My long distance tank move - Complete!

[dave601m]

Just wanted to share my experiences:

I ended up using 5 gal buckets, one per tank. filled them to about 2" short of the top. I used the IO buckets so the lids would screw on. Drilled a few tiny tiny holes in the top to let air out, and a 1/4 inch hole on the side to fit in airline tubing. Ran a few airpumps from a power invertor to an airstone which was glued to the bottom of the bucket. Made it for about 24 hours with no problems. I had a bunch of the hot hands heat packs as backup, but the floor of the uhaul (up front with me) was pretty warm from engine heat, and it kept the buckets at a perfect 78 the entire trip!

Not a single complete loss, but a small frag disc of zoa's now only has about half the polyps, I think it got crushed under a rock of yellow polyps on the ride. Side question: Should I cut off the dead looking ones, or does it not matter?

Overall, we took about 20 gallons from our 29 gal freshwater tank and about 30 from the 50 gal saltwater with us. I'm just glad it's over!

 

[naturebatslast]

Congrats, sounded smooth! I have a small move coming up, again.
I wouldn't worry about the polyps, they will definetly grow back or regenerate new ones.

 

[Gina McReeferson]

Great to hear Dave! Good luck to you both and your reef! Hope you'll all be very happy with your move.

(I would probably leave the zoos alone.)

-Gina

 

[Scuba_Dave]

Good news
Now you just need to unpack everything else
If we move very far we would need a BIG truck

 

[Mrs. Delta]

Glad the move went well! Moving like that must be rough on the nerves! We had to move our 29 about 15 miles, and I didn't like that. I can't imagine a long trip across the country.

 

[dave601m]

Ugh, every room is a big mess of boxes, but the tanks are at least semi-setup. I just tossed the rock in a pile and put the skimmer right into the tank, no sump yet since I'm moving it and need some tubing, but no big hurry for me, i'm unemployed now

and it took (mind you, we were two students, so we haven't accumulated too much stuff yet) a 16' truck packed as full as you could imagine. i didnt think we were gonna be able to close the door, and we had to actually send a bit of it with Julie on the plane but we're here and getting settled in finally!

Good news
Now you just need to unpack everything else
If we move very far we would need a BIG truck