Long distance moving with livestock

[SilverGryphon]

I'm trying to start getting plans prepped for cross country move coming up in 2 years (about 2,600 miles distance). What I'm wanting to take is likely my BlackWidow BTA, my LTA, my clown fish, and a few other corals. Most of the bigger pieces I'll likely end up just taking a frag from and selling the rest to an LFS. The one that I really don't want to give up is a nice shelf piece (just over 1ft by 8 inches roughly) covered in different zoas that is looking quite nice. It isn't a deal breaker, but if possible I'd like to take it with me.

So this is the plan so far: I'm hoping this to be a 2 stage move, I move the family out with the bulk of our belongings first to stay with other family while I return to sell the house and all that. If possible, I plan to have my wife start cycling new live rock there while waiting for everything to finish here and for me to get out there. I'm figure just doing just a holding tank here (probably 20gal with a few pieces of rock) while the main tank is moved with everything else.

Will bagging them up be ok for probably 4-5 days driving cross country in the summer? I would assume trying to keep buckets going in a moving car wouldn't work so well. For live rock, would wet towels in a bin be enough to keep everything good? The Zoa shelf piece I'm planning on putting in a lidded bin with just enough water to cover everything up, and cycling through 3-4 battery powered air pumps for water movement (overkill? not sure if the motion of the car would be enough for surface agitation and O2 exchange).

So thoughts on this. Am I crazy, will this work?

 

[KrisReef]

Year one.
Make friends with all the local fish stores and find out which ones have reliable people, especially folks who know how to pack and ship live coral and fish. Once you have figured that out, make plans to tear down the tank before you move and put the precious livestock in storage at the best LFS.

Year two. Sell the house and move the family away with all your dry goods, and the live rock in buckets of water. Set up the tank in a the new location with rock, let it cook until it's good. Ask the LFS to ship your livestock and wave goodbye to them and pray the new location also has a good store.

Trucking livestock cross country is a pain and the last thing you will want to do when you arrive is to start setting up a tank, mixing water, etc.