michelle l
Member
In January, my husband and I set up a 125 FOWLR tank. It has done wonderfully, and I have made a point to keep it understocked, because I knew that at some point in the not-so-distant future we would have to break it down and move it. We only have a juvi Cortez angel, a Flame angel, two clowns, and a green chromis, plus two cleaner shrimp, and an emerald crab, a red-legged hermit crab, and two brittle stars.
Well, yesterday was the big moving day, and it went over flawlessly. It was a MAJOR pain in the you-know-what, but luckily we only had to move about three miles on a hot late summer afternoon. The inverts and some of the live rock went into a rubbermaid tub, and they rode on the front seat of the car in the air conditioning. The fish and more live rock rode in an insulated cooler in the back of the moving van. As soon as we got to where we were going, we got the containers in the house and I placed a powerhead in each container to buy time to get the tank set up. All of the sand and some tank water went into Rubbermaid tubs.
We dont have an RO filter, so we had to go to Wal-Mart the night before and buy 100 gallons of distilled bottled water to set up the tank with. Boy did we get some funny looks about that. I was able to carry about 40-45 gallons of the old water from the tank in the Rubbermaid tubs that we put the sand in, so we didn't use as much of the bottled water as I thought we would. I wanted to be prepared, just in case.
The inverts went into the tank last night, because their water temp was dropping too low for my liking. The tank still wasn't as warm as I wanted it to be (it was about 77 degrees), but the heater was going to take a while to get it up to where it needed to be (I keep it at about 80 degrees). With the air conditioning keeping the temp in the house low (hubby likes it cold in the house), I knew the water in the tub would cool off fast because it wasn't insulated.
This morning all of the inverts were fine, and I began acclimating the fish. That went smoothy and the fish were all eating in less than an hour after release into the tank, so unless I get an outbreak of Ick from the temperature fluctuations and stress, or something crashes with the cycle, I think we are home free. I used the Bio-Spirea bacteria when we sat the tank back up, so hopefully that will prevent any unforseen issues with disturbing the sand bed, triggering a crash.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm thrilled that I didn't lose anything in the move. I have been stressing over the idea of moving this tank for a long time, because I've never moved one that big before. I'm relieved!! :joy:
Well, yesterday was the big moving day, and it went over flawlessly. It was a MAJOR pain in the you-know-what, but luckily we only had to move about three miles on a hot late summer afternoon. The inverts and some of the live rock went into a rubbermaid tub, and they rode on the front seat of the car in the air conditioning. The fish and more live rock rode in an insulated cooler in the back of the moving van. As soon as we got to where we were going, we got the containers in the house and I placed a powerhead in each container to buy time to get the tank set up. All of the sand and some tank water went into Rubbermaid tubs.
We dont have an RO filter, so we had to go to Wal-Mart the night before and buy 100 gallons of distilled bottled water to set up the tank with. Boy did we get some funny looks about that. I was able to carry about 40-45 gallons of the old water from the tank in the Rubbermaid tubs that we put the sand in, so we didn't use as much of the bottled water as I thought we would. I wanted to be prepared, just in case.
The inverts went into the tank last night, because their water temp was dropping too low for my liking. The tank still wasn't as warm as I wanted it to be (it was about 77 degrees), but the heater was going to take a while to get it up to where it needed to be (I keep it at about 80 degrees). With the air conditioning keeping the temp in the house low (hubby likes it cold in the house), I knew the water in the tub would cool off fast because it wasn't insulated.
This morning all of the inverts were fine, and I began acclimating the fish. That went smoothy and the fish were all eating in less than an hour after release into the tank, so unless I get an outbreak of Ick from the temperature fluctuations and stress, or something crashes with the cycle, I think we are home free. I used the Bio-Spirea bacteria when we sat the tank back up, so hopefully that will prevent any unforseen issues with disturbing the sand bed, triggering a crash.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm thrilled that I didn't lose anything in the move. I have been stressing over the idea of moving this tank for a long time, because I've never moved one that big before. I'm relieved!! :joy:
