Successfully Moving Reef Cross Country

[jservedio]

Last week I had the pleasure of dragging my 2 reefs (20g mainly acros and 2g mixed pico) 950 miles across the country from Durham, North Carolina way up to Madison, Wisconsin over the span of two days. All of my acros were in coolers for nearly 48 hours and still in a temp tank with only a single casualty of a small frag of Cali Tort that fell off the eggcrate onto the acans packed below absolutely no casualties [the cali tort LIVES! I thought it ws dead but I left it in the tank and it is bouncing back].

 

Since this was a big success and I was dreading this for months, I figured I would document it here for those who are in a similar situation and have to drag their tanks across the country. Also, I employed two different methods for each tank for keeping things alive and both worked, so I will document both (hint: moving a pico is MUCH easier). If you are moving and have questions about this, feel free to PM me.

 

Here is what my reef looked like for 2 days:

 

Method 1 for the 20g Tank (In Truck):

I packed all of my Corals, FIsh, and CUC into two styrafoam coolers. The fish and Acros went into one with some more sensitive LPS that contained an airstone as well as a Koralia 240 for water movement (Not that I needed it, there was plenty of water movement based on the amount of water on the floor...). In the other cooler I put the rest of my LPS, my big monti cap, and anything permanently attached to rocks with an airstone.. I used eggcrate magneted to the side of the cooler for as much as I could. I also stuck digital thermometers into each cooler (the $8 Petco ones) to keep an eye on temperature. In 14 hours driving on day 1, the temperature in both coolers dropped from 78.9F at the start down to 74.6F by the time I got to the hotel. Day 2 I didn't blast the AC as much and the temperature didn't fluctuate more than 1.5F.

 

Method 2 for the 2g Pico (In Truck):

I literally picked up the entire pico, light and all, still full of water and put it inside a bigger rubbermaid container. I routed all the wires out of the top and plugged it in. Since the heater is only 50w, I was ablt to even keep the heater on since it wasn't insulated at all. If I couldn't power the heater, this would have never worked. I had the inverter unplugged for several hours both days to re-charge the GPS and the temperature dropped like a rock - almost 2 degrees in maybe 3 hours.

 

Both Tanks (In Hotel):

In addition to the other gear inside, both coolers had a 100w heater packed inside at the bottom. I simply tossed the 3 containers onto a bell-hop luggage cart and brought them into the hotel room with me. The heaters allowed me to bring the temperature back up slowly to just below 80 degrees to prepare for the next day.

 

Power Supply in Truck:

I went out and bought a Duralast 400w continuous (800w peak) 12v DC to 110v AC inverter for about $60. They lie about 400w since I burned a fuse testing with around 280 watts and it gets SUPER loud around 200 watts, but it does the trick and very cheaply. I was able to run my entire pico (heater and lights too), a Koralia 240, and an air-pump with no problems.

 

Shortcomings and Improvements:

The biggest problem I had was corals shifting en-route. I underestimated how much the truck would bounce around (Indiana's roads are HORRIBLE) and my only loss was due to an acro falling onto LPS. Additionally, a few of my LPS have battle scars from fighting with each other while being jumbled about in the cooler. I really should have strapped down my LPS like I did with the acros. My big monti cap broke into two pieces due to shifting as well. I should have put 2 "tiers" of egg crate in each cooler and zip-tied everything down. If I had done that, I wouldn't have a single loss and not a single battle scar on my LPS.

 

Here is the giant truck, over 40 feet long total, with my POS neon that I refuse to get rid of strapped to the back (with 180lbs of SW and probably 10 grand worth of electronics that belong to my company in my car's back seat under a blanket)

 

Here is my reef behind some nuclear waste in Kentucky:

 

And here is the new digs for my Pico:

[Esage]

Great info

[CCDillon]

Indeed, great info. I'll be moving my 5g and 14g soon, so this really helps.

 

Thank you

[dmasterx1x]

Good job, and thanks for the write up.

[jservedio]

Great info

Good job, and thanks for the write up.

Thank you! Hopefully it helps.

 

Indeed, great info. I'll be moving my 5g and 14g soon, so this really helps.

 

Thank you

No problem! Make sure you read the general "moving your tank" threads too so you don't cause a cycle when you move, if you haven't moved a tank before. If you need more info about keeping things alive during the move feel free to PM me. I can diagram out the setup inside the cooler if anyone needs it.

[rocksmom]

Congratulations on the successful move. We just moved from San Diego to Pittsburgh (4 days) in December, but decided in the final weeks before the move to sell everything instead of taking the risk. The only living things that came with were my two dogs and my betta in a giant pretzel jar. It was fun carrying him into hotels like that He has a 3 gallon planted tank so I just drained the water, covered it in saran wrap, and left it in the truck.

[Halo_003]

Good job!! I think I remember your original thread where I mentioned an inverter which was how I moved my reef, if not sorry for the confusion lol.

[jservedio]

Good job!! I think I remember your original thread where I mentioned an inverter which was how I moved my reef, if not sorry for the confusion lol.

 

Yep! Really glad I ended up getting a really powerful inverter from Autozone instead of a cheap Walmart one. Having 400w of available power makes it really, really easy. I would imagine if I had packed the coolers a bit better, I would have no problem going the rest of the way across country like this.

 

Congratulations on the successful move. We just moved from San Diego to Pittsburgh (4 days) in December, but decided in the final weeks before the move to sell everything instead of taking the risk. The only living things that came with were my two dogs and my betta in a giant pretzel jar. It was fun carrying him into hotels like that He has a 3 gallon planted tank so I just drained the water, covered it in saran wrap, and left it in the truck.

lol yeah I got a lot of funny looks going into the hotel with 1 suitcase between me and my fiancee with 3 coolers of fish stuff and a beagle.

I was dreading the move big time and was considering selling off all my livestock and restarting up here in Madison since there is a pretty good reefing community up here.

 

One of my friends in NC moved his acro tank about 2 hours and lost nearly everything from having a temperature drop and lost 5+ years of growth in a single day (not to mention thousands of dollars) so I was super paranoid.

[AWillroth]

Awesome. I moved across town a few months ago and even that was terrifying. No losses and my tank didn't even flinch, though, so that was nice.

[fishybusiness11]

well at least there is proof that one person has moved successfully haha

[jservedio]

well at least there is proof that one person has moved successfully haha

 

This is the second time in 2 years I am moving. Last time was only about 45 minutes away and I didn't have the pico at the time (though that wouldn't matter, you can just pick it up and carry it around) and I had even less problems. Everything was out of tank for about 12-14 hours total and I didn't lose or even stress a single thing. As long as you are careful not to cause a cycle (which is super simple btw) and manage temperature and dissolved oxygen levels, moving is easy.

 

The biggest pain is just the amount of time it takes to break down a tank, clean it, pack it up and then do everything in reverse when you get there.