ccordero Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Hi people. I hope somebody can help me. I will be moving out of my apartment in 1 week ( 5 miles away) and I don't know what would be the proper procedure to move my aquarium. the cycle just finished a couple of week ago. I have 20 Lb of LR and 10 of LS. no fish or coral for the moment but with a tank full of life (crabs, hermits, snails, etc). What should I do to do the moving painless for me and to preserve the life in my aquarium. Should I empty the tank? What to do with the water? LR etc. any help will be appreciated. thanks! C. Link to comment
seabass Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Your tank needs to be empty when you move it. Make some new saltwater in some buckets (with lids if possible) to transport your LR and sand in (in theory, you could wrap your LR in newspaper and transport it out of water, but I wouldn’t). For your livestock, transport them in a separate bucket (so the rocks don’t crush them) with some of your tank water. Keep as much of your tank water as possible and transport them in buckets (new buckets that have never had detergents or chemicals in them). When you get there: • setup the stand and tank • add most of your old tank water then your LR and sand • setup your equipment and turn it on (except for the heater) • put a cartridge in your HOB filter (if you have one) • wait a short time, until your tank settles a little • add in your livestock • turn on your heater Disclaimer: I have never done this before, but I hope this helps. *** EDIT *** Leaving the sand bed alone sounds like a good idea. I guess that I would leave it in my tank with just enough water to cover it all. Link to comment
leslr Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 Hi C. You don't really have to remove and empty your whole tank of all the sand etc. I have moved my tanks 3 times so far. The last one took most of the day and many miles. I removed most of the critters I could find/catch and put in zip lock bags, as well as any corals. I also put most of the small pieces of L/R in bags if they would fit and placed the whole bunch in a styrofoam cooler.The rest I put in a clean bucket with tank water, and ensured they were well covered leaving about 1/3 of the tank water in the tank ( depends on your tank size).As for the rest I left, after ensuring they would not roll or fall over , I took off the lid and covered it with "seran wrap" and placed the lid back on. This kept any spills to the minimum as well the big pieces I left in the tank kind of acted like a slosh barrier. Anyway thats the way I did it last with a 15 tall. And it was just me and the Mrs. doing the tank move. HTH. leslr. Link to comment
kennerd Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 Don't remove the sandbed: try not to stir it up much at all. Remove everything else into buckets: livesotck in one, rock in the other, if need be. Saran Wrap is a fine idea. Have at least 3/4 of your tank's volume in mixed, aerated water ready to go. God forbid you don't have more than you think you'll need , and you spill a 5 gal bucket of it, then have to mix it up immediately to fill up. Now, this is also a good time to increase the depth of your sandbed, if you would like, and also to add more live sand. It's not as hard as you think, just take your time and don't rush so nothing gets broken (ie, light bulbs, tank, heaters, etc.) or you'll be in trouble to find something asap. Livestock can stay in a rubbermaid container with your tank water with a heater and powerhead for quicte a while. Link to comment
seabass Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 You might also want to move when your LFS is open. If you break something like a heater, or your tank, it would be nice to be able to replace it quickly. Link to comment
6gal_nanoman Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 get a plastic garbage can without weels from wal-mart to put your water and live rock in. worked for me on my 45 gallon reef. Use a hand truck to roll it into the truck. Good Luck! Link to comment
kennerd Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 What size tank are we talking about here? Link to comment
JLTRUK Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 I am assuming this 10gal tank is glass, if so then everything recommended so far is fine and will work great. If your tank is acrylic, then you need to empty it out all the way for sure, or carry the tank on a base. The reason is because the bottom will begin to sag and create stress on the rest of the tank structure... good luck with the move, dont worry about it...everything will turn out just fine. Remember that LFS have to recieve shipments all the time and live animals, corals and so forth are routinely boxed, shipped and moved around. You'll be fine:) Link to comment
killrblue Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 LOL. Your stressing for that size of a tank? Try 30 - 280g with full livestock, equipment and plumbing. You can do it in less than 1 hour if you have the supplies handy. Good Luck!! Link to comment
JLTRUK Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 tell me about it, I just had to move my 50gal...and that one is acrylic **oops noticed my spelling error* Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.