i've moved to bk and now i gotta move my tank...

[hitmewthmusic]

not sure if this is where i'm meant to post this kind of stuff but here goes...

i'd like to say hello to everyone on here since this is my first post... hello!!!!

now that that's out of the way... here's the situation...

So i moved to Brooklyn in October and well, i've kinda been slacking on moving the last of my stuff..
My 29 gal.reef with 10 gal. sump/fuge/mangrove thing and a bizarre 15 gal. overflow thingie along with all my livestock is still setup in Philadelphia, under good care... but now is the time to bring it all up here, and well, i really have no idea how to do it-
what i do know, is i have to get it here this weekend, and i'm kinda freaking out about it. But it's cool, i'll have a friend to help carry buckets and whatnot, and....umm other than that- yeah, that's about as far as i got...

i would really really appreciate any advice anyone has to offer in moving a reef tank. I will definitely be posting my progress on here with hopefully good results...

if i figure out how to post photo's i'll post some of those things so you all can see what's going on before, during, and after the chaos ensues...


more to follow soon!!
thanks in advance for any comments!!

matt

 

[prattreef]

Welcome to MR and welcome to Brooklyn ( both very wise decisions ). Regarding your move, battery operated air pumps with airstones in all buckets. Have enough new water for a 50% water change mixed and ready to go in your new place and have as much of the new setup planned out in advance as possible. Also try to keep the temp as stable as possible.

And when you are done with your move on Sat. you should come to the frag swap on Sun. (in Brooklyn ) and meet all your new MR friends.

 

[Bryceandmandy]

Hey welcome, i moved my reef a couple years ago. I made sure i bagged every coral and stuck them in a cooler tp retain the heat. I aldo stuck the fish in the bait buckets i use to go fishing since they have built in air pumps. Thw rock was put in rubbmaids with wet towels to keep it moist. The main thing i wanna stress though..the mistake i made was not siphoning the waste out of the crushed coral and had a nitrate spike. Hope i helped good luck!

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

I would say have a large garbage can or rubbermaid tub (s) w/ as much pre mixed salt water as possible to put into the tank upon arrival. Also make sure there is a heater to keep it warm. If you can use some of your old water that is ok too but keep in mind the water on the TOP is what you want for your fish and corals. The water on the BOTTOM is the dirtiest especially when you start shifting rock and sand so I would advise not using it unless maybe the water in your sump/fuge is clean. I'm not sure how much fish and corals you have but definitely bag them all up separately and put them in a big styro cooler. I'd do the bucket w/ portable air pump for short distance but not for that ride. Either way would probably work but better safe than sorry. Good luck

 

[hitmewthmusic]

cheers for the responses!!
so i've since written out a few lists and calmed the panic slightly.. gotta find a good, cheap place to get R/O and salt locally which google has been somewhat informative with but could definitely use an insider scoop(pm me if necessary)... oh yeah and frozen food too....
so as far as the sump goes...
im thinking of keeping the mud in the sump/fuge slightly/moderately covered in tankwater for the journey, was gonna keep the mangroves planted inside.

for the display.....
was gonna also gonna gravel vac 2 times, once to remove/discard last 1/3 of display water (first 2/3 will be siphoned before disturbing sandbed) and also as i begin refilling (with a mix of 75%old water 25%premixed bk saltwater.. the display will have about 1/4 in of water above the sand during transit (good/bad???)

was planning on getting another heater just as a backup any cheap suggestions?
also was thinking of getting some sort of power management unit with a battery/surge protector (possibly 2 if the price is right) not for the move but for longterm use, if anyone knows about that sort of thing...

as far as livestock goes...
there's a bunch of softies/cuc of about 25 maybe or so, a clarkii clown, a six line wrasse, a royal dottyback and about a bigillionmillionquadrillionzillion pods... i mean seriously its ridiculous... and because of this i was really hoping to keep them alive for the journey- this is why im keeping some extra water in the sump and the mangroves planted.. (good/ bad??)
although i was planning on removing and bagging the rest of the macro, figured it would be okay... (good/bad??)

oh yeah liverock, about 35 lbs, covered in wet news paper from a small amout of tank water... good?
i have a 5 airstone airpump that plugs into the mains, so i could just use that thing for the buckets right?? providing i have some sort of dc/ac power thingie in the car right?

fish and corals i was gonna bag/double/triple bag...
all snails in one bucket though/or should it be a bag? i dont know...

well sorry its a bit rant driven but i am still working out how this is gonna all fit into a vw golf....

and not to mention, i keep thinking about pot holes, and nearly pooping myself....

