I feel sorry for you :) That's going to be heavy... Anyway, when we moved our 120 acrylic about 1/2 hour away, we collected several large containers for water and put as much of the water in it as we could - to save as much of the original water as possible. Some was lost, but this gave us a chance for a water change :) We loaded the tank into the bed of the pickup on blankets, and put all the livestock in a cooler. The only thing that we lost on the trip was a cleaner shrimp. When we got to the new home, we immediately set tank up, put as much water back in as we could. We had already had another smaller tank set up at home. We put livestock into that tank (which had the "old" water in it) while the sand settled back out of the original 120 for a few days and we added more water to the tank and got levels set up.
 
robchuck

robchuck

Active Member
Dad,
(it sounds like I'm writing an email to my father) I recently moved a 150 gallon (glass) existing setup; the trip was about 2 1/2 hours. It was moved with myself and only one helper. It would have been nice to have one more, because we definately had our hands full (no pun intended). If it's a glass tank, I would recommend having AT LEAST four people to move the tank; one for each corner. I used a 15 passenger box van with all of the back seats removed, and had just enough room to fit everything in. The LR was packed into 20 gal Rubbermaid containers, and kept moist (you could use wet newspaper if you wanted), but don't put much standing water in, because the containers will be too heavy to lift. I only took about 50 gallons from the existing set up, and did this by using 30 gallon Rubbermaid garbage cans. I got the nice ones from HD with tight fitting lids. Make sure you get these rather than the cheap ones, because they keep the water in much better. And you can always return them when you're done! :D :D :D At the receiving end, you'll want to have space cleared out for where the tank will sit, and you'll also want a staging area setup near the tank. A cheap tarp is not a bad investment either. Plan on spending about 20-30 hours on the setup. I had a lot of cleaning to do, but it was worthwhile in the end. The tank didn't have any livestock, but I planned on putting my livestock from my old 29 gallon setup into the new setup. I set up a 10 gallon tank for them, and monitored the water VERY closely, performing small, daily water changes until the new tank was ready for them. The large tank went through a mini cycle that lasted about 6 days. You might want to go out and find a cheap used tank large enough for a holding tank. You can later use it for a HT/QT. I know this is a lot of info, but I hope it's helpful. Best of luck with the move, and you will definately enjoy the tank in the long run!
 
quazi

quazi

Member
I am confused. Are you moving a fully functioning 300 gallon tank to your house from the store or what? I little more information would be helpful
Can you setup a holding tank near where you are setting up the 300? Perhaps a sump or refugium? If so, move as much stuff there as possible before the move. That will make life much easier. In general, you want to move as little as possible on moving day, so any prep work you can have done is very valuable. I realize it is a 5 hour drive, but you need to get things moved in pieces, if possible.
You need to make 300 gallons (probably less due to LR, but remember to include water for the sump and 'fuge) of seawater. Do that well in advance of moving day. make sure you put a power head in it to move the water. It will be hard to move a lot of the water in the current tank.
Do set up your sand bed from day one. Since the current tank has none, go ahead and get the sand and wash it and have it ready. You are going to use a lot of sand. I hope your local home depot has Southdown available ;) It will seed from your LR.
All critters will have to be acclimatized. You will be using a lot of new water and 5 hours + of temp changes mean you need to have some time to do this.
You are definately going to need people help. Is there a aquarist society in your area? You need volunteers. This is a 2-4 person job!
HTH
 
arkman

arkman

Member
Dad, I just moved a 45 gal --- much smaller, but I can tell you I stessed big for NO REASON. Take it easy and "measure twice, cut once" --- have a plan before you do anything.
I'd reccomend taking as much of the old water as you can, and be sure to have almost an equal amont of new water mixed and ready to go. I bagged all the livestock, and moved the rock in buckets of water (this is heavy and may not be necessary) - oh, and I dont think I need to tell you, make sure it's SW ;) -- just kidding, I hope that still isn't a super sore spot.
Set up the tank as usual, add the DSB 1st, then the old water, let it settle add rock as you are reaclimating the critters.
I had a bit of an ammonia lift and did 10% changes for a couple of days - leveled out and never saw a cycle - everything looks great and the tank is now pretty stable.
This is a GREAT way to get a tank up and running -good luck!
 
yammer

yammer

Member
Dad,
I moved my 100 gal a month ago. The whole process took about 18 hours - started 5am - finished 11pm. Moved about 1/2 hour.
The tank included fish, many corals, 100lbs of live rock (I think), a DBS, inverts, and a small 10gal refugium. I used about 15 large rubbermaid containers. I managed to keep just about all of the water (altough I ended up replacing about 20% of it at the new site). Despite previous posts I did keep everything submerged with the exception of a few pieces of live rock that had been base pieces in the DDB and thus mostly devoid of corals, etc. With those I used a wet newspaper. Keeping things submerged did make the containers quite heavy (18gal of water is rough), but it wasn't 'impossible' to move them with just myself and a buddy. I didn't want to chance anything dying in the 6-8 plus hours they were actually of the tank.
At the far end I put in the sand and rocks together - put in about 1 1/2 inches of sand, then base rocks, then more sand, then more lr, and so on. Once that was done I returned the fish, inverts, and finally corals - WITH NO ACCLIMATION. The water was extremely cloudy for that first night but had already cleared significantly by morning and was completely clear the following day.
The key to all this is that everything survived the trip and was completely back normal (fully extended and looking healthy) within a few days. By using most of the original tank water, the tank did not undergo a new cycle and the animals were fine. So long as you can accomplish the whole task in a day they can put up with a lot of stress (the water temp in the bins, for example, dropped into the low 70's).
That was my experience, and I hope it gives you some reassurance.
 
dockery07

dockery07

Active Member
I just moved a 165 last weekend. it is a lot of work. And I only moved it two miles. I think it took us about 10 hours and we saved almost all of the water.
Good luck, it sounds like you have a plan.
 
dad

dad

Active Member
Thanks for the replys and advice's!
The owner gave me till the end of the month.)now he tells me).
It is a glass Oceanic tank(two years old). Has some very Large tangs and cleanup crew. I am buying LS.
I have a 100g steup now and a 100g and a 200g that are empty so they will help out also. I am planning on hiring a moving company to help with the loading and friends to unload.
I want to setup the tank by myself.
Now lets see? 5 hours there, 3 to load,5 back, 1 to unload and 7 to setup? 21 hours. Not looking forward to this now, lol
May need to stock up on cafine also, ;)
I am sure I will ask a few more questions before the move. Thanks.
 
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