Moving Tank any other ideas

[xxnonamexx]

This Saturday I will finally be moving my 120gal FOWLR tank. I plan on placing the LR in an empty garbage can for transfer. I was planning on placing fish in water cooler with the tank water for the night since fri night is take down and sat afternoon is setup. I might place fish in zip lock bags in water cooler as some members suggested. I need to try and save some water as well to help with the new setup. Any other suggestions? Thanks

 

[James404]

The most important part of moving a tank is making sure your live rock is out of the water as little as possible. When I bought my house I had to move my 75g about 45 mins away, alll went well with keeping the live rock submerged in buckets and fish and corals all got bagged up and put in coolers.

 

[xxnonamexx]

well the live rock when it was delivered was wrapped in wet newspaper. I plan on swapping some out I have had that live rock since 2006 when I went from reef to FOWLR and swapped to a new tank. The rock has been through a lot. I dont have any coralline algae on it so I think it might be time to swap some out. I will try my best to keep it went in coolers. If not I am sure I can get it back to life. I was debating eith fill a cooler with tank water and dump the 4 fish in it or should I bag the 4 fish and dump water in the cooler with the bagged fish. Thanks

 

[James404]

Well you want to avoid a cycle which can kill your fish and everything else. Keeping the rock submerged will keep the nitrifying bacteria alive. When "live rock" is shipped in damp newspaper you might as well call it dead rock, a few critters may survive but pretty much all your left with is decaying organic matter.

 

[xxnonamexx]

I will keep the rock in a cooler with tank water during transport. Its only a 15min transport but will be out of tank for approx 12-15hrs Thanks

 

[jcdeng]

make sure to put heaters in while waiting for the new tank to be set up, temp swings kills bacterias too.

 

[James404]

No problem and good luck, when I moved my 75g it took a good 8-10 hours, was really stressful to say the least. I would hate to do it again.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

When I moved my tank I just got a whole bunch of 5 gallon containers and made sure to keep it submerged with tank water and I bagged all of the fish I could like I had just bought them new. If you are going to keep the fish in a cooler I would make sure you had some sort of battery powered air pump in there and make sure you leave the cooler tank open so there is adequate oxygenation of the water. If you can minimize the transfer time that would be the best thing. I think my total time from breakdown to setup was 3 hrs. Then the reacclimation process took another hour. Plus I did several small water changes the next few days.

 

[GeriDoc]

When I have moved fish and corals in the past I have always mixed some Prime or Amquel with the water. Your animals are going to be in a very confined environment for an extended period of time - the pH and ammonium levels will change, and these two products will help[ buffer pH and mitigate the effects of ammonium in the short term.

 

[jcdeng]

And I think there are professional tank movers too just don't know how their pricing is.

 

[xxnonamexx]

Well I found out I have 1 glass suction cup holder instead of 2 so it will be a bit harder a little more lifting to use.