Moving Day! My List.

[Glipzcom]

Hey all. Moved to a new house about 10 miles from my old place in oakland. The tank has been sitting there at the old place and I am finaly ready to move it. I thought I would make a list of what I planned on doing. And then Wensday after its all done I will reply again with what went wrong

What I am going to move

45 gallon all glass tank
HOB filter
HOB protein skimmer
2 clowns, 1 lawnmower bleeny, 3 astrea snails, 1 peppermint shrim, and a blue leg hermit.

Prep I have done.

1. Got a new stand, Stained, Polycoated, Silicone Sealed.
2. Several more 5 gallon buckets. (6 total)
3. New garbage can in the garage with water to replace any that doesnt make it (15 gallons salt mixed, heated and airating)
4. Small 10 gallon tank for temp holding of fish

The plan for tomorrow.

1. Go to old place remove all equipment clean and place in a box.

2. Remove all rocks and place in a large rubbermaid bin.
Not sure if i should try to fill this with water? or if i should at least put some water in there to just slosh around with them?

3. Catch all the fish and inverts and put them all in a 5 gallon bucket.
Should I be worrying about adding sand or rock to this bucket for them to try to hide in or is it just likely to bang around and kill them.


4. Quickly siphon the sand of detritus to remove as much waste as possible.
Going to lose a lot of water this way but the make up water should cover I hope?

5. Collect all the sand into a 5 gal bucket (probably going to need more than one)

6. Put everything into cars. Drive to new place.

7. place heater and airstone in fish tub.

8. Place tank, fill in sand add and old tank water.

9. Arrange rock need a better arrangement. I was told the wall of rock was bad but seems to be the most popuar method.

10. Release fish. Should I just pour them in? or try to catch them again.

11. set up rest of equipment on tank.


Any tips or tricks?

[crappyballer]

use coolers instead of buckets to transport the livestock it will keep the water temperature more stable. other than that you look more than prepared. moving sucks

[Glipzcom]

awesome I got some cooler laying around I will rinse one out. thanks.

Oh! I bought a 20 gallon rubbermaid container today at homedepot and filled it with my rodi makeup water, but i forgot to rinse it out first. Anyone know if there is anything toxic in fresh rubbermaid containers? I know the right thing to do would be to make all the water again, but I cant afford the time before tomorrow. But if it could kill the fish obviously i would have to figure it out.

[cuttingras]

towels, towels and more towels......maybe a bucket and mop to rinse the floor after

[Matt Rogers]

Originally Posted by crappyballer

use coolers instead of buckets to transport the livestock it will keep the water temperature more stable. other than that you look more than prepared. moving sucks

That's what I was thinking too.

Originally Posted by Glipzcom

Oh! I bought a 20 gallon rubbermaid container today at homedepot and filled it with my rodi makeup water, but i forgot to rinse it out first. Anyone know if there is anything toxic in fresh rubbermaid containers? I know the right thing to do would be to make all the water again, but I cant afford the time before tomorrow. But if it could kill the fish obviously i would have to figure it out.

I wouldn't sweat it too much... I think there are some distinctions among the various grades of plastic... there may be a triangle symbol with a number in it that you can reference, but I think you are ok, shouldn't kill anything.


You may want to get some heatpacks too for backup.

[Glipzcom]

towels!!! great idea. man i make such a mess just topping water off. how did i forget those!

thanks for the plastic tips.

[Matt Rogers]

Where are you moving too?
(I live in Pt. Richmond and work in Oakland.)

[Glipzcom]

Moving from Lake Merritt over to Bayview area of San Francisco.

Alright its go time!

PS. First mistake already, not doing the GFI outlet before this morning. Got it, but man it was much more a pain in the ass than i expected.

And DAP silicone in the squeeze bottle sucks. The lid wouldnt stay on and the bottom seam busted out. Argh.

[Matt Rogers]

Ugh. Hang in there.. good luck!

[Glipzcom]

Alright Time for Lessons learned.

Break-down:

Could really have used one of those kids shovels with the slots in it to get sand out of the tank. had to use a fish net to scoop it out (was trying not to get the nasty detritus water)

Make sure to put a heater and the battery operated air hose in the holding cooler while finishing breakdown. It seems like when you get the fish out your almost done. Ha, still a lot left to do.
BTW i think the cooler saved my fishies lives. THANKS for that tip.

Make sure you have somewhere to put all the equipment you take off the tank. I had plenty of buckets but no where to put the lighting, and other random stuff.

Make sure you plan for enough time to be done before Rush Hour! (especialy if you need to cross the bay bridge)

Rent a pick-up truck if you dont have a huge car. Otherwise your relying on other people who might need to leave and go pick up their girlfriend, and then have to stop for food.

Set Up at Home:

Make sure the stand is level before you put the tank on it. A pain in the ass to level it with all the weight.

Make sure you know your heaters well. They all have really crappy thermostats in my experience so learn the temperatures that matter to you.

Dont forget about the dinner you scheduled with your relatives, that leaves you with your fish sitting in a cooler all night alone.

Your going to need a lot more makeup water than you expect. I made 15 gallons and thought. Thats plenty for a 45 Gallon tank. I used it all, granted i didnt reuse some of the rocks.

Overall I would say have faith and dont panic. The most important part is to make whatever you move our fish into a home away from home.