reefjon
Community Member
Hey everyone! I thought I'd share my recent experience traveling with my aquarium across the country from California to Virginia.
Before I go any further I will mention that I only traveled with a 5 gallon bucket full of 'hardy' critters.
Equipment:
- 5 gallon bucket with secure lid(Instant Ocean)
- Bestek 300w inverter
- Aquaneat digital thermometer
- plastic egg crate for ceilings(used to build platforms)
- Kedsum USB battery air pump
- Hygger mini wave maker
- 25W aquarium heater seat to 80°F
- spare 80gph pump
- Kessil A80 light
- Hanna Salinity checker
- API 5 in 1 test strips
- Seachem Prime
- 1 gallon of RODI water.
- TAPE!
Livestock:
- Large female mocha clownfish
- Small male gold bar maroon
- Male endler livebearer
- Several inverts(pom-pom crabs, snails, brittle stars, limpets...)
- Hammer coral 1 head
- Frogspawn coral 1 head
- Small colony of Magician zoas
- OG bounce
- 2 Frankenstein bounces
- 2 Sunkist bounces
- 1 wild bounce
- 5 Jawbreakers
- 3 tulip anemones
- 1 Bali blood reed mini carpet anemone
- Rock with 8 jawbreakers
- rock with red photosynthic plating sponge
- a couple lbs of live rock and bio filter media
The trip was broken up into several days. The total time the livestock spent living in a bucket was roughly a month. I started gathering everything I would need the first week of October. I also constructed my layering system using the egg crate. Basically I made two platforms to create three different layers.
Bottom layer was live rock without photosynthetic organisms(excluding coralline) and bio media. All the inverts made their temporary home here. Second layer was live rock with photosynthetic sponge, anemones and jawbreakers. The top layer was for all my coral frags. The fish figured out how to swim freely between the layers.
I attached the Hygger mini wave maker so that it would remain and blow water in the lowest layer.
I placed the heating element in the second layer between the rocks there.
Up top I had the temperature probe and air stones.
October 10 - I fully broke down the remains of a 14 gallon tank. This is when I set up the bucket as a temporary tank at home. At the time there were only two layers(rocks and media at the bottom, coral frags on top).
October 18 - I broke down and added the contents of a 4.14g tank to the bucket. This is when I realized I needed to construct another layer.
October 20 - Made the final preparations for the trip. I cut a hole in the center of the bucket lid which is where I ran all the cables and hoses through.
October 21 - Despite getting to bed at 2am the night before I woke up at 5am to get the tank ready for travel. I ran all the cables through the hole I had cut in the lid. I used a piece of plastic and tape to secure the hole as best as I could during travelling. I loaded the bucket into my passenger seat using towels underneath to help protect the seat and level the bucket. I then strapped the seatbelt onto the bucket. I plugged the inverter in and plugged in the heater, wave maker, and USB air pump. I used to tape to place the USB air pump on top of the bucket. I placed the thermometer screen on the bucket with tape in a position I could see at all times while driving.
October 21-24 - On average we drove about 12hours a day. During this time the bucket stayed on my passenger seat with everything plugged in EXCEPT the heater. I found that the temperature stayed between 78-82°F most of the day without the heater. When the road was extra bumpy(or I made hard turn) a bit of water would make it's way through the hole where the wires were fed through but nothing significant. Each night, whether spending it at a friend's house, camping, or at a hotel, I would set up the bucket with all elements plugged in if possible. The longest stretch without being able to turn on the light was about 60 hours. I would check the Salinity in the mornings. I only added a bit of RODI water once as there was minimal evaporation happening. I only used the test strips once and since everything looked awesome each time I'd take a peek I stopped checking. I never once had to use Prime.
October 25-26 - We stayed with a friend in south VA for two nights so the bucket was plugged in like normal and I was able to run the lights on a low-medium setting for 8 hrs each day. Instead of using the air stones here(they splash a ton of water), I used the spare 80gph pump I had to agitate the surface. During my time here I resumed feeding the fish.
October 27 - Moved into the house, but still nowhere near ready to set the tank up. Temporarily sat on kitchen counter with all life support and lighting hooked up. I added a gravity ATO.
November 2 - I finally got a piece of furniture I liked for the setup so I went to town and spent all day setting up the tanks. One is a Lifegard 4.14 and one is a Fluval Spec V.
I am lucky to say I had zero casualties during this move. I was very hesitant to try this as most aquarium travel stories I could find online ended up poorly. So after having so much success I wanted to share my journey with everyone. Maybe letting the bucket establish as a tank beforehand helped maintain the stability of the tank during travel. I'm also sure I could have possibly had a different outcome if I had attempted to travel with SPS coral or more sensitive fish(that's why I got rid of everything else before the move). Some of the anemones went for walks but didn't really irritate anything else.
I know it's a long read but I hope it can help others in the future!
