(Update!!)Moving at the End of the Month!

So, moving again!! This will be the third time in 3 years!! I guess being a military family, I sure am use to it by now!! So, I gotta move the 20gal reef a 20min drive away. At least I have experience moving tanks! I had to move my 75gal cichlid tank, then my 33gal reef, now this 20gal reef. But the thing is with this tank I have nearly 3 times the mount of coral than what I had when I moved it as the 33gal. The SPS is what I'm really worried about though... them breaking that is. I think what I'm gunna do is place all the pieces of rock with coral glued to it down on the sandbed (that way they don't roll around in a bucket) and take all the other pieces out and into a bucket of tank water. Take about 1/2 to 3/4 the water out of the 20gal (into a bucket) and just move the tank that way with all the coral and fish in the tank. I'll have to get a lid so it doesn't splash around and so the fish don't go sky diving! I'll have to take the canister and skimmer off the tank. I'm just gunna dump out the water in there, clean them out and replace with fresh saltwater. They will need to be cleaned by then anyway. The tank will be the last thing we put in the moving truck and I think I might sit in the back with the tank just incase something happens, that way I can fix the problem right away. The tank will be the first thing we move out. We'll get it into the new place, put it back on it's stand where I would like it. Put the rock and water I took out back in the tank. Plug in the heater and the powerhead and go help bring in the rest of the furtature. Once the truck is empty and all furnature in place I'll start rescaping the tank. Set up the skimmer and canister and will probably leave the tank be for the rest of the day and night with no lighting to let everything calm down from the moving about. This is part of the reason I don't have a 75gal anymore

 

I actually just moved my tank as well (successfully I may add). We transferred from a 37g to a 90g, while simultaneously moving to a new apartment. Our tank is loaded with SPS. The hardest rock transported one rock with a big grafted birds nest/birds of paradise colony. I believe you actually commented on a picture of it before ;D

P1010089_copy - 3reef Photos

Anyway, to move these types of rocks, we put them in small containers (ones that were similar to the size of each rock with fragile coral attached). We supported the rock of interest with other rocks so it was sturdy. Worked like a charm. To transport frags on plugs, we used styrofoam. We punched holes in it with a mechanical pencil (without the graphite out obviously). We then stuck an empty frag plug in there to make the hole the right size. We transported all of them in two upside down racks of styrofoam. The styrofoam pieces were similar to the diameter of a 5g bucket, so we firmly stuck them in there to limit things banging around. Nothing fell out. Nothing touched.

The only damage to any coral during the move was a shattered giant montipora. My boyfriend dropped the rock it was on. :-/ Now we have like 15 pieces of Idaho Grape montipora.

One thing that really worked well for us was using a 37g rubbermaid tub as an intermediate tank. We transferred all of the coral and some of the rock to the tub, with 50% old tank water and 50% freshly mixed salt water. We threw in a heater and powerhead, and threw a light on top, and called it a day. We did several ~35% water changes and monitored the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, salinity, and temp throughout the 7-10 days it was running.

The major advantage here was that it gave us time to set up the new tank, and to make sure it was somewhat stable. Stability was critical for the SPS. The coral was fine in the tub for the week we had it running. We put a few "test frags" in the new DT with the new dry rock, some LR, and dry sand. This way, we didn't really have to get everything done in one day. I mean we worked from 9AM to 2AM straight on the day of the move. We had to move everything down a third floor fire escape..

There is more detail in our build thread.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/gabby-brians-90g-reef-134997.html

I know you have more experience than I regarding moving. I just wanted to share our experience with moving SPS. Hope this helps, good luck! Let us know how your experience goes, and any advice for others! We plan to move to a condo in 2 years or so... I am dreading that experience.

 

All Moved in Now!!

So, I finally moved into the new apartment. We basically moved everthing we could with the big moving trucl, then moved the reef last while borrowing my moms truck! The move went smoothly for the most part... My green digitata got broken, which I don't mind, I may not even keep it because I got a bunch of new acros. But the wort thing that hapened I am actually a little upset about. My red spotted trimma had jumped out of the tank and I found him all dried up He was a cool little fish, so that sucked! But other than that everything went well. No other accidents. Here's a pic of the tank all set up again.

 

Looks as excellent as ever.

Practice makes perfect.

Congrats on the successful move HollyG.

 

sorry about the loss of your fish. tank looks so clean, I'm guessing your glad the move is over.

 

Thanks It has had a few days to settle, so it looks pretty good. Yea, I am still a little upset about the trimma, I loved that fish and they are hard to find around here... yesterday I picked up a couple small chromis so I feel a little better lol. Next thing I want to get is some kind of shrimp I think... dunno yet. And yes I am very glad the move is over! I had been dredding moving the tank for a while, but when it came down to it, it wasnt so bad lol

 

i noticed you have an anthias they love cleaner shrimp. they often go over to the cleaner to be cleaned. cool to watch. and the cleaners are a shrimp thats often seen not a hider. i have 2 cleaners they seem to have paired

 

Yea, I use to have a skunk cleaner months ago and I thought he was pretty cool. But he kept ticking off my frogspawn and actually ended up aggressively trying to catch my fish, not too sure what his deal was lol Maybe I'll try a cleaner again