The Dreadfull Move......

K guys time is getting sooner and sooner for the move. Ive got a 55gallon setup and im moving out of my apartment in may.
My livestock consist of 2 clowns, 1 Blue/green Chromis, 1 Psuedochromis,
3 Mixed Damsels (Domino, 4 Stripe, and 2 Stripe) 1 Firefish, 1 Coral Beauty, and 1 Yellow Tang.
Various Snails + Hermits
Softies
Orange Zonathids, Purple Mushrooms, Green Star Polyps
I need advice on the move and the best possible chance of keeping my livestock alive.
I do have an empty 30gallon
My plan was to move the 30 gallon to the new home. Syphon water out of My 55, and temp put my livestock in it
Until the 55 was setback up.
I do have a couple of questions thou.
1. The water i take from the 55 and put in the 30, If i add that water back to the 55 and fill the rest with fw does the tank have to cycle again?
2. Is there a better way to do this move?
If so please inform me
Thanks Guys

 

Hi Steve

what about - move your live stock and water to the empty 30 at your present home
get some plastic tubs, containers for the balance of water (25 galls approx allowing for spillage

move the now empty 55 to your new location and re set up rock work and add the 25 gallons of water

then go back and get live stock and remainder of water and re set up 55

rock work - providing its not a major move - distance wise - they can be moved damp rather than submerged

my suggestion means you have all the water you have now

 

great advice above, but when I move tanks I move everything, then fill the remainder(whatever spilled and whatnot) with my LFS's tank water, I only have one I can really trust to do this with but it is better than dumping all that new water in an already stressful situation, just my 2 pennies

 

See what happens with an outside point of view???? This idea never even crossed my mind, but sounds better than what i had planned.
Thank you

 

How do you move everything at once? I dont know how big your tank is or how many buckets you have. But me moving a 55gallon tank full of livestock and water is not fissable for anyone.

I wouldnt trust my Lfs with water... Mine stays Right on ph 8.3

 

good point Nano -
just to clarify the 25 gallons of water I mean - is the 25 gallons difference between the 55 and the 30 - so when he fills his 30 up he saves the 25 and moves that to his new home and uses that in the 55 1st along with the rocks , sand CC etc
and later goes back for the other 30 and the live inhabitants

 

that stinks! I have a LFS here that has some of the best looking tanks I've seen at any store, probably better water quality than some reefers!

ahh i see what your saying! this is kind of confusing ;D

 

Yup, just be sure to use the 30g as only a holding tank. You don't need to put more than maybe a few pieces of LR in it. And don't forget to buy some Prime and use it. This is the way I would do it.....for what it's worth.

**Put the LR in five gallon buckets and move it that way. Keep it damp.

**The LS you either want to ditch alltogether and start new or wash it good. Take it from me, just throwing in old LS without washing it is a big mistake.

**Move the fish into the 30g with a few PHs and a heater.

**Then move your 55 and stand to the new location and set it up. Leaving things like this for a few days is no problem. If you want to take a day and paint the back or do something to the tank you have been wanting to do, now's the time. I kept my fish in holding tanks for five days without a loss.

**After you have your 55 set up, you can start filling it up with your stuff. When I redid mine, I put down a length of eggcrate to even out the pressure of the LR. If you choose to do this, cut the eggcrate one inch shy on all sides, so that the sharp edges won't nick the silicone. Then add the sand (some people add LR first---I don't). Put down several overlapping sheets of saran wrap over the sand and slowly add your water. You will want to mix up about 30g of fresh ahead of time. I ended up using about 40% of my old water. This will ensure you won't have a sandstorm. It works like a charm.

**Add LR

**Add everything else and hook it back up.

**Go get your livestock and reintroduce them.

You should not have any losses. Really, this should go well. It's seems a lot more daunting than it really is. I had to do a change out from a 75g to a 90g over a period of five days due to a leak. I lost some Xenia and that's it. I did add my old sand back in unwashed and had a two month cycle. You will have a cycle of sorts, but the bioload is not changing and if you keep your LR wet the majority of your bacteria will survive. If you wash your sand, you will lose some there. Starting off with new sand will give you an advantage. If I had to do it all over again, that's what I would do; get good quality aragonite sand and start over. My thread does go through this somewhat. I started it because of the change-over actually, so that it may help others. And there is a REALLY good suggestion about doing water changes a week or two in advance and saving that water for the move.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/pharmrjohns-90g-thread-52614.html

Good luck brother.......John.

 

Lol only thing confusing me man is how im supposed to move it all at once.
Yea sure i could go out and buy like 10 5gallon buckets lol but if theres a better way i would prefer it

 

Ten five gallon buckets is the way I would do it. I had the benefit of doing this all in one place....so I used clean, unused trashcans for the purpose. But five gallons of water is heavy enough. I would use the buckets.