moving a monster tank

[kvosstra]

Hi folks, new to this forum after a nearly 10 year break from the hobby (see, children x3).

Short story here is that I am in the process of moving a 500+ g aquarium, 120x36x30, in the Delaware valley. Does anyone have specific recommendations for how to do this?! Tank will be going to a new in-wall setting., sump below or in basement (plumbing TBD)
Pre-move, two new 150g holding tanks will be setup for corals and fish and other livestock. Frag tank set up for likely unintentional frags, and such, and anemones moved to their own smaller tank (all connected) to keep them from crawling over everything.
Extra water will be made (any suggestions for temporary water storage to fill the 500g? Like a kid pool or other temporary holding space?

But how do I actually get the tank moved? Anyone aware of a company in the area that would assist with moving the tank and take the necessary precautions with the aquarium? Its a miracles tank, with stand.

Build thread will be forthcoming

 

[brandon429]

I don't have any access / ideas for the physical moving aspect, that will come to you as you find movers. we do have tons of practice on the biological side of the move, from large work threads. these are the highlights:

-move no clouding no waste. literally, move only cleaned sand or use all new, and pre rinsed sand (pre rinsed in tap water not RO or SW, they run out too fast. rinse all new sand in tap water for an hour or so until its cleaned, prob three hours on a job that large, final rinse is in RO now you have cloudless sand for the new setup.

-when you prep and move your rocks, scrape off any algae and dab peroxide on the anchored spots so you move no algae to the new tank, which will be primed for algae growth. swish your rocks in old tank saltwater before moving, move no clouding. Rocks themselves house detritus and will cloud/cause cycles when they cast off pent-up wastes. Move only clean rocks, prepped in saltwater, this is the ONLY source of bacteria you need for the new tank. you specifically do not need your sandbed bac to skip the cycle, or bottle bac. The way we prep your live rock is bac-friendly. swishing in water and detailing off some algae + peroxide is specifically not antibacterial.

__the new tank's lighting must be ramped back up like new LED, if you start on full power in a cleaned setup that bleaches corals, run low intensity and re ramp up***

-your inclination will be to under prep for the move/common thought is that cleaning is harsh and leaving things alone is un-harsh, this is polar opposite wrong. Failed tank moves are not found in clean moves, its when they move dirty out of fear of loss of bacteria. If you didn't put back a sandbed at all, but prepped and moved rocks in this way, the system will still skip cycle with all your fish, live rock is this powerful at your poundage used in a large tank. Knowing that your bacteria from ANY source other than live rock does not matter, is not needed, can be instantly taken off line, allows you to move and clean perfectly ensuring a skip cycle xfer. Here is the work thread below with 200 tank moves. I summarized it all above. we would like follow up pics pls if you can take em, yours would be our biggest job.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

I am fairly worried about moving my freshwater setup as it is fairly overstocked (reduces aggression as no one fish gets singled out). I did fail to think about the toxicity of nitrite on top of ammonia toxicity... Here is my plan for the cichlid tank. I have gradually reduced my pH from 8.2 to...

www.reef2reef.com

house your fish away from live rock and sand during the transfer. if they're by themselves then cast-off waste cant kill them during the move (assuming some areas of live rock might not be perfectly clean)

 

[am3gross]

I just moved a 375 glass tank.. It was heavy.. had to have 5 of us to move it. I used furniture dollies, a quickjack, and a hydraulic table from harbor freight. It was not easy.

I did all this because the local moving companies and the marketplace side job lookers either wanted to much money, or they just refused. The marketplace people wanted paid for 3 hrs min and 6 people min for a job that took me 20 minutes to do.

If you are in a bigger area look around at the different clubs that are around and see if you could get some help there. might be worth a shot!

 

[FishTruck]

I just moved a 1000 gallon glass tank and a 300 gallon acrylic this year.

Get suction cups from amazon and a whole bunch of buddies. Use moving dollies to roll it on flat ground and through hallways. You can probably sell the cups when you are done to another reefer.

I did hire a specialized moving company for the 1000 gallon tank. I brought the suction cups myself (they did not think they would be necessary) - but the cups ended up being a lifesaver and the biggest factor. With a low bed moving truck, 10 guys, and cups from amazon with rolling dollies - you could do it yourself pretty easily.

 

[kvosstra]

Thank you all for the info to date. Suction cups sound like a good idea, no matter who does the work. Did you just get the 330 lb ones from Amazon? Or something stronger?

I will definately be washing the sand, and I will use tap water for ease of rinsing. Sounds like a good rubber made can full of tank water will be useful for shaking the live rock as well, to get all the detritus out of there. Do you also recommend blowing with a pump? Or just shaking it is sufficient?

Hydraulic table also makes sense - Getting a truck seems easy - getting 10 guys more difficult with the joys of COVID - convincing them to come move a tank and not get to have the kids hang and get beers even more difficult!

