Moving your tank long distance

GeoHawk

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Today I am sitting in a hotel room and thought it would be fun to go through old pictures of my tank. I came across these pictures of my "mobile aquarium" that I used moving from Missouri to Michigan and thought I would share.
2012-06-22_15-16-24_54_zps2205297c.jpg

2012-06-22_15-16-58_148_zps69502a91.jpg


I placed all of my fish in this large cooler from Walmart and used dividers (egg crate) to keep the fish from getting to cramped and possibly fighting during the stressful time. The dividers also kept the coral from touching and stinging each other. I also placed some new sand in one of the compartments so that my wrasses that liked to be under the sand could dive underneath. All of my rock containing coral were placed into this cooler as well as all my coral. I placed some of the coral in bags and floated them in this container, which I would say was my biggest mistake, because my only coral that died was in a bag. During the drive I used a converter to run a heater and a koralia pump to keep the water moving. The remainder of the rock, live sand, and inverts were placed into buckets filled with water from my display. The lids were left off and they were strapped to a wall in the back of the Budget Truck.

When I arrived at my new house the coral stayed in the large cooler and a light fixture was placed over the top using 2 shims to support it across the top of the cooler. The light with the heater and koralia pump kept the fish and coral happy for a week while I set up my tank and let it settle out.

Overall I would say it was a success. I lost one SPS colony and no fish. If anyone has questions about how I did this or would like moving advice shoot me a PM and I will try to help with what I can.
 
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robbrouse

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Wow.. That's good to hear.. I only moved fresh water a few years ago and I only lost one first out of 15.. I was happy with that move. You really do write and article about this and publish it to the section..

Thanks for sharing.
 
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GeoHawk

GeoHawk

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Wow.. That's good to hear.. I only moved fresh water a few years ago and I only lost one first out of 15.. I was happy with that move. You really do write and article about this and publish it to the section..

Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like you had a pretty successful move yourself.
 

robbrouse

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Sounds like you had a pretty successful move yourself.

True, buy my move was 5 hours from A to B.. And fresh water is a lot easier than salt. I put them all in a bucks with tank water. Drop a airline in and warped them in a blanket and keep them in the cab of the truck with me.

The tank I left about 2 inches of water in there and tied to down and shrink wrapped the top to keep anything from getting in.. Wanted to take as much water as I could but really did have the space for 55 gallons of water. So I took about 20 and set up a smaller home until l I could get the 55 set back up.

Lost my corycat that was 7 years at the time :(
 

TrishW

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We moved my 90 gallon 545 miles in July 2012. It was all loaded on an open trailer. Multiple totes were used for the fish and corals and we ran a generator at the very back of the trailer so we could run powerheads in every tote. I was worried about water temps getting too high so I froze a bunch of bottles of water. The plan was to drop a frozen bottle or two, depending on the size of the container that was too warm, into the totes, buckets etc to drop the temp. It turned out to be a pretty cool day so I didn't have high temps to worry about but I was prepared just in case.
 

Tdawg

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Any updates, I have to move 80 gal aio about 450 miles? Thanks
 

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