moving, its about that time again

[justin_freebords]

Well i will be making my 4th move in under 1 year on august 22nd. I will be driving an hour and a half back up to college and will be bringing my tank with me. So far ive moved it home for winterbreak (1 month) and back to school for another 3 months then back home again for the summer and now i will be heading back to school. What i usually do is bag EVERYTHING by itself. This time stock has grown so i will be bagging 25 things total.


Heres my plan

Remove as much water as i can before rocks are exposed.

Carefully remove rock as to prevent sand stirring

place rocks in bucket with siphoned water just enough to cover the rocks

remove and begin bagging all live stock

place all live stock in 1-2 styrofoam containers to preserve heat and lessen stress

remove as much water as humanly possible into 2nd bucket (only water here)

make 2-3 gallons of fresh salt water in 3rd bucket night before

i think i will then rinse with fresh water all filters and powerheads and my auto top off, last time i didnt and some stuff had to be taken apart due to the salt causing sticking problems


ARRIVAL AT SCHOOL

Place tank on stand keep metal halide off.

Pour as much water as i can from water only bucket (trying to keep as much of the dirty out of the water as possible

Add liverock and scape.

add as much water from liverock bucket as possible but being even more careful to keep out the debris

add fresh water

turn heater on with powerheads and filter

place new carbon/filterfloss above chaeto to catch anything. Remove floss once a day for a week

once the tank has been running for around 30-60 minutes begin floating corals and livestock

after another 15-20 minutes, release fish and coral into the tank and top off tank if needed with water from sexy shrimp/snails bags

run halides as normal






how does that sound? Its a little different then i have done it (more so in the time i wait to begin floating) i figure since stuff ships it is actually more beneficial and less stressful to leave everything in the styrofoam container while the tank settles and heats up for 30-60 minutes vs putting it all to float while it heats up.


any suggestions? its only a 10 gallon tank but it stresses me the hell out. I have a chalice, micromussa, 2 acros and a birdsnest along with zoas, duncan, and other soft coral. Livestock is green clown goby, sexy shrimpx3 yasha haze, and pom pom crab. I will bag all snails in 1 bag and all shrimp in 1 bag. Please any tips or hints or warnings are appreciated. All 3 prior moves went well with eveything looking great after a week but i always get really worried especially with the addition of sps to my system this summer and the halide

 

[tewkes]

Wow, 4 times in a year! I would quit till I knew I was staying for at least a year or longer.

I'm getting ready to break down one of my tanks to prepare for an upgrade. I'm not looking forward to it very much.

Good luck with the move, hopefully everything goes according to plan, seems like you have it well thought out.

 

[aerius007]

That is a dedicated reefer. I like you already :D

 

[dbarker]

I think you might be the expert on tank moving! Your plan sounds like a good one. I love it when a plan comes together! Debbie

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Yeah you must be a pro at this 4 times a year....thats crazy!!! I made a big move this year and the toughest part was re-scaping after i moved....it was so cloudy that waiting for it to settle was tough...i just wanted to be done. Good luck with the move!

 

[justin_freebords]

thanks guys haha. I only got like 4 pieces of lr (7 pounds) So scape has changed a little bit each move. Now that im in the 10 i finally found one i like. I dont know id call myself an expert at moving but its pretty stressful haha

 

[justin_freebords]

well the big move is in 2 days guys. I get to wake up at 630am to begin the break down. Currently have all the bags i need and a few extras just in case. I got a regular plastic cooler that was laying around the house to save some money.

Tomorrow i will be mixing together around 3-4 gallons of fresh water for the tank to add as needed. The goal here is to use all but 2 gallons of original water so that way i can knock off my normal water change because im lazy haha. Hopefully everything goes smoothly, my yasha died the other day (bless his heart) so im not really worried as much about losing anything which makes this whole move a lot less stressful


honestly the most im worried about is looking like a ****** when im the only guy on campus moving an actual piece of furniture (my stand, the rooms are all furnished and they say dont bring anything from home) with a ghetto security light on a pole with wires coming off it to my room haha ill try and post how things go when i get it all settled....i hate the week after, everything always looks kinda sad

 

[ahayes13]

good luck with the move. i hope everthing goes smoothly for you. im sure it will, sounds like you are plenty prepared.
def. keep us up to date with pics....

 

[justin_freebords]

well guys so farr so good. The move went really well im glad i used the cooler the bags seemed to keep temp right up till i put them in the tank like i planned. Things are still dirty and i qwill have the usual week wait before its back to closer to normal. Things are already open so thats a good sign. Still need to fix the powerheads to get flow adjusted right and move coral. Overall im happy

 

[justin_freebords]

ah **** epic bump. I gave up on the tank sorta but im moving it again for christmas break in like 5 days. Wish me luck

 

[BigRed]

Your lucky your christmas break is in 5 days... I go until the 18th... luckily I have an apt. so the tank wont have to be moved home...

 

[justin_freebords]

well it all begins, my car is packed and ready to go. Next step, the tank. This is going to be one long adventure. last time it took me an hour to pack it up and bring it to school. Im shooting for like 45 this time. We will see

 

[x Sarah x]

How can you move the tank so much without having to cycle it?

I only upgraded twice this year and the second time, the nitrite and ammonia spiked so high i lost 19 fish in a week! :(

 

[cody6766]

I've moved tanks twice and never had trouble with an ammonia spike. I bet smaller tanks are more forgiving as there is less room for detritus build up. I'd assume the rock's surface area in contact with moving water is greater in a nano than a large tank.

 

[justin_freebords]

this is my 6th move in a year and 2 months, if you count the upgrade i did. Everything went pretty smooth, i ****** up my birdsnest and broke like 4 little tips off haha oh well, otherwise things look ok. Im most worried about my chalice, some bone is poking out all along the edges and theres a slight recession on one end. I think its just stressed and receeded a ton more than usual for being ticked off. Ill give the tank a week and probably post up a for sale thread locally. I cant do these moves anymore. It took me 3 hours today to pack my car and leave going up and down 3 flights of stairs. (tank took like an hour to break down but moving everything plus all my other non tank ****). I wish i could stay in the hobby but ive lost most if not all interest and no longer wish to deal with the stress. I really hope everything lives i got offered 150$ for my chalice : / id love to make all that money to put towards a frat. Ill post up later after a few days to let you guys know how it went. If youre gunna move a tank, id seriously suggest following this guide, its worked flawless so far

 

[justin_freebords]

also, the reason people get mini cycles is they stir the sand bed too much, when i move the tank (minus the first time i moved it and this last one due to laziness) i make sure to cut down as much as humanly possible on sand stirring. I usually also do a very thorough rock blasting (turkey baster) and water change about 3-4 days before i move. You really need to siphon the water all the way until its impossible to get it to siphon any more. Then use a cup or something to get more. I leave a very very thin layer of water to keep my sand wet. This has allowed for only the detritus on the top layer to begin with and the stuff from pulling my rocks to settle, nothing deep down gets out. Unfortunatly i rushed my last one and my bed got stirred pretty good. I also run new carbon and a sponge so that helps and do a water change like 3 days in. I also only have 1 fish and some inverts and coral so those spikes if they do exist dont hit me hard. You may have just had a train reaction where you get a small spike then it kills a fish and the ammonia goes from there

 

[x Sarah x]

Ahh right didn't realise you only had the one fish, i suppose that would make a world of difference!