 

[FishTruck]

I just used the 200 lb. ones from Amazon for the 300 gallon tank (the yellow ones with two cups) - and just bought more of them. That tanks was made with 1.25 inch eurobraced acrylic and weighed about 400 lbs. empty. I bought six pairs of them - which was plenty.

I rented some higher capacity ones from lifetime aquariums for the 1000 gallon tank (the first time) - which were even better - but probably overkill.

 

[kvosstra]

Jumping back on this for a moment - I have been reading on other posts about Aiptasia removal. The tank has aiptasia...a fair amouht of it, to be honest. As I move rocks, and clean then and such, I was thinking of putting them into the new home location in a sump, for lack of a better word, to prep them for the new tank location and new rock layout.
But I really want to eradicate the aiptasia first (if total removal is even possible).
Thoughts on this approach:
1. clean rocks as suggested above by @brandon429. Should I also get some aiptasia removal materials and try to nuke them from the start? Or should I just get like 10 berghia (or a file fish, or copperband - note the need to quarantine these first though...), and leave them in the new sump tank with the infested rocks? Or do manual removal and the predators in the sump? Thinking that 1 month in the sump might be enough for removal of aiptasia?
2. inspect rocks in a smaller "quarantine" tank and check for any remaining aiptasia, hit again with predator or manual removal, as necessary -
3. move to "clean" bin after I have confirmed removal.
4. begin prep of new rock design once the rocks are clean.

 

[Joe31415]

I'd be willing to bet there's companies that handle moving tanks. If you call up a place that maintains tanks in businesses (ie dentist's office), they can probably do it.

If you're going to move all the livestock and water yourself and your main concern is the weight of the actual tank, look into piano or safe movers. They'll have the equipment and knowledge for moving heavy things. Someone that specializes in moving pool tables might be able to do it as well, but once those are broken down, the individual pieces of slate aren't going to be as heavy or awkward as the tank.

 

[brandon429]

Aiptasia removal is really inconsistent in the hobby, everyone has a fav way

I have a way that works incredibly well, its why you don't see pico reefs with lots of aip problems unless they haven't heard our way

Its ablation of polyp exactly like medical science

a rock with aips is sitting on the counter

if you take a small flathead screwdriver an tap under the foot, chip it out with the rock its on, and leave a little pit (that fills in w coralline later) then the whole thing is gone.

injections will fragment and make them grow

animals/unreliable. my opinion. worked in my tank remarkably.

 

[kvosstra]

Right - I've always been concerned that "manual removal" actually spreads them, when people use those kalk and other strategies. And what to do if there are hundreds of them on a rock? Can I just dip that in vinegar and melt them (or a stronger acid?) or really just painstakingly remove them all?

 

[brandon429]

us pico reefers act when there's only one, because that already has taken up 1/3rd of the available aquascape lol so we are spoiled rotten basically. I can't think of any way as good as this one, it doesn't fragment for sure its solid. the partial kill by burns, anything that leaves mass in place for internal degradation of former mass is spreading although I know some get lucky with joes juice etc

or shrimp or filefish but nothing beats the time aiptasia was hanging off the side of my prize live rock, and I used electrical clippers to clip it and the ledge as well clean off. anemone/ejected heh

 

[FishTruck]

I was aip free for a few years after two rounds of berghia and an aggressive kalk paste attack. It took about a year of work before they were gone. Then... I had a nice four or five years with no aips.

After moving... I started seeing them again in just one frag tank. So far... I am kalk pasting about once per month anywhere between one and ten aips. Once they get into the display - it will be time for some berghia again.

 

[kvosstra]

hey folks - move is in progress (many months delayed for some construction on the house). All tank inhabitants moved this weekend - rock, corals are in 3x 90/100 gallon tanks in the basement - have mp40/60s on each tank for movement plus a heater.
Frag tank is just holding spare stuff - I'm sure there are literally thousands of frags - will try to sort them in the coming weeks and mount what is reasonable to color back up.

Tank is being moved next week and I'm excited to finally clean up the rocks/sand and slowly get it back into shape. Pumps undergoing maintenance, and all lights cleaned, etc. I know there is a lot of work ahead.

Anyway, one of the coral/rock tanks is super cloudy - obviously something has died off in there - thinking of how to best evaluate and then deal with it.
(1) pull out each rock, see if it stinks to high hell - if yes, put in a bucket of water and accept the losses. Put clean/not dead corals back into the tank OR move them (space permitting) to one of the other tanks so it wont die off.
(2) add some ammonia remover and just stay the course, big pumps in there and see what happens?
(3) some other combo.

- should I just toss that 100g of water - or just keep circulating it and let the rock/ammonia detox do its job to stabilize?

thanks!

 

[brandon429]

Dose no removers


find the rock and source for clouding, change out that particular water cloud

 

[kvosstra]

yeah - I kind of messed up - I put the 3 tanks side-by-side - (for space) - but can barely access the rear most tank...that's, of course, where the issues are...
This is just for about 10 days - but always sucks when something goes wrong!

 

[kvosstra]

found the issue - a rose anemone decided to go surfing into the circulation pump...