Moving my tank on Saturday

[Halo_003]

Like the title says, I'm going to be moving my tank on Saturday, what do I need to do to move it successfully? Thankfully, it's only a 10G so it has 3 fish, 5 frags, 12lbs LR, and 10lbs LS. Here's what I was thinking:

 

bag corals in ziploc bags, place in cooler with water from the tank. I keep my tank at 76F and it should be around 80F here on Saturday. So my thinking was to just put the corals in one of the coolers sitting around. Could I put fish in the same cooler? Or should they go in something else? Do they need to be bagged for the move?

 

To add complication(of course!!) I think my fish have Ich or an infection of sorts so I'll have to put them in a QT tank to do tank transfer or hyposalinity. (Frustrating!!!)

[Angel<3Nanos]

First, how far are you moving? Is it like another state? Or just another block?

[Halo_003]

Sorry, forgot to mention. I'm moving from school in Melbourne back to Jacksonville, so it's only about 2 hours.

[seabass]

I'd probably just use 5 gallon buckets. One for the fish, one for the bagged coral, snails, and other inverts, and one for your live rock. Don't disturb the sand bed (once you do, you should discard the remaining water). For tank moves, I usually recommend using new sand.

[Halo_003]

Tank is only 3 months old, and sandbed is about 1", would that still apply?

[seabass]

I'll still go so far to say that I'd discard the remaining water after the substrate has been disturbed. However, after rinsing with saltwater, I'd probably reuse the sand.

[Halo_003]

Yeah I was planning on reusing it. I figured I'd just drain water down to a couple inches then siphon it out. Either that or drain water down right to the sanded and move it with the sand still in the tank with just a bit of water.

 

Would I need to aerate the buckets?

[seabass]

I wouldn't bother aerating the buckets. Be careful moving the sand still in the tank (the weight can be stressful when moving it around). I'd probably put the sand in a bucket too.

[Gooburz]

I've done a tank relocation a couple times now and it is not as hard as you think it would be.

 

1. bag up all the fish and corals into buckets

2. Keep your live rock submerged in tank water for the trip, it will be fine without movement for 2 hours so no need to waste money on an air hose.

3. Get new sand, don't reuse the old stuff, too many problems can happen.

4. To avoid waiting even more time for water to mix and since its only a 10 gallon spend a few extra bucks and get the Petco natural sea water, great stuff and isn't expensive. I have a 20L and used that stuff for my move and just bring it to temp and add into tank. Takes no time at all

5. wait about an hour, check parameters and you should be fine from there.

 

Done that 2 times now and have had NO problems at all.

[ETucc]

Thank you, Goo. I'm gonna be moving in a few months and you just gave me peace of mind!

[Halo_003]

Could I reuse the sand if I rinse it really well in RODI? I like my Fiji Pink.

[seabass]

Like I said; sure you can reuse your sand. However, I would rinse it in saltwater (not freshwater). Put it in a bucket of saltwater, stir it up real good, siphon out the dirty water, and repeat until the water is just barely cloudy (chances are that it won't run totally clear).

[Mpy]

If you are moving your water, trash bags in pickle buckets works well, and then bungee(or tip tie) them closed. It acts as a bladder and you get no slosh and much less risk of getting water all over your car.

 

I would aerate for the fish as getting out of Melbourne and into Jax can add time. Going the speed limit its closer to 3hrs, and then add pack up and unloading time to that....

[Halo_003]

Okay found out we have one of the DC-->AC chargers that has 2 outlets. So, I'll put the fish in one bucket, with ~3G of tank water, with the corals bagged in the bucket as well. Then I'll stick the heater and air pump in the bucket, should be fine like that I think. Rock can all go in the other bucket, and with the sand I'll use the remaining tank water to rinse it in. Shouldn't be too bad hopefully. I think I'll throw a couple small piece of LR in the fish+coral bucket as well to have bio filtration going. Is that a good idea? I'm talking like rubble sized.

 

Edit: Think I might not do the rubble actually.

[Halo_003]

Looks like I won't be moving three fish.... The fire fish must have died last night. I found pieces of it this morning. About to get started moving everything. Got some LR in a bucket already and the rest will be shortly.

[seabass]

Aw, I wonder what happened.

 

Good luck with the move.

[Halo_003]

Well over the last 24 he's it developed big white patches, not like ixh but some sort oof infection. Coral is bagged in a 5g bucket, fish are swimming free in it. I have a power aadapter so the bucket is heated and has a powerheas, LR has neither so may use the air pump on it potentially. Just to update. About to leave, fish and corals are doing okay. Nice thing about a small tank. I'm moving the tank with sandbed intact and will rinse it when I get to jax. Of course, its also raining today but temps are about 72 so everythingahouls be okay even unheated.

[Halo_003]

Sorry about the last post, I was on my phone. Made the move, everything is doing okay except for my worm maze brain which has been having trouble over the last two weeks, everything else looks okay, the torch and hammer are already almost fully open. Clowns look good too. Water is even cleared up completely, and I got everything into the 20L by Deep Blue, which I must say is of much higher quality than the 10G I picked up from Petco before.

 

On a side note, the 55G cichlid tank at home is in bad shape, all kinds of detritus and algae everywhere. It will be the next thing to work on tomorrow.

 

All things considered, including time to mix 20G of new water etc, the tank itself added about 6 hours of work once I got into Jax, wasn't too bad. I got pictures of how I had the livestock bucket set up, and it worked really well apparently since I could have it heated and circulating the whole time with a power head.

[seabass]

Good, glad it worked out for you.

[Halo_003]

Also regarding the sandbed, I moved it intact, and used the transport water to rinse it out, which it needed since I never did when I got the sand initially. I just drained the water level to like .5", picked up the tank and took it to the car.