Moving two States over with a reef Tank

[jjwelch83]

So we finally made the move. Went from Las Vegas NV to Portales NM and everyone made the trip. Well except some corals decided to become frags along the way.

We took a 12 hour drive and had all our fish and corals living in totes plumbed together running a pump and a heater off of an inverter inside the truck. Needless to say turns out the totes don't seal all that well with that much weight in them.

We moved a 125 gal and a 25 Nano.

The plan was to have a brand new 150 gal setup and running in New Mexico before we made the trip with the fish. WE showed up to NM in the new house to prep everything and the brand new tank arrived completely destroyed by the shipping company. SCA was awesome and ship a new one right away. Unfortunately, we were out of time and had to return to vegas to grab the rest of our stuff and a U-Haul.

We made the trip and as soon as we got to NM at 3:00 AM I unloaded all the fish and coral. I setup the 25 Nano real quick and put my lawn mower blenny, file fish, and this other type of Goby that just sifts sand all day.

The rest of the fish and coral were divided amongst a 40 Gal aqua top I had laying around and my giant Colman ice chest. The ice chest worked awesome full of rock and coral with just a wave maker in there to keep everything circulating. Day 1 complete.


3 Days later the tank arrived and I took measurements and immediately started on a stand. The stand took 3 or 4 days to complete including all painting and hardware. I also managed to fit a 55 Gal tall inside for a sump. The sump is on a flat platform that slides out one side for maintenance. Took a minute to figure that one out.



Anyways, yesterday I plumbed the tank and mixed the water and let it run over night.


Today I moved everything from the ice chest and the 40 gal into the 150 gal. Turns out the trip broke a bunch of coral but no big deal I just glued them around the tank and also made about 20 frags.


All that's left to do is get the lights setup properly with wires and everything run through the ceiling and the top of tank plumbed from my mixing closet of to the tank.

Stock 150g:
Marine Beta
Fox Face
Paired clowns
Powder Brown
Damsel
Sailfin

25g:
Lawn Mower Blenny
File Fish
Diamond Watchman Goby
Pajama Cardinalfish

 

[Chrisv.]

So we finally made the move. Went from Las Vegas NV to Portales NM and everyone made the trip. Well except some corals decided to become frags along the way.

We took a 12 hour drive and had all our fish and corals living in totes plumbed together running a pump and a heater off of an inverter inside the truck. Needless to say turns out the totes don't seal all that well with that much weight in them.

We moved a 125 gal and a 25 Nano.

The plan was to have a brand new 150 gal setup and running in New Mexico before we made the trip with the fish. WE showed up to NM in the new house to prep everything and the brand new tank arrived completely destroyed by the shipping company. SCA was awesome and ship a new one right away. Unfortunately, we were out of time and had to return to vegas to grab the rest of our stuff and a U-Haul.

We made the trip and as soon as we got to NM at 3:00 AM I unloaded all the fish and coral. I setup the 25 Nano real quick and put my lawn mower blenny, file fish, and this other type of Goby that just sifts sand all day.

The rest of the fish and coral were divided amongst a 40 Gal aqua top I had laying around and my giant Colman ice chest. The ice chest worked awesome full of rock and coral with just a wave maker in there to keep everything circulating. Day 1 complete.


3 Days later the tank arrived and I took measurements and immediately started on a stand. The stand took 3 or 4 days to complete including all painting and hardware. I also managed to fit a 55 Gal tall inside for a sump. The sump is on a flat platform that slides out one side for maintenance. Took a minute to figure that one out.



Anyways, yesterday I plumbed the tank and mixed the water and let it run over night.


Today I moved everything from the ice chest and the 40 gal into the 150 gal. Turns out the trip broke a bunch of coral but no big deal I just glued them around the tank and also made about 20 frags.


All that's left to do is get the lights setup properly with wires and everything run through the ceiling and the top of tank plumbed from my mixing closet of to the tank.

Stock 150g:
Marine Beta
Fox Face
Paired clowns
Powder Brown
Damsel
Sailfin

25g:
Lawn Mower Blenny
File Fish
Diamond Watchman Goby
Pajama Cardinalfish

Good job! I have done this three times now, and man it is rough. Moved a reef from DC to Boston, Boston to North Carolina, and North Carolina to Boston again. What a chore. I hope you enjoy your new tank!

 

[jjwelch83]

Quick little update. We thought we lost our 7 head Duncan to the file fish in the move. But, we separated them and it’s coming back.

some shots of both tanks finally happy.just need to fix the temporary light situation. The plan is to build a hanging chandelier for the lights.

 

[c4sxm5]

Anything you would do differently? I made the move within the city and from tank to tank and have also lost something.

 

[jjwelch83]

Anything you would do differently? I made the move within the city and from tank to tank and have also lost something.

Yeah I would definitely put a seal on the totes. We ended up with a lot of water spilled in the truck.

 

[brandon429]

Hey you're in my region. I know Portales like the back of my hand it's about 2 hours from me in Lubbock and we go through Portales on the way to ruidoso very often. It's a nice town. Nice college, a lot of my high school friends went to enmu. Your nearest reefing shops are in Lubbock tx: all American aquatics and fish pros.

 

[jjwelch83]

Yeah I would definitely put a seal on the totes. We ended up with a lot of water spilled in the truck.

I was just in Lubbock today. Stopped by fish pros and south plains aquaculture. Fish pros was alright. I wouldn’t buy anything there stuff didn’t look to healthy and a bunch or dead coral.
South plains is a tiny shop but there stuff looked really good. I bought three frags from them. They have a ton of coral just not a ton of fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Glad to see you mafde the trip successfully. Always broken coral on any move

 

[brandon429]

Hey nice I’ll check out south plains / didn’t know them/ wonder if thats my friend Jason from a prior business here in town. Heavy on coral that shop was


your location in portales is particularly interesting for old west archaeology not joking. Your city is a hub for adventure 1.5 hours onward to Ruidoso, or just a skip over to ft sumner (your nearest cool big lake to chill at is there)

Not very far from you is a hidden little town called Taiban

it’s not far

and one mile east of Taiban in a hidden spot a mere 1/4 mile off the highway to Clovis is a secret location not even blocked from access, it’s just hidden by 149 years of overgrowth. the outline to the rock house where in 1881 Billy the kid, Dave Rudabaugh, a horse, and two other miscreants held up against Garrett in the snow. The real stinking spring is near you, hidden/ what an adventure. Those are dang good frags above. Of all places you could go to, Ruidoso is tops best. 1.5 hrs away up the hills. When they re open the forest after the 25th y’all pack a day travel and zip up to doso

 

[brandon429]

Ps. The Google pin is purposefully off kilter to mislead
only the greatest possible human adventure rivaling anything Indiana Jones has seen could uncover the true location of the rock house for in- person view. So don’t get your hopes up heh