REM2021
Community Member
So I got a promotion. It's in Kansas, and I currently live in SoCal. We're hitting the road to relocate in three weeks, and planning to take five days to drive to the new house. We won't have any access to it before the day we close and get the keys, and my closest family will be ten hours away in a different state. I've sold off the stock I did not especially love, but since I plan to set up a new tank as soon as I get in, I'm keeping my clowns, peppermint shrimp, and a few RFAs that have so far been pretty unkillable. We're driving out in a minivan that will be occupied by two adults, a toddler, a massive basset hound, some luggage, and...possibly the remaining contents of my reef.
Plan A: I've downsized everything into a temporary 6G that I plan to put in insulated styrofoam with heat packs and a battery-operated airstone, then take it out at the hotel each night and run the regular filter/heater off the hotel's outlets all night, before everything goes back in the box for the drive.
Plan B: I buy one of those trendy supplemental oxygen canisters, the insulated styrofoam, and find a LFS in KS that's willing to let me ship them and hold there (none of the LFS within an hour of my current location ship, so I'd have to do the packaging and mailing myself).
The reason I'm currently preferring plan A to plan B is because the RFAs are all very stubbornly attached to rocks. I really don't think I could remove them without killing them (I tried when I downsized into the 6G--ice, inverting the rock out of water, tickling, you name it. The rocks are too bumpy to try the credit card trick.) Plus driving the box would let me keep my nicely cured rock/filter media to use to seed the new tank as best I can. The cost of shipping the rock would be prohibitive for me.
Is there a Plan C that I'm overlooking? Any improvements I could make to Plans A or B? Advice on how you handled a cross-country move?
My three year old and I are both very attached to the (expensive designer) clowns; she would definitely notice and be very upset if they don't make it.
Plan A: I've downsized everything into a temporary 6G that I plan to put in insulated styrofoam with heat packs and a battery-operated airstone, then take it out at the hotel each night and run the regular filter/heater off the hotel's outlets all night, before everything goes back in the box for the drive.
Plan B: I buy one of those trendy supplemental oxygen canisters, the insulated styrofoam, and find a LFS in KS that's willing to let me ship them and hold there (none of the LFS within an hour of my current location ship, so I'd have to do the packaging and mailing myself).
The reason I'm currently preferring plan A to plan B is because the RFAs are all very stubbornly attached to rocks. I really don't think I could remove them without killing them (I tried when I downsized into the 6G--ice, inverting the rock out of water, tickling, you name it. The rocks are too bumpy to try the credit card trick.) Plus driving the box would let me keep my nicely cured rock/filter media to use to seed the new tank as best I can. The cost of shipping the rock would be prohibitive for me.
Is there a Plan C that I'm overlooking? Any improvements I could make to Plans A or B? Advice on how you handled a cross-country move?
My three year old and I are both very attached to the (expensive designer) clowns; she would definitely notice and be very upset if they don't make it.
