Moving 100 gallon aquarium

[Anonymous]

Some of you might remember a 100 gallon aquarium I "upgraded" to I think in the spring of 2005. Matt helped with it. Well, I have to move this sucker.

Any suggestions? My 10 to 12 year old fish have mostly passed on, so I have avoided putting in anything new fishwise in anticipation of a move.

I am truly dreading this.

It is acrylic, so should be a bit more robust and easy to move than glass. The move is only about 1/4 mile, fwiw.

 

[Anonymous]

I would suggest draining it first.


Everything after that is gravy.

 

[Ben1]

it's not so bad, you get to reaquascape! Last time I moved I used a bunch of rubbermaids. Made up a bunch of fresh saltwater. I took everything out into the rubbermaids, drained the tank, moved the tank and stand to the new place. Moved and LR that had no critters on it to the new tank, with as much old water as possible, added some fresh saltwater and a heater. I then moved over all the rubbermaids with coral and fish, and once it seemed like the temp were close in the tank and bins I put the LR/Corals/Fish in the tank and the rest of the LR and SW to get it all running. Once I had everything running like normal I was done. The next day I re-aquascaped it all the way I wanted it.

Good luck! Hope you dont have a bad back lol.

 

[Len]

Most people use rubbermaids to transport. It really isn't as hard as you're fearing. I've done a few tank teardowns, and they always end up being easier then I dreaded. Drain the water into the rubbermaids first, then move your livestock into these containers. I'd then remove the rock, then drain the rest of the water. If you have sand that I assume you want to get rid of, you can try to siphon out as much as you can, then carefully scoop out the rest. The only hard part is you have acrylic, and so you need to be very careful removing the substrate.

When moving the tank, make sure it is supported as equally along the bottom as possible.

And it's imperative you prep the new area first to accept the tank. The first move I did was much of a pain because I didn't think out what I wanted to do with the tank prior to tearing it down.

 

[Anonymous]

Most people use rubbermaids to transport. It really isn't as hard as you're fearing. I've done a few tank teardowns, and they always end up being easier then I dreaded. Drain the water into the rubbermaids first, then move your livestock into these containers. I'd then remove the rock, then drain the rest of the water. If you have sand that I assume you want to get rid of, you can try to siphon out as much as you can, then carefully scoop out the rest. The only hard part is you have acrylic, and so you need to be very careful removing the substrate.

When moving the tank, make sure it is supported as equally along the bottom as possible.

And it's imperative you prep the new area first to accept the tank. The first move I did was much of a pain because I didn't think out what I wanted to do with the tank prior to tearing it down.

You keep Marine Aquaria? :wink:

I have moved from 5 gallon up to 800 gallon. They are pretty easy as long as you have the rubbermaids and containers to transport the water.

 

[Anonymous]

What in the way of livestock do you have?

I'd get a plastic storage bin or something from Target and put any livestock in there temporarily while you move the tank and non-livestock.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I used left over Instant Ocean buckets when I moved mine to its new owner's home when I left Tokyo.

 

[dadstank]

i have learned that 1/4 mile is just the same as 10 feet which is really just the same as 3000 miles...
if you plan it all out (and have enough water ready to roll) its not that intimidating....
it just might take longer than you expect...

i just moved my tank across the room two weeks ago, and honestly i could have been packing it up to move the 1/4 mile.
i took 6 containers i got at target, pulled out as much water as i could from the tank, had the rest filled with freshly made up water, put the livestock in carefully, moved everything across the room on a dolly, and refilled. easy as that...

the only thing i did different when i moved it all from new york to san francisco was i wedged the rocks with corals on it with the rest of the live rock in the tank. and i used only two super LARGE containers and carried it to the airport, then home.
(fwiw - with extra baggage charges, and over weight charges fedex was only a nominal amount more :roll: )

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I am really looking forward to spending a delightful weekend doing this.

 

[Anonymous]

When moving the tank, make sure it is supported as equally along the bottom as possible.

Should I try to move tank plus stand as one unit?

 

[BigPhil16]

That would seem like an accident waiting to happen unless you could thoroughly secure the tank to the stand during the move.

I agree with Dadstank about it seeming more daunting a task than it actually turns out to be... Planning is definitely the key.