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Coral Vue Hydros

*StevieT's Guide to Moving a Tank*


StevieT

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This is the way I moved my tank from Channanon (Joliet), Illinois to Milwaukee, Wisconsin April 5, 2009. The drive was about 150 miles and the tank was down for about 7 hours before re-setup.

 

Timeline:

 

Sunday:

12:00 PM break down tank

4:00 PM leaving Illinois for good

6:30 PM arrive at new location

7:30 PM tank set up

11:59 PM Give up, corals acclimated and in tank un-scaped

 

Monday:

5:00 PM Start rescape again

11:00 PM Rock scaped but most corals unattached

Tuesday:

 

5:00 PM Start to attach corals

7:00 PM Scape falls apart and I try again

10:00 PM Scape looks OK, start to attach corals

11:00 PM Satisfied for the night

Wednesday:

 

5:00 PM Finishing touches

9:00 PM Clean up

 

It was successful but very very stressful. If you plan on moving your tank this guild will help you with some dos and don'ts. Overall it took me about 30 man hours to make this move possible.

 

Preparation:

 

Make new Saltwater. I used a Rubbermaid garbage container and made my new water 5 days ahead of time. I used two heaters and a pump to mix and prep the water for the new arrival. This also served as a place to bring the livestock back up to temp using float acclimation. Make sure you have more than enough fresh saltwater and fresh RO water, evaporation, spills, mistakes etc will occur. Once this move starts there is no turning back and you have to be prepared.

 

Supplies Purchased/Used:

  • Coolers
  • Small Rubbermaid containers for fish, corals, live rock more the better
  • Drill and other hand tools
  • Super Glue Gel (lots)
  • Aquamend Putty (3 tubes)
  • Fish bags, very important for bagging corals
  • Fish net
  • New sand
  • Extension cord
  • MH light to illuminate tank after display lighting is removed
  • Colored zip ties, experiment of mine to label rock to rescape, -failed
  • Paper towels
  • Boxes
  • Tubing
  • Heaters
  • Pumps
  • Thermometers
  • Rubber bands
  • A helpful hand if possible
  • A plan and patience

My Biggest Failure:

I tried to replicate my old aquascape. This proved to waste 8+ hours of my time and was nearly impossible. I was so in love with my first scape that I couldn't let it go and with somewhat of an established tank I felt it was important for the corals and fish. It proved to be a huge stress on this move. My plan was to label all the live rock with color coded zip ties, make a map then reporduce that in the new location.

 

The largest factor in the failure was you take a tank down from top/down, yet put it together from bottom/up. Rock is not flat and just color coding it isn't enough. You have to remember exactly the position it sat in the sand, on another rock every small detail to accomplish this. Basically do not try unless you have a superior plan to mine.

 

Largest Advice:

 

Take your time and have help. Make a plan weeks earlier to the move. Know the weather, your new location and acclimate slowly. My corals and fish lost 7° of temperature during the move but they were acclimated slowly to the new setup.

 

I have done an upgrade move before and nothing compares to a relocation. Corals and fish are hardy but be smart about everything, once you start there is not much room for "oh I forgot the fish bags" moments.

 

Get lots of sleep the night before you will be pushed to work hard, wet and fast.

 

Enjoy

 

Last view from the office :(

 

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Supplies:

 

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Protection while I was away for 7 days from my tank:

 

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Started first with the equipment, removed the guts of the stand. ATO removed, testing supplies, food, dosing chemicals, tank lighting:

 

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Best thing I did during the move. I had an extra MH shop light that I propped up on a ladder. This allowed me to view the tank without the display lights:

 

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Tank MH light off, inTank cup off. Cardboard to collect as much water as possible:

 

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Electronics of tank boxed up. Accessories in another box:

 

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View of rear chambers:

 

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First Coral Removed. Ricordia island put in it's own rubbermaid container with tank saltwater:

 

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Most other corals were individually bagged with tank saltwater. This protected during transport. They were put in dry containers:

 

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Water level coming down:

 

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Empty rear chamber:

 

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Attempt at labeling live rock:

 

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All live rock in a separate container. Live rock with corals still attached bagged SEPARATELY from this container to avoid crushing:

 

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:angry::angry:

 

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The mess of this project

 

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All fish went into this nifty cooler. Purchased at Menards for $12 it featured a separator grate that allowed for water flow. I kept inverts on one side and fish on the other. It also came with a grate top so the fish could not get splashed upwaterds too high during transport on rough roads.

 

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Draining water out of tank. After this was completed I sifted through the sand for snails, worms and other helpful critters. The tank was then brought outside and all sand was thrown away. Then tank was rinsed with fresh water and scrapped with a razor blade. It was almost new looking when complete. A total loss of 1.5 years of coralline and pods/worms.

 

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Packing up the the RSM for the move:

 

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Fish on floor closest to heat, it was not a warm day

 

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:(

 

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Sad weather for a sad day

 

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Thank you State of Illinois for the warning

 

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Fish safe and warm

 

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THE NEW HOME!

 

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Warming rock up, used a heater and a pump in their transport bucket

 

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Acclimating fish in bucket. Used new saltwater that was premixed with old tank water to bring up to temp/salinity match

 

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The water temp went from 79° when the takedown started to 72° when I arrived at the new location

 

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Acclimating corals that were bagged in premixed saltwater. Inside is 2 heaters and a pump

 

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The new tank location in the office

 

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Make sure stand and tank are level

 

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Equipment back in

 

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Fill er' up

 

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After many failed attempts of replicating the previous scape this is where I was left at 12:10am on a Monday morning. I was due to work at 8am and my brain and body were fried. I had to leave the tank for the new coworkers to see like this.