 

[hitmewthmusic]

so it all started something like this...

then this showed up

then many moons later things started looking like this...

well then this happened...

its been many moons since these pics... but more recent ones to follow... providing these all work.... i fear they may be kinda big... if so.. i apologize excessive zooming in advance... still trying ti figure things out...

 

[hitmewthmusic]

SORRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! thats waaay too big.... ill keep them up for now, but will be replaced with scaled down sizes...
gosh they came from a mobile phone too... why they so huge?????

sorry sorry sorry sorry!!!! i really hope no one is on dialup......

 

[James]

i would suggest having a 100% water change ready for when you get to BK,. leave it with a heater and PH in a large rubbermaid at your new place. Make sure the PH, salinity and temp are all = and you should be fine. i moved a 26 gallon bowfront about 1.5 hours and it went smoothly. I had all new SW waiting. Had four or five 5 gallon buckets with lids containing the rock, some corals (nice ones were bagged), the fish (each in their own bucket) and the CUC. Not saying this is the smartest way but it worked out well for me. When I got to my destination I put all the water and livestock from the buckets into a 37 gallon rubbermaid, stuck in a powerhead and a heater and took my time getting my new aquascape right. All together, my corals were without light for less than 1 light cycle and without heat or movement for under 2 hours.... HTH,

James
James

 

[hitmewthmusic]

100 percent new water, interesting approach... wouldn't that shock the system? and then wouldn't i get all kinds of diatoms and algal blooms from a re cycle period?

perhaps i am over thinking it a bit...

oh and did i mention the last water change was done in September........oh with the skimmer off since October....... so i think im gonna need to do things a little gradually as everybody has now grown accustomed to living in dirty water...
unless it could it be helpful?? my brain wants to side with a moderate change over a drastic shift...but i dont really know for sure...

i was also planning on switching salts with the new water as its cheaper to get locally (for some reason, it was a more expensive one in philly...)

also decided to start prepping for a few mods i will to after its set up to make it run a little better.. i'll post some ideas soon...

 

[James]

compromise if you want, meet somewhere in the middle if you are not comfortable with a 100% wc but 25% is not enough because the 75% of water that is going with you is going to stir up a lot of detritus during the move, no need to put all that back into the tank, I would toss it all if I were you. (think about when you buy a new fish or coral, they are going from 1 tank to another, this is in theory a 100% WC for them. The cycle is done, unless you cause a big ammonia spike from things that die (which they shouldn't) you will not experience another cycle.


Moderate is better than drastic in most cases but since this move is going to be drastic as is, having clean new water can only help (make sure it is the same parameters though). Again, just my .02 but I would do a much larger WC than 25%.

James

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

I agree w/ James..like I suggested having all new clean water is your best bet I have done this w/o any problems or losses. Just make sure you acclimate EVERYTHING. My acclimaton process is that I float for 20 mins then every 10 mins or so I drip some water in the bags. You can just use a cup, keep it simple. I never do the "drip" method. Usually people put the fish etc. in a bucket and use an air tube to drip the water in. I like to keep the bags floating the whole time so the temp stays constant. Good luck with everything keep us updated.

 

[hitmewthmusic]

100%..I like it- seems like that's the way to go... Mightjust use the old water to do a quick vacuum so I get some of the dormant couple year old crud out...("bottom water", if you will) While I do a qwick scape. I'll have all live stuff acclimating in my trashcan I use as part of my sump...
So then ill just release them into the display-

I'm working all night tonight, but hopefully sometime this week, I can upload some diagrams of how the system runs- and also what I'm planning to do when I re assemble, as I'm planning some mods to hopefully accommodate a main display upgrade in the coming 6 months or so...
I'll post more when I can..
...Mostly So u guys can tell me that I'm crazy and how to make it work better!!

