Advice needed. Keeping corals in a cooler for long periods

[Ohmegg]

Work is going to necessitate me traveling and possibly living out of hotels for a few months. No one will be home to top of water in the tank and was wondering if I could take all the rock, and coral in a large cooler (like a Yeti). That way when I'm at the hotels I can run skimmer, heater and lights over them. Would a plastic insulated cooler leach chemicals into the water? Would this whole thing just be too stressful being moved around from place to place even if I had all my live rock and sand in the cooler? 

[Tiki_Reef]

I wouldn't move it, last time I moved my tank literally 20 minutes away to my new house the tank crashed between a weird bacteria bloom and some other odd chemistry changes. That move made me get out of the hobby for 8 years. Just my 2 pennys.

[NanoGrant]

It’d be too stressful in my opinion. 
 

Temperature swings, salinity swings etc during moving would be a pain. Also the risk of things falling over inside the cooler, hotel staff might spray things in the room that would affect the tank. Just seems like too much hassle. 
 

 

[seabass]

6 hours ago, Ohmegg said:

possibly living out of hotels for a few months. No one will be home to top of water in the tank

That's tough.  Some local fish stores offer services to look in on tanks.  Not everyone is comfortable letting people that they don't know very well into their homes, but it might be the best option.

 

It would be possible to setup an auto top off system.  You could even add an alkalinity supplement if you regularly dose it.  A large Brute container could be your water reservoir.  Of course, a top off failure (like stuck on) is a slight possibility, but could be damaging.

 

I might consider selling off your livestock.  You could always start it back up when you are back (maybe in a new direction, now that you know better what you like and/or what has done well for you).

 

Finally, your local fish store might be willing to temporarily house your livestock for you at their store (for a fee).  Ask them if this a possibility.

[Ohmegg]

Thank you for all the great advice.