How do I move my 72g. 4.5 hour drive!

[cirionrc]

I am moving and need instruction on how to move my tank. It is about a four and a half hour drive. I have a snowflake moray, a lionfish, a yellow tang and a koran angel. I have some buckets for fish only stuff. I have live rock also to move. I was going to drain the water except for about 3 inches to keep the sand wet, Put the live rock in a few buckets with tank water, And put the fish in a 5 gallon bucket filled with tank water. Is this a bad idea? Do I need bubblers in there. I can hook one up to the cig lighter. When I get there, I am using ro/di water and will have the salinity the same. Am I going to have problems with putting the fish back in. Will my bacteria survive this? Is my tank going to be cycling again. Another thing is that I have a canister filter and If I blocked the water and just moved, then reconnected it, will the all the bacteria be ok? I don't know if I need water to be circulating all the time or what.

[cgp]

...very carefully....

 

Ouch I feel for you. That's a total pain the rear. I had to move my 55 gal 2 hours away.

 

Here's what I did, which worked.

 

1. I figured out exactly where the sucker was going to go in the new house.

 

2. I mixed 25 gallons of water ans stuck them in 5 gallon buckets.

 

3. I bought 2 40 gallon ice chests with wheels (and I kept the receipts).

 

4. I filled my quarantine tank with water from the main tank and stuck all my critters and corals in it.

 

5. I dumped water and all my live rock into one of the ice chests.

 

6. I dumped more water and the sand into the second ice chest.

 

7. I loaded up the stand, hood, sump, aquarium, the ice chests into the van, got it to the new place, dumped the sand, and the water from the chest with the sand in it in the tank.

 

8. I added some of the new water into the tank along with a heater.

 

9. I dropped a heater and a powerhead into the icechest with the live rock in it.

 

10. I went back home with the empty (and rinsed) ice chest.

 

11. I put the water, critters and coral from the quarantine tank into the ice chest.

 

12. I loaded up the ice chest and the quarantine tank into the van and drove back.

 

13. I set up the quarantine tank and put the critters, coral back in it.

 

14. All the sand hadn't settled completely yet so I left it overnight (If you have just crushed coral as opposed to sand, you won't have to wait like I did).

 

15. The next AM I added my live rock and the water from that ice chest into the tank, refilled the sump, used the rest of my mixed water to top everything off.

 

16. That afternoon, I moved my fish and corals back to the tnak one at a time and acclimating slowly.

 

In the end, all my fish made it. Most of my snails/hermits made it. I lost 2 corals and a cleaner shrimp.

 

I think that was pretty freakin successful.

 

Oh, btw, I then returned one of the ice chests to Wal-Mart.

 

I was going to return both, but they made such good emergency tanks, esp. with the insulation so that they retained temperature fairly well, that I kept one of them.

 

Good luck.

[cgp]

P.S. The reason I didn't leave 2-3 " of water in the tank with the sand in it was that I was worried about the temperature. IMO, that's the biggest problem. I mean, so you don't have bubblers, for a few hours, big deal, the truck moving is gonna keep it agitated enough to keep it oxygenated.

 

Also, I think you want to save as much of your original tank water as possible. That's what your fish are used to. There's more than just the salinity, there's the pH, the temperature, the nutrients, the overall quality of the H20. I 70% water change would be pretty stressful on your inhabitants.

 

The bacteria in your LR and your filter should be fine for a few hours. I'd just rig the canister to run in the ice chest with the LR in it when you get to your new place.

[cgp]

P.S.S. The 2 corals I lost were new frags I added within a mnth before the move which was really stupid. I've got no excuse for the shrimp.

 

I also did a 5 gallon water change every 4 or 5 days for 2 weeks, just in case there was stuff in the LR that was dying off -- but that's because I have corals. Doesn't look like that's something you'd need to really worry about.

[cirionrc]

Thanks for the advice. I begin moving in two weeks so I hope it goes well. I think the ice chest are a good idea. Wal-Mart, here I come. Thanks

[gobies]

General blanket statement: do a search on www.wetwebmedia.com and http://wetwebfotos.com/talk about moving fish. WWM has at least a page of good info, and I know some of the people on WWFotos have done long-distance moves.

 

- DO NOT attempt to move the 72g tank with any sand in it. It will be too bleepin' heavy, even if you have a six-man crew to move it. Moving a non-empty tank stresses the tank too much.

 

- See if there's any place you can rent a large water container from. Then mix up a batch of sw at the new place. You will need more than 72g of water ready-mixed and available to make the move work...I know I needed more water than I had tank volume, and I only moved 5 miles.

 

- The canister filter may experience massive bacteria die-off if you just unplug it and move it. You might be able to keep the bacteria alive if you take the bio-media out and keep it in a separate container with some water movement. I have a bunch of bio-wheels that I've kept in water while waiting to set up those filters again.

 

- On moving the fish... If possible, hook up with an LFS that knows how to package fish for shipping.

[onthefly]

I moved my 45ga (see below for specs + add 1 more clown and 3 large Chromis) from San Diego, CA to Portland, OR no problems. It was a total pain but everyone made it (albeit ####ed off!). Basically, I used 5ga buckets (with lids) for my fish and gave them one piece of LR per bucket. Also I bought a battery operated air pump (2 D's) and made two holes in the lids (make them the same size as the tubing.....no leaks!). I put a temp strip on the outside of each bucket and kept them in the extra cab of my truck for the drive (checking temp periodically.....which never moved from 76). At night, when we stopped, I pluged in a heater and placed it in the buckets. No food for a day or two before or during the trip.

 

As for the water, LS, and LR, I went to target and bought 20ga plastic tubs and placed the LS in one with just enough water to keep it wet, but not slosh! the LR I placed in the other wrapped in wet paper towels, newspaper, etc. and taped a heft bag over it to prevent evap. I didn't worry at all about the temp of the LR or LS. When I got there, setting up the tank was the number one priority! I had no losers, and saw no spikes in Ammonia or Nitrite after the tank was setup.

 

Do it right and you shouldn't have any problems!!!!

[onthefly]

I should have returned those tubs to target!!!!!

 

Go move cgp!

[onthefly]

Kinda important in an aqurium!!

 

For the water, I used plastic gas cans to tranport. They make it really easy to set up the tank later too. Once all your substate is in, fill you bathtub with hot water and place the gas cans in it. Use a thermometer in the cans and match the temp you want. It takes 15-20min to get you temp up to speed! Besides, it really easy to pour the water out with the plastic spout those cans cme with.

[zumzumn]

1) save as much of the water as you can in seperate container.

2) don't disturb the substrate

3) DO take out as much of the water of the tank as possible, the movement of the water in the fish tnak in the truck or car, with the water sloshing around can losin the sealent (silicone)

4) which ever continer you put the fish in use some NovAqua (or other equivelent stress coat)

[Korbin]

Thank god for my 2.5 gallon!

[BCOrchidGuy]

Novaqua and Amquel, add them to the water your coral and fish are going to be shipped in they work wonders. I wouldn't leave the substrate in the tank, you need to keep it warm and aerated or it will either die or get so screwed up it will die later. The bucket/ice chest ideas are the best, a couple battery operated air pumps will cost you next to nothing and can save you a major headache.

I guess alot depends on the outside temperatures too, Good luck with the move, last move I did was with 30 aquariums, and it was a major pain, lucky it was only a 5 minute drive, still a pain though.