Thanks again for the helpful responses!

 

[hitmewthmusic]

so just an update....

made the move. everyone who left arrived alive and acclimated happily, nearly done with aqua-scaping i couldnt do it all in one fell swoop cause i have a lot of live rock and my clownfish is being quite territorial... and he's a biter!!!!

pics will come soon, just gotta figure out how to make em a manageable size.

i took your guys advice, and did a 100% new water move, it worked out GREAT! the old water was nitrate-y (over 20 but not quite 40) and by the time i broke everything down it was time to drive...
i had exactly 50g of fresh saltwater premixed in an army of buckets in the kitchen waiting for me.. of which i used all.
all things considered it wasn't too bad (its true, i didnt got to bed monday night, but other than that it was a breeze)....
i even managed to do a couple of modifications while i was setting it all back up...

first thing i did was extend/separate sump into sections (pictures will clarify this one, Coming soon)

for about a year ive had a trashcan that acted as holder for liverock ive been slowly acquiring, for a main display upgrade, that lived between the overflow box and sump IN (this i recommend doing this little diddy as it adds water volume to the loop and it served as a great storage for getting liverock slowly..that stuff's expensive.) i kept it in darkness, (so no algae) i also kept airstones (i think 5 of em, running, just to keep the water moving a little, and giving it some O2...) and just left it like that....
but i decided i have a good amount of rock, and it was time to make a change...
what i did was, 1. add a 24hr light (one previously used on 10g sump) 2. added 10lbs of mud in a modified 5g water jug(modified meaning i cut it in half, badly might i add). 3. planted all calupera/chaeto (attempted to, at least) inside there, 4. tossed some live rock in there, and i put the airstone back in, this time only one and on a timer, it only comes on at dawn and dusk in the display tank(same timer as moonlights). and so far so good... the macro has begun to slowly take root, as much as it can in a week.. i can see pods and bristleworms and whatever else going about their business in there, so i guess thats a good sign...

so what's left in the sump... well just the mangroves, in their mud, some rubble, skimmer, a few wisps of chaeto, which i'll let grow i guess, the light thats on the mangroves is/was on opposite to the display, so my main concern is to keep all the calupera OUT!
theres definitely a good amount of scurrying going on in here too...

the only real hiccup ive had has been temperature... it was really difficult getting up 25(78), and then it was great until last night, it was like the heater stopped working... over the course of the last 36hours its dropped to 22! that like 72 Fahrenheit! yikes... ive been fiddling with the heater, and its started to warm up/but it could be the display lights doing the warming....

i fear its time for a new heater....

the other mod i did was pretty stupid but was totally for the wife....

instead of hooking up the ro/di to the shower head, and driving wifey NUTS, i actually installed a self piercing saddle valve under the kitchen sink and put the ro unit in the tuck, so she will never have to see it.... she is very happy!

well there's a festive rant for anyone who cares... pictures to come soon, promise...

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

Glad to see everything worked out. I'm also happy you took my advice precisely..many people ask for advice then don't take it. I'm looking forward to seeing those pics.

 

[Incog770]

I'm happy I saw this thread. I'm getting ready to move my tank in a few weeks and will probably try this 100% wc method to make sure I don't get stuck with all the nitrates that may be stirred up from the move. Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[hitmewthmusic]

triggerman- i am so glad i took your advice, had i done it any other way, would have just been a set up for failure....

for this i must say thank you (from me and from livestock!!!)

today began with the skimmer pouring water onto the floor! wonderful thing at 7am!!
the reason for the sudden surge in skimmate- answer: it's a coralife "superskimmer" and that's what it does....every once in a while...

managed to cull the spewing, and now just monitoring it closely...
also trying to batch convert photos so u guys can see whats going on....

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

No problem man I'm glad I could help you have a successful move. Lots of skimmers are sensitive like that and will over flow. You have to be careful when dialing in and also stay on schedule with your top off or have an ato otherwise when the water level drops it effects the skimmer. It's a big pain in the arse.