Tank Move

[klondike4001]

I need to move my tanks about an hour and a half from where they currently are, any recommendations on how to do it w/o killing everything in them? They are a 24g NC, and a 5.5 Gal.

[jc]

Come up with a game plan first. I suggest trying to save as much of the original water as possible. Take out all the rock and water from the tanks before you move them. Try not to disturb the sand. You don't want to have an accident and crack the tank. Slowy add the water when you get the tank set back up so that you dont cloud the water. Good luck.

[hoho19]

Great article by Mark
http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

[GaryP]

Its not really a good while, it might be a good idea to remove the sand and wash it to remove any of the detritus that has built up there. I would keep a portion of the sand to use as a starter culture to re-establish the sand bed. I would try to remove any sand sifting critters before washing it. By using fresh water you will basically kill any critters in the sand, good or bad, and that is the reason for the starter culture.

Like was mentioned earlier, I would try to keep at least 50% of the original water. LR can be transported in trash cans or buckets with the water. Fish can go into an ice chest. If they are going to be there long, you might want to use a battery operated air pump. You can get these in the fishing dept. at Academy or WalMart.

Regardless of whether you remove the sand or not, its going to be pretty cloudy for the first day or so. Blow any dust off the LR or coral with a turkey baster after it settles. Be prepared to do several water changes after the move. The tank is going to go through a mini-cycle. Adding some macro to the tank if you don't have a refugium can help with this. Run fresh carbon and your skimmers as hard as possible. Running a phosphate absorber may also be very helpful. Be prepared to add a clean up crew when and if you see the first signs of an algae bloom.

Depending on what fish you have, they may stress from the move and you may see Ich. Probably the best thing to do is feed them small amounts of food several times a day to help overcome this.

[saltcreepette]

I had good luck moving my tanks from colorado to virginia to texas.

remove rock to home depot buckets (keep covered with tank water). put corals so they dont get crushed by rock or each other. Once tank is mostly devoid of obstacles, use clear square acrylic (those plastic hermit crab habitats they sell at petsmart work great) and a net to slowly corral your fish into corner of tank, then when in the box, lift them out and put them in a waiting bucket of tank water. To transport my fish, I had a dual outlet power inverter with airstone and heater. I put a new tall kitchen trash can in my backseat and put half full of water, with heater airstone and fish in it. We drove like this many hours and did not lose a single fish. if you do not lift the fish out of water AT ALL at any point of catching (this really jacks up their bodily functions; theres a great article on advancedaquaristonline about netting/catching fish), and try not to chase them too much, and keep the water temp up, you will have much less chance of them catching ich. I saved the sand in a separate bucket and during some short moves, left the sand bed intact with just a little water covering it. A bacteria filled sand bed uses enormous amounts of oxygen, even more the deeper it is, so if it is not properly aerated, the bacteria will die causing a bad ammonia spike. to say nothing of the anaerobic areas deep in the sandbed being stirred up causing noxious organics to be released, so this is one area you need to be very careful of. If you destroy the sandbed's balance you may as well just wash it thoroughly (I always rinsed it with old tank water, and replaced the lost water with newly mixed and aerated salt water) and hope the bacteria in your live rock can handle the wasteload well enough while the sandbed repopulates with bacteria (your tank will go through another cycle). As has been mentioned, keep every last drop of water that you can. You can always line up some new salt water at a store where you are going too in case you end up having to waste some (rinsing the sand, etc)
When you arrive, set up your tank first, then gently release your fish back in (I acclimate the fish as usual). I always run a filter with carbon and floss to polish the water and turn the skimmer on high and wet and the tank is clear by the next day. Good luck.

[blueboy]

if you don't own a powerful canister filter, i would suggest borrowing one in advance. they really help out in clearing up the water after the move, and a good place to run some carbon for a week or two.

[saltcreepette]

I forgot to mention I dont put anything in the fish bucket except a couple plastic plants for cover.

[klondike4001]

I bagged each of the fish seperately and to report, the move went very smoothly, didn't loose any live stock and didn't even expirience any mini cycle, I heavyily skimmer and carbon filtered after the move jsut in case but everything went just fine.

[SGTDirk]

I maved from DC to SA, and I also moved a 24G nano. All I did was tear down the tank placing every thing in buckets. moved the tank to my car and then put the tank back together. plugged it into a power inverter I had laying around. Covered it with plastic wrap. and drove. I was able to still use the filter and lighting. everything servived the trip. Only thing I can tell you that might make it easier, leave the water level a little low. Best of luck.