Need help with moving tank

[Mango_Fish]

Parents are putting new flooring and panting the house in my tank needs to get moved from the wall and get out of the room so they can put new flooring down. Does anybody have any ideas on how I would be able to do this I was planning on right now getting a Water storage tank from tractor supply and throwing everything in there until they get the walls painted and the floors done, but let me know if you have any ideas cause I’m planning on just putting the tank back to where it was. I was also thinking about buying a new tank but still haven’t found one yet. If you have any suggestions on that too that would be great preferably under 1500 would be good. 

[Ferry]

Less number of moving to different tank is better. When you move the live rock out of water, it will create a cycle. Other thing to consider if you are going to use a temporary holding tank is to be far away from the construction area. Paint fumes can kill your fish and affect your coral. One member experienced this and he had to give away his corals and fish so they can be saved. Hope that helps.

 

PS. I have a 108 gallon Fijicube starphire with Waterbox Infinia aluminum stand under 1500. Make me an offer, we can work out on a deal.

[Kathryn Lawson]

Depending on how heavy/large the tank is, you might be able to drain it down almost entirely very briefly to enable moving the whole thing without disturbing the rock, etc. That's how I moved my 30 gallon peninsula while the window behind it was being replaced - unplugged everything and drained all but a tiny bit of water (just enough to keep the fish underwater at the very bottom) into a spare 30 gallon I keep in storage (learned the hard way when I had a tank leak to always have a backup option big enough to hold rock and livestock...), enlisted my partner to help me move the tank across the room, then refilled/plugged equipment back in. Covered the tank etc. during the replacement, then did the process in reverse once the window replacement was finished.

[YHSublime]

How big is the setup?

[Mango_Fish]

40 gallon breeder with a 15 gallon sump 

[Jen R]

I actually just moved my 40 gallon peninsula tank from VA across the country to CA, and only lost one fish that jumped out of his bucket overnight at a hotel, and 2 sensitive corals that got squished by shifting rocks... I've also moved my tank short distance 3 times prior to that so I'm kind of a pro at this point. If you haven't already done the breakdown, you can DM me for tips. Quick summary:

• Equipment:
  • Buckets are your savior
    • Three 2-gal buckets, and five 5-gal buckets were enough to store all my rocks, sand, coral, and fish
  • Bubblers - enough for each aerobic bucket
  • Thermometer/heating element
  • Small circulation pumps for livestock buckets
  • I have a HOB refugium that I plugged in at the hotels and hung on the edge of the livestock buckets to cycle out some nitrates
  • Temporary holding setup:
    • Enough power strips for all plugs you need
    • One 5-gal tank and one 10-gal tank for livestock, and multiple buckets (for extra water/sand/live rock without coral)
    • All equipment listed above
    • Lights for temp tanks
    • Cheap HOB filter
• Keep the temporary holding as close to the original environment as you can: original water, slight sand on bottom, some live rock
• Keep as much of your original water as you can.
  • When you set the tank back up, keep all that water you saved. The new water you mix and add is basically a water change
  • All those good micro-organisms living in your water column are going to need to repopulate, and best to keep their numbers as high as you can
• If you have a sand bottom, you can keep your sand in a separate bucket with just enough water to keep it all submerged. It will keep the anaerobic microbes alive
  • When setting back up and putting the sand back in the main tank, toss any of that excess water you can (it's dirty/stinky, and some things will have died and you don't need those extra nitrates)

Nothing crashed, and I've had no outbreaks or issues. I was able to set it back up 2.5 weeks later in our new place and everyone seemed to settle back in immediately. I was still really upset that I lost a fish and 2 coral along the way, but those were physical mistakes on my part and not an issue with my moving method.

[Jen R]

Also, ReefdUp wrote about her tank move in her blog which I'll link here: https://coraleverafter.org/?p=1283. 

[JohnTheReefer]

On 9/6/2024 at 6:12 PM, Mango_Fish said:

40 gallon breeder with a 15 gallon sump 

 

I used two of these to move my 40b and they worked well.

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/COMMANDER-27-Gallon-108-Quart-Black-Yellow-Tote-with-Standard-Snap-Lid/3551290