Recommendations on move planning

fiddledragon

Member
BRS Member
Good morning!

My husband and I are getting ready to move within the next few months. Our new home is likely to be about 40-60 min from our current home.

I have a 29g mixed reef tank (no sump). Multiple inverts, lots of 'pods, 4 small fish, handful of coral. I also have a 10g macro algae tank with one fish and minimal CUC. Live rock in both tanks. No sumps.

I'm trying to develop a plan with the least amount of cycling since I won't have the opportunity to cycle a tank in the new place.

I'm assuming lots of buckets - but is there a recommended set of steps? New sand or keep old? How to distribute corals/fish/inverts between buckets?

We're thinking that on day of move I would focus on the tanks first with a helper, and he would focus on the move itself until the tanks were set up in their destinations.

Moving wasn't in the cards when I set these up in January!

Thanks!
 
New sand if you want sand, do not reuse old sand. You can put your fish in a bucket, corals in bags or bucket depending on if it’s attached to rock. Quick road trip and put it all back in the tank. I don’t think you will have many issues honestly. Just have some new fresh saltwater to go at the new place as well. If you just transfer everything you shouldn’t have a cycle. If your tank glass dries off may have some die off and cause a bacterial bloom if there’s lots of sponges and algae or something like that. Honestly I moved a bit of tank break downs, just plopped it all in buckets and totes and then plopped it all in a new tank. Biggest thing I see people do wrong is reusing sand, while some people have had success washing it out before reusing I would not reccomended it. Take the top 10-15gallons of tank water to reuse and make 15-25 gallons new saltwater. The water doesn’t really help with the cycle, but you don’t want to just plop every thing in 100% new saltwater in my opinion. The stuff will be stressed from the move so having similar water chemistry will help.
 
+1 @Jmalin

I’d take as much water as possible and if you can leave the sand in the tank and transport since it’s so newly established tank you could just setup with as much with the old as possible. Doesn’t necessarily have to be all old sw.
Bag all your corals if possible and fish could go into a 5 gal bucket unless it’s a lot of fish with a air stone and battery operated or cordless air pump.
I only had one casualty (fish jumping out before I put the lid on the tank) and all thrived without any further issues. Just took a while to get it settled again as it was a different situation and location of the tanks being setup at.
Good luck with the move and don’t overthink it. I’d leave the tanks for last and that’ll be the first thing to knock out once setup. Acclimate accordingly.
 
I recently moved my 20 and 13.5 twice since we sold and bought at a later date. I moved both tanks separately and tried to save all the water. I reused the sand beds both times and did not have any issues, I would recommend putting in fresh carbon after the move to just make sure though. I also recommend having your mixing station up and ready at your new location or at least have plenty of heated salt water ready in case you loose some water or need to top off. Also prep as much as you can since when you turn the return pump turns off the clock starts to move as quickly as possible. Good luck!
 
Moved my 65g a few times, divided up rock into buckets and put any rock with coral at the top of buckets or in there own bucket. fIsh went in there own bucket, no rock so no one gets squished. Took fish out last after everything else is out, lot easier to catch.

I used a algae / glass scrapper to take off as much growth off the glass since it will dry out/die, especially back pane since i leave it alone when the tanks running.

Wrapped tank in bubble wrap and tape to avoid bumps/scratches.

Take your time, and good luck
 
I used Love the Reef to move a big tank into my house and went flawlessly. They were extremely prepared and planned everything out to the last detail before touching anything.
 
Pickup a couple battery air pumps for the move + while filters etc. are down.

I'd get new sand, or make sure to rinse it well before re-using
 
Thanks all!! Our move is next week! We decided to move the 29g and 10g into a 40g breeder. Only things new will be tank itself and sand as my pump, skimmer, and wavemaker are all sized for a 50g tank. I'm carrying new salt water with because new house is well water and we're on a super strict timeline.

The biggest question is going to be time they'll be in buckets. We close early in the day, and won't get keys until early afternoon. New house is an hour from old house and our round trips are limited as I have an EV with no charger at the new house until the day after closing. The tank stand will need to be built as soon as we get in the door because of transportation size limitations -
so it looks like it'll be about 8 hours or so in buckets.

I'm picking up a couple of battery powered airstones - but any recommendations on temp?
 
Fish/corals ship overnight in a plastic bag........I suspect a few hours in a 5 gallon bucket with air space at the top would be no issues. Keep the car heated........that should keep water heated.....if worried maybe grab a couple "hot hands" to put under a bucket for extra warmth...since its winter :D
 
You all have been fantastic! Move completed almost 2 weeks ago. Only thing lost was my coco feather duster worm. All other coral, inverts, and fish survived. My black capped basslet who loved to hide in the 29g is now happily moving crushed coral sand from under a rock in the 40g and spends a fair amount of time actually out and about.

"Moonlight" pic for tax.

Of course now that it's in, I see a bubble in a corner of the tank and I now need to move everything again because it's now a ticking time bomb (and I'm not going to go through the multi day stress of repairing a $60 [on sale]) tank. Given that the sand is not even 2 weeks in, I can move that rather than replace, right?
 

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Can you post a photo of the bubble? Some bubbles in silicon are not an issue at all.
 
View of the bubble from each side
 

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Is it a bubble or the glass is chipped?
Either way that is a very larger bubble and I would replace the tank.
 
I can't tell if it's chipped. The silicone on the inside is intact (no leak). But yeah - I'm planning on replacing - just now need to work out those logistics. The question is around the sand since it's literally less than 2 weeks old
 
I would reuse the sand and agreed better safe than sorry to replace the tank bummer though but glad the move went well overall!
 
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