Moving a preexisting tank

[naturalbornrokstar]

Hey everyone,
I am going to be moving and need to know the best things to do to move the tank. Any help will be appreciated\
Thanks
Rokstar

[lee_in_corpus]

well, ive only done it once, but we didn't lose anything in the move, so I'll tell you what we did.

i have a 180 gallon, stand, hood, with about 50 pounds of live rock, corals, and i think there were 9 fish.

first off, i got as many people to help as i could.  we ended up with 4 people.  we put our heads together and made a plan before anything.  we didnt want to run off all half cocked.

we had i think six 6 gallon water jugs.  2 50 gallon sealable storage bins, and big plastic ziplock bags and a styrofoam cooler for the fish.

we put the plastic bins in the back of my pickup and filled then with water siphoned from the tank. 

then we started siphoning water into the 6 gallon jugs.  once the water level was down, we pulled the liverock out, quickly getting it into a bucket, then transferred it into the 50 gallon bins.  once all the LR and coral was moved, we sealed the bins.  the we scooped the fish out and bagged them.  then drained the rest of the water, keeping as much as we could.  we left enough water in the tank to keep the sand moist.  then it was a matter of manually moving the tank, stand, and hood.

once we got the tank to my house, we situated the stand, put the tank on, and refilled from the jugs.  transferred the LR and coral in using the same method as earlier.  then we mixed some new salt water to top off what we lost.  and once it settled a bit, we floated the fish baggies, and acclimated them into the tank. 

so with 4 people, we moved a 180 tank, water, liverock, and fish about 3 miles, in about 4 hours.

im sure there are smarter and better ways to do it though.  hopefully someone has better advice than me!

[Bergy]

that is the basic how too.. good job

the differences are minor but everyone does things different.

i would suggest smaller rubber maid storage bins... something 1 or 2 people can carry if it has half full of water...

I would pull all the live rock out first..

then drain some water, but the rock does not have to be covered,  you can throw wet newspaper over it or plastic...

then syphon more water out into five gallon jugs.

then have a couple buckets and filled half way only  then start moving fish into the buckets..


then coral whereever you can, if you have some...

then as muich water as you can move, or buy or make new water.

then syphon or scoop out the sand...


then remove all the equipment and then the tank and stand, and move to the new house and setup the stand and tank, place the equipment, then wash the crap out of the sand... use dirty water first, then clean salt water...

rinse as much as yuou can...

no worries about killing it or anything.. you will remove a bazillion live organism but you will hve ten bazillion left... no worries

then add the sand to the tnak. then some new and old water...

thenadd some live rock, and then fish, then top off with the rest with new salt water...

check everything,g and you are good to go

[Just_Greg]

just a couple of things to add:

if you use 5 gal buckets, get lids to help minimize spillage in transit.

also, depending on how far your move is, you may want to invest in a battery-powered air pump, which is good to keep around for power outages.

[Bergy]

yea lids for teh buckets is a great idea, but in case you dont have them onlyu fill up about half way... and expect some salt water on your car seats or carpeting... heheheheh

[Just_Greg]

yea lids for teh buckets is a great idea, but in case you dont have them onlyu fill up about half way... and expect some salt water on your car seats or carpeting... heheheheh

tell me about it...i have several rusty spots from when we moved several setups from PV to Torrance...yikes!