Moving

[Southern Flame]

What's the best way to move the 90 gal reef tank? And could use some help if anyone is interested in helping I can offer dinner and beer. Will update with the exact date of tank move when I have more info. It's just 1 mile away same neighbourhood I just have no clue where to start and how to do it. I can move a freshwater tank like no tomm my Oscar, jack,&pleco are old and hardy it's just the salt I'm worried about.

[Low_KingMatt]

I was about to ask the same question Im moving this weekend and am just worried how im going to move my tank!

[Southern Flame]

I was about to ask the same question Im moving this weekend and am just worried how im going to move my tank!
Do you have any corals? Cause that's my concern for mine but I won't be moving totally till end of feb

[jcnkt_ellis]

I've moved a couple of sytems and rule number one is to make sure you have enough containers for everything. Live rock needs to be pulled and kept wet, if you're not setting up right away throw in a powerhead for circulation. Fish and coral you move in buckets as well and oxygenate with air. Drain all the water out down to the sand, but leave just enough to keep the sand wet. There are pros and cons to keeping this old water or tossing out and making new so your call. The sand, especially if its a deep bed needs to be disturbed as little as possible. Again, there are pros and cons to moving the tank with the sand in place so your call. Erring on the side of caution, you pull the sand as well and put it in a bucket so you can rinse it before putting it back, or just buy new. Either way, you will have another cycle and hopefully it will be small if you kept your live rock 'alive'

[Big_Pun]

what he said ^^^ depending how far your moving and how big the tank is and amount of sand in tank all ready,i will usually have customers buy new sand. a tank full of sand and even a inch of water is heavy and unstable as water moves, so something like the maast cart helps unless you have suction cups. make atleast 30-50% of water volume of your system of new salt water(you never know). best thing is to use storage bins for rock, also ice chest and battery operated air bubblers are great for fish they stay in the dark creating less stress. i would love to help yall but i need to recover from yesterdays tank move, my hands are swollen from bristle worm stings and are usually that way for 3-5 days.
also i like to use a good pump and long hose to help drain and fill quickly.

[Low_KingMatt]

Do you have any corals? Cause that's my concern for mine but I won't be moving totally till end of feb

Have some not to much mainly just zoas and one birds nest but have plenty fish just want them to have as less stress as possible

[alton]

Watch your water temps. 65 is no big deal to us, but to your fish it could be real bad? If it is going to be cold this weekend, you may want to wait till the afternoon? As long as your tank is clean no problems but if you have an hair algae issue it could pollute your tank. Another issue would be a well developed sand bed, try to move it without disturbing the sand bed

[Scutterborn]

All good advice. Not sure what else to add. I guess I'll just stress this. "Don't disturb the sand bed!" Lol.


-Ben-

[Southern Flame]

Who knew moving a mile down the road could be so hard lol non stop filling our vehicles and trucking along

[Scutterborn]

So I guess y'all got it done!


-Ben-

[Southern Flame]

Yea and I was a ball of nerves I didn't post the day cause it was the same day as the meeting

[ramsey]

I moved a 185 from Austin to new braunfels and it's terrible. I don't think I'll ever do a move like that again. I'd just sell out and start over.

[Tempset]

Moves can be easy if planned properly.

http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

[Flyride95]

I'm about to move but I'm going to move up in tank at the same time. I have a 90gal in my garage with live rock in it just circulating water. When I move I'm bringing the 90gal over first and setting up the rocks placing the new live sand down and putting as much of the water that is I there now back into it. Then I'm going to come bag up all my fish and corals and suck up more gal of saltwater and bring it over. When I'm all finished ill have a 55gal here and all my fish will be in there new home.

[ramsey]

Moving the 175 even with all the planning in the world was still not easy with live stock, rock and sand. It took a decent sized uhaul, two 120G stock tanks, numerous buckets, battery powered air pumps, etc. Smaller tanks would be a lot easier but large tanks, forget it. It was a 175 bow front and took four of us to load/unload the heavy beast. Also, there was no way the sand bed was going to stay intact unless we used a crane. A guy at a LFS told me not to disturb the sand bed which was nice in theory but was next to impossible in practice. I took the sand out, then put it back in and added a ton of bio spira. I didn't have any losses at all. It can be done, but I'll never do it again.

You have the right idea with setting a new tank up on the other side. That gives you time to plumb and all that good stuff. I hated feeling super rushed when I did the 175 move.

[Southern Flame]

Agreed they said don't disturb the sand bed but there was no way with the 90 I scooped as much as I could out with a coffee cup and plus I had to find the 2 brittles and conch (who was buried btw) hubby said same never again keep tank and stand sell everything else if we have to move again lol but our next move will be a house we buy or moving back to Louisiana and thankfully we have a ton of ice chest so the small amout of frags and fish were fine no losses except my hair lol

[Big_Pun]

its not bad with right gear and people who are in the hobby and know what to do. Aaron and i have moved plenty of reef tanks and fresh water tanks for the shop. one thing that i recommend is have plenty of new water ready and always remove the old sand. as soon as you empty the water out the tank, temp swings start and will kill bacteria in sand bed, on short trips you be able to get away with it, also a good bacteria starter is great, like dr tims one and only, ATM has a good one. the hardest part is doing it in a timely manner, i use a mag 24 or 18 to transfer water out into holding containers or to the street to empty tank quickly. just always plan for the worse, get new bulk heads and plumbing.

[Southern Flame]

We were lucky we didn't have any probs except emergency run to aquarium adventure for a longer over flow hose no losses and we used ice chests to preserve the warmth and I transferred the sand in a styrofoam box that is used to ship fish in lol

my fresh water tank was a walk in the park my fish are as old as my oldest child and meaner than sin it would take leaving them out of water for them to croak lol