EDIT: I'm already working on getting a 20 Gallon going for my clowns and to satisfy my need to stare at bubble tip anemones
Before I go any further I will mention that I only traveled with a 5 gallon bucket full of 'hardy' critters.
Equipment:
- 5 gallon bucket with secure lid(Instant Ocean)
- Bestek 300w inverter
- Aquaneat digital thermometer
- plastic egg crate for ceilings(used to build platforms)
- Kedsum USB battery air pump
- Hygger mini wave maker
- 25W aquarium heater seat to 80°F
- spare 80gph pump
- Kessil A80 light
- Hanna Salinity checker
- API 5 in 1 test strips
- Seachem Prime
- 1 gallon of RODI water.
- TAPE!
Livestock:
- Large female mocha clownfish
- Small male gold bar maroon
- Male endler livebearer
- Several inverts(pom-pom crabs, snails, brittle stars, limpets...)
- Hammer coral 1 head
- Frogspawn coral 1 head
- Small colony of Magician zoas
- OG bounce
- 2 Frankenstein bounces
- 2 Sunkist bounces
- 1 wild bounce
- 5 Jawbreakers
- 3 tulip anemones
- 1 Bali blood reed mini carpet anemone
- Rock with 8 jawbreakers
- rock with red photosynthic plating sponge
- a couple lbs of live rock and bio filter media
The trip was broken up into several days. The total time the livestock spent living in a bucket was roughly a month. I started gathering everything I would need the first week of October. I also constructed my layering system using the egg crate. Basically I made two platforms to create three different layers.
Bottom layer was live rock without photosynthetic organisms(excluding coralline) and bio media. All the inverts made their temporary home here. Second layer was live rock with photosynthetic sponge, anemones and jawbreakers. The top layer was for all my coral frags. The fish figured out how to swim freely between the layers.
I attached the Hygger mini wave maker so that it would remain and blow water in the lowest layer.
I placed the heating element in the second layer between the rocks there.
Up top I had the temperature probe and air stones.
October 10 - I fully broke down the remains of a 14 gallon tank. This is when I set up the bucket as a temporary tank at home. At the time there were only two layers(rocks and media at the bottom, coral frags on top).
October 18 - I broke down and added the contents of a 4.14g tank to the bucket. This is when I realized I needed to construct another layer.
October 20 - Made the final preparations for the trip. I cut a hole in the center of the bucket lid which is where I ran all the cables and hoses through.
October 21 - Despite getting to bed at 2am the night before I woke up at 5am to get the tank ready for travel. I ran all the cables through the hole I had cut in the lid. I used a piece of plastic and tape to secure the hole as best as I could during travelling. I loaded the bucket into my passenger seat using towels underneath to help protect the seat and level the bucket. I then strapped the seatbelt onto the bucket. I plugged the inverter in and plugged in the heater, wave maker, and USB air pump. I used to tape to place the USB air pump on top of the bucket. I placed the thermometer screen on the bucket with tape in a position I could see at all times while driving.
October 21-24 - On average we drove about 12hours a day. During this time the bucket stayed on my passenger seat with everything plugged in EXCEPT the heater. I found that the temperature stayed between 78-82°F most of the day without the heater. When the road was extra bumpy(or I made hard turn) a bit of water would make it's way through the hole where the wires were fed through but nothing significant. Each night, whether spending it at a friend's house, camping, or at a hotel, I would set up the bucket with all elements plugged in if possible. The longest stretch without being able to turn on the light was about 60 hours. I would check the Salinity in the mornings. I only added a bit of RODI water once as there was minimal evaporation happening. I only used the test strips once and since everything looked awesome each time I'd take a peek I stopped checking. I never once had to use Prime.
October 25-26 - We stayed with a friend in south VA for two nights so the bucket was plugged in like normal and I was able to run the lights on a low-medium setting for 8 hrs each day. Instead of using the air stones here(they splash a ton of water), I used the spare 80gph pump I had to agitate the surface. During my time here I resumed feeding the fish.
October 27 - Moved into the house, but still nowhere near ready to set the tank up. Temporarily sat on kitchen counter with all life support and lighting hooked up. I added a gravity ATO.
November 2 - I finally got a piece of furniture I liked for the setup so I went to town and spent all day setting up the tanks. One is a Lifegard 4.14 and one is a Fluval Spec V.
I am lucky to say I had zero casualties during this move. I was very hesitant to try this as most aquarium travel stories I could find online ended up poorly. So after having so much success I wanted to share my journey with everyone. Maybe letting the bucket establish as a tank beforehand helped maintain the stability of the tank during travel. I'm also sure I could have possibly had a different outcome if I had attempted to travel with SPS coral or more sensitive fish(that's why I got rid of everything else before the move). Some of the anemones went for walks but didn't really irritate anything else.
I know it's a long read but I hope it can help others in the future!
EDIT: I'm already working on getting a 20 Gallon going for my clowns and to satisfy my need to stare at bubble tip anemones