 

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Monday night try number 552

 

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Corals out to rescape once again

 

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Try number 636

 

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Try number 640 I had to leave the tank like this Monday night since it was 11pm

 

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Tuesday night

 

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Please add your experiences with moving a tank, transfer or other. One time or another everyone has to go through this.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the tank today

 

 

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Real good job documenting the move. What really stuck out whilst reading was

"Once this move starts there is no turning back and you have to be prepared."

I guess you really have to be OVER prepared in case of the inevitable.

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Nice thread. I am moving house next week as well, although thankfully into the next suburb, rather than 150 miles... My biggest worry is getting my scaping to look like it does now, took me days to get it the way I wanted it in the first place. I guess I just need to let go and think of something new...

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Nice thread. I am moving house next week as well, although thankfully into the next suburb, rather than 150 miles... My biggest worry is getting my scaping to look like it does now, took me days to get it the way I wanted it in the first place. I guess I just need to let go and think of something new...

 

I know it is hard to let go but replicating it is almost impossible. You can never balance the rock the same way again. You could try something similar. I actually enjoy my new scape it made a lot more room for corals. Before I was pretty much maxed out and after the move I had at least 50% more room.

 

Honestly 150 miles or down the street are pretty much the same. The only difference is the loss in temp, everything else will be extremely similar.

 

Awesome thread!!

 

What is your mandarin going to do without all the pods to eat?

 

My mandarin is trained to eat frozen food, I have never relied on it to eat pods to survive. All fish were eating normally after the move.

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I will always miss the original OfficeMax. It was one of the key inspiration tanks, and was one of the reasons I started reefing in the first place.

 

I shed a tear for the empty office photos.

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I guess for the heat loss you could get a DC to AC power inverter and plug the heater in that for the car ride. Can always return it to the store after the move.

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Great guide, Steve.... just a little too much OCD. ;)

 

I learn from the best :flower:

 

I will always miss the original OfficeMax. It was one of the key inspiration tanks, and was one of the reasons I started reefing in the first place.

 

I shed a tear for the empty office photos.

 

Thanks bud. I really miss that office and the way the tank looked in it. There was no overhead lighting so it really stood out in a "darker" corner. The scape will be missed.

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I guess for the heat loss you could get a DC to AC power inverter and plug the heater in that for the car ride. Can always return it to the store after the move.

 

Correct thanks for the reminder.

 

I had one with me. But since it was April the temps wern't too bad as in the winter. I also had all the corals in bags so you would have to float them in some kind of contraption with the heater, all that extra water would make me nervous in my truck. I put as much in a cooler to hold in as much heat, there was no good way with my move to make that work.

 

On a longer trip it is recommended or pack as if they are shipping UPS or FedEx.

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How/when did you prep your new sand bed? I'm planning on tossing my sandbed in my next move as the outbreaks I got from my last move was absurd.

 

Also, was there any effect on your tank from replacing it.

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How/when did you prep your new sand bed? I'm planning on tossing my sandbed in my next move as the outbreaks I got from my last move was absurd.

 

Also, was there any effect on your tank from replacing it.

 

I just added the new sand after I set up my scape, rinsed it before hand. To be super safe you could cycle it before hand but it is a small aspect biologically compared to the rock. It did go though an algae cycle shortly after the new set up but that lasted less than two weeks.

 

I would not recommend every trying to move the sand after seeing what was actually in it. I can see it crashing the new set up quickly.

 

The only effect was it's algae stages, the corals and fish were unaffected. Water perams looked stable and honestly I didn't test after the move because of no visual stress of the animals. Not a recommendation but with a mature tank you hardly test. I did weekly water changes for one month then went back to bi-weekly.

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I could only imagine how stressful that was!! You did a great job, and planned it really well.

 

I'm moving my 2.5 gallon in the next week or so, granted it's nothing major to move, but I'm still not looking forward to doing it. I'm just gonna drain some water and pick it up as is, so we'll see how it goes.

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Hah, the pictures of you trying to rescape made me laugh so hard because I was just there myself. Sitting infront of my tank, saltwater EVERYWHERE, salt on every surface of my tankstand, and me with piles of liverock on 5g bucket tops. I definitely agree that once you take down a scape just LET IT GO. You will spend countless hours trying to recreate it and in the end you won't be happy.

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Hah, the pictures of you trying to rescape made me laugh so hard because I was just there myself. Sitting infront of my tank, saltwater EVERYWHERE, salt on every surface of my tankstand, and me with piles of liverock on 5g bucket tops. I definitely agree that once you take down a scape just LET IT GO. You will spend countless hours trying to recreate it and in the end you won't be happy.

 

I should have taken a picture of my pants and shirt. The shirt (black) was almost pure white when I was done and the jeans were rock hard in some areas soaking wet and turning white.

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I should have taken a picture of my pants and shirt. The shirt (black) was almost pure white when I was done and the jeans were rock hard in some areas soaking wet and turning white.

 

 

I see your drenched shirt and raise you a soaking wet shirtless guy sitting in his livingroom at 3am cause he just had to get it right. I eventually gave up and finished the next day.

 

The things we do for pretty fish and corals.

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