How the heck do you move a 110 gallon tank!!!?

Thankyou overthinker. You seem very knowledgeable on this subject and are a big help!
Will the water be "gross" if it is only still for roughly 2 hours?

 

We probably let the new tank sit for like 7 hours before putting the fish back in, which is prolly right around where your time frame will be too, becuase you will be more prepared than me. But we DID acclimate them. They were in the 27g but had less than half of the container filled. So we just siphoned some water outta that, and then put some water in from the new DT. We did this continually until it seemed as though we had completely changed the water in thier travel container to the same water as the DT. Does that make sense? lol...sorry I am kinda tired.

Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't wash the substrate too much. But I WOULD put it into it's own container with water. The reason is because although I completely put new substrate in, half of it was argonite and came with water and bacteria from the store. So you will want to keep as much bacteria in all surface areas from your original tank. But put it separatly becuase of the weight. And the large trash bins did work very well for us. They carried most of the rocks and lots of original water. We just didn't fill them up all the way. It's up to you, whatever method seems to work for your particular situation is the way to go.

AND DON'T WORRY..it's not as scary as you may think!!!! It all went very well for me, and I was a NEWBIE NEWBIE when I moved it all. You are doing exactly what you should, researching and studying about how to properly carry out the task. Just keep in conmsideration that all things are living, and must be handled carefully.

 

I know about moving becuase I was in your shoes a month ago. I researched as much as I could and then performed as best I could.

I wanted to save as much original water as I could as well, but it just turned out to be a 50% water change day. That was perfect because the original owners were neglecting the tank, and not doing any water changes, so it was much needed at the time. You should take advantage of this situation by giving the tank a fresh water change with prepped water. And the water won't be gross after 3 hours. The car will be in constant motion, so the surface area of the containers with NO aeration will still be stirred up throughout the trip. But still try to get as many battery operated aeraters that you can afford, just to be on the safe side, and you can always use these things at a later date. Now if you were letting the water sit with no motion then it would get stale and gross...lol

 

I waited for it to settle a bit, but by this time I was anxious to get them in cause they had been in the totes for 3 days already, and yes, rinsing would not only remove beneficial bacteria, but any critters living in the sand as well. If you do decide to rinse, make sure you use SW (duh--but you'd be surprised). I did acclimate them, I had to, them being in the totes all those days the temp dropped (nope, I did not have a heater!)(I didn't think I would need it, I only moved 10 minutes away)...I also did all my research, and thought I would be prepared, but when it came down to it...I wasn't. My situation is different than yours though, I was moving homes, not tanks, so I had a lot more than just my tank to deal with....and my poor FW fish...lol they stayed in their tote nearly a week! They all survived though, they're troopers!

 

Will nitrate spike when the sand get's sturred up because if not i'll just stick them straight in i think.
Wow they can survive in totes alot longer than i thought lol

 

I will probably end up doing what overthinker said and just mix a bunch of water at my house.
It will save time and i won't have to haul all that extra water.

 

Oh, another important fact.

I just read, out of 8 books I got from the library finally I read some good info. It said that if your filter media (i.,e. filter pads, substrate, rocks, anything that houses beneficial bacteria)...are without air for more than 2-3 hours, then you will for sure have die off. So it recommends that you wash off anything that did not get aerated on the move for more than this time frame. It said to then do a partial water change over the next few days, watch your params, and don't feed the fish too much. Actually, I wouldn't feed your fish one day prior to moving, then once you move, let them go another day without food. Then once you DO feed them, keep it to a minimum so the bacteria have time to grow due to the cleaner environment.

 

That bit of info will help me alot!
I decided I am going to rent a uhaul truck and I'm going to get two 50 gallon heavy duty trash cans and stick them in there.
I will then take my 5 gallon home depot buckets (i have like 20 of these) and siphon the water from the tank into these and pore the water into the trash cans that are in the truck.
In the trash cans I am going to put water pumps to keep the PH and all params up.
I will then put the fish, inverts, and coral in a 27 gallon tub with a 60 gallon aerator and a heater.
I will keep about two 5 gallon buckets full of live sand two conserve beneficial bacteria but I am going to rinse the rest of the sand in RO water to get all the nitrate's out of it so I will have a minimal nitrate spike.
I won't feed the fish for a day or two like overthinker said to make sure bacteria can catch up.
Does anyone see any flaws?

 

60 gallon aerator might be a little too much for that small of a container, I used only a small 50watt powerhead. Make sure the heat doesn't get too high also, our little heaters work real well. There is such a thing as toooo much oxygen, and toooo much heat...so just be careful. As long as the water quality stays fairly similiar to what they are living in right now then you should be fine. And like I said before, when it comes down to it, you will probably want fresh water on hand when you decide that the bottom 1/4 of your tank water looks poopy.

 

I might also stick an 80l/hr in there just to give it a little circulation.
I didn't know there was such a thing as too much air?
I will monitor the temp so it doesn't get too hot.
I took your advice on having water prepared at my house and invested in an RO system.
Got it off of craigslist for 75 bucks!! with 1200 g/h pump in the container!!
http://www.3reef.com/forums/members...algae-slug-something-picture3157-img-1277.jpg
I will try and post pics of the move online to show everyone what i did and hopefully help people in my same situation.