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Moving, what should I do 🤔


Mike P

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I am moving to a new apartment in a couple of weeks going from a 1st floor to a 4th floor at a place across the street. I have a reefer 170 and am not sure I I should try to move it myself or just higher a LFS, I got a estimate today and it’s $169 hr for two techs and they told me it would take 2-3 hrs to move..... is that about the usual cost for hiring someone? The benefit is they are insured and professionals. Other option is to move it myself but not sure how hard that will be

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I would buy 8 or so buckets with lids from home depot and put all the water and livestock and rock into the buckets. Be sure to use a powerhead or a small pump to keep circulation. Then just move it piece by piece and add about 10 gallons of newly mixed water and then just add the water from the buckets and plug and play. 8 buckets is a lot cheaper than 3 hours at $169. If you have anyone who can help you it would make the process a lot easier as the tank will still be pretty heavy with a little water and the sand in it. If you need to you can remove the sand. 

Thats what I would do. If it were a large tank id go with the movers but with a friend you can throw that $350 dollars back into the tank. 🙂

Gorgeous tank btw. 

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15 minutes ago, mark1234 said:

I would buy 8 or so buckets with lids from home depot and put all the water and livestock and rock into the buckets. Be sure to use a powerhead or a small pump to keep circulation. Then just move it piece by piece and add about 10 gallons of newly mixed water and then just add the water from the buckets and plug and play. 8 buckets is a lot cheaper than 3 hours at $169. If you have anyone who can help you it would make the process a lot easier as the tank will still be pretty heavy with a little water and the sand in it. If you need to you can remove the sand. 

Thats what I would do. If it were a large tank id go with the movers but with a friend you can throw that $350 dollars back into the tank. 🙂

Gorgeous tank btw. 

Thanks, I think that’s what I will do..... paying around $500 If it takes the 3 hours to move is a lot to justify when I can put that into the tank😉.I guess what I can also do is get a brute set up at the new place with a lot of fresh salt water set up just in case.

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I would strongly suggest throwing out the sand. It's most likely to cause problems, out of the whole situation. You can wind up unleashing some really nasty stuff, stirring the sand around in the process of moving things. Just buy fresh sand, and only keep a few handfuls of the old. 

 

Just be sure you're allowed to have that size of tank in a 4th floor apartment. They might not appreciate that, depending on how sturdy the place is.

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I would remove the sand for sure.  The tank is already pretty heavy and I wouldn't want to risk anything going up the stairs.  Just be sure to be careful about the bulkheads on bottom, so I would remove those also.  When I moved my 29g biocube I split up rocks/water/fish into a 2 or 3 buckets and 1 just for the sand and I had 10g of new water already mixed in case I needed some.

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Buy buckets.

 

Drain water from tank into buckets. Place livestock in one, corals in another, any water you want to reuse in another, rocks in another.( rocks should be the last thing removed before sand or else any water after moving them is garbage)

 

 

Get rid of the sand or wash it completely before reusing.

 

Move buckets to new apartment, place heaters and powerheads/air hoses in them for while you set up the tank.

 

Move tank/stand etc over.

 

Add rocks, new sand/washed sand, fill tank with new water and any water you saved. Let it clear, temp where it should be, ensure alk and sg are correct.

 

Start adding livestock and corals.

 

Have an ammonia badge just for monitoring and Seachem prime just in case.

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Sounds like I have a bit of planning to do and didn’t think of needing to replace the sand. Good thing the new place is just across the street and they have elevators. I might get a large brute just for the rocks and get the wheels for it and just roll it across the street instead of having to pack several buckets in my car. I guess I will be having some fun in a couple of weeks lol 

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Moving a tank in general sucks but its good that its across the street.  After I packed up and drove 4 hours I was too tired to set it back up immediately so I just put a bubbler on the one with fish and corals.  Then I started looking for my sixline wrasse the next day and couldn't find him.  It turns out he was in the bucket with sand in it and I hadn't put a bubbler on it.  Luckily he was OK and survived.  Good luck!

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