Moving with Saltwater Fish

[ReefingWithTheSavannahs]

Hello!
We will be moving from Erie, PA to Tulsa, OK in the upcoming months. We anticipate this being a 2 day trip as it is a 16 hour drive. We are trying to decide the best way to move our two tanks. One 10 gallon, and one 16 gallon. The 10 gallon has a clown fish, peppermint shrimp, and some other invertebrates. The 16 gallon has a clown, purple Firefish, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, and other invertebrates. We plan on just putting the live rock in a Home Depot bucket in water. But for the fish, we aren’t sure the best way to do this. I have thought of getting 2 live bait coolers to put the fish and shrimp in. But wondering thoughts, we really don’t know the best way to approach this. Thanks in advance!

 

[flsalty]

That'll work out great. I would get at least an air pump for the rock. I would also take as much of the water as I could. Are you moving your stuff yourself?

 

[Billdogg]

I think you'll be fine as well. If you use an inverter you can add a small heater for the fish. Rather than move a single drop more of old water than you have to, I'd suggest taking some freshly mixed salt water and doing a water change on the "holding tanks" in the evening after your first day. I would also suggest not feeding them during the trip. They;ll be just fine, and there will be that much less waste in the water.

 

[fish farmer]

Here's a tip for the shrimp and other inverts to keep them from rolling around. Get some plastic food containers that you can poke holes in. Add your shrimp in it's own container. You can stack these if you need to in your cooler. When I moved tanks for college I would keep some of the LR in the cooler for hiding places for the fish and biological filtration, but it probably isn't necessary since they will be in the dark cooler.

Don't feed anything for a day or two before travelling, they will excrete less waste while in the cooler.

 

[ReefingWithTheSavannahs]

That'll work out great. I would get at least an air pump for the rock. I would also take as much of the water as I could. Are you moving your stuff yourself?

My husband and I will be doing it together. What are your thoughts on the temperature. I think the cooler will allow it to stay stable.

 

[ReefingWithTheSavannahs]

Here's a tip for the shrimp and other inverts to keep them from rolling around. Get some plastic food containers that you can poke holes in. Add your shrimp in it's own container. You can stack these if you need to in your cooler. When I moved tanks for college I would keep some of the LR in the cooler for hiding places for the fish and biological filtration, but it probably isn't necessary since they will be in the dark cooler.

Don't feed anything for a day or two before travelling, they will excrete less waste while in the cooler.

Thanks! That’s a really good idea I’m trying to think about the coral now. I don’t know how I forgot about that, we have a couple frags that are attached to the rocks. Thoughts on that?

 

[ReefingWithTheSavannahs]

I think you'll be fine as well. If you use an inverter you can add a small heater for the fish. Rather than move a single drop more of old water than you have to, I'd suggest taking some freshly mixed salt water and doing a water change on the "holding tanks" in the evening after your first day. I would also suggest not feeding them during the trip. They;ll be just fine, and there will be that much less waste in the water.

Thanks! If I put a heater in the cooler, it shouldn’t get too warm, should it? I’m think it will just auto shut off once it’s warm enough

 

[fish farmer]

If the temperatures while driving are in the 70's you should be fine, adjust the temp in the car. When you stop at night you could plug in the heater at a hotel, just keep an eye on it it case it does get too warm.

The rocks that have corals on them you could put in the fish cooler and try to secure them so they don't roll around.

 

[flsalty]

My husband and I will be doing it together. What are your thoughts on the temperature. I think the cooler will allow it to stay stable.

If the coolers are in the back of a uhaul I would be more worried about overheating since you'll be moving in the summer. If it's in a car then I would think about using a small heater. You'll probably be blasting the ac.