The Aftermath of Moving my Reef

[aggrofish]

One of my biggest regret in this hobby is moving my 75g red sea reefer from Chicago to Orlando. I should have sold everything and start new with a bigger tank...which is basically what I am doing now.

I sold my 125G when I moved from Socal to Las Vegas. If I had a place set up with a new tank and just transferred inhabitants it would be doable. I practically gave that tank away.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I don't think I have ever lost any fish or corals when I've done moves.

In college I moved my 38 gallon FOWLR a couple of times. One time I kept the tank with UG filter running over Christmas break and brought fish and rock home and set up a couple smaller tanks for a month. Usually used a cooler and a bucket, move was one state away, 2 hour drive.

My reef has been moved, upgraded, downgraded, broken, etc.

The two big moves were to a new home. The first was an upgrade to a 55 gallon so I secured the apartment for a month before the move. I set the new tank up with some water. On moving day I dismantled the old tank, corals in bags or hard plastic containers stuffed in a cooler with water, most rock in buckets with lids. I tossed most of the DT sand, keeping a small amount for seeding new sand. Move was less than an hour away.

The second move was into my current home, moved the 55 on the same day, but I probably had smaller tanks running before moving day. I kept the apartment for an extra month just to be able to move everything I own easily.

Glad everything went smoothly! This was my first move with fish and had no deaths out of my two fish, a royal gramma and a Midas blenny. My royal gramma literally acted like nothing was happening. Literally moved it and put everything back and the royal gramma was just like hey what’s new and pretty excited to check everything out. It was crazy. My Midas blenny did go under a bit of stress though. When I took the rocks out, he was stuck in between two of them in his cave, so he was out of water and in between a bunch of moving rocks for a minute before we got him out. The first day or so, he propped himself up on the sandbed in a corner. Let dust accumulate on him and was showing his stress colors. Every day he started perking up and is now still super healthy.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

One of my biggest regret in this hobby is moving my 75g red sea reefer from Chicago to Orlando. I should have sold everything and start new with a bigger tank...which is basically what I am doing now.

What went wrong?

I had a little fowlr 2.5g pico years ago, when I moved about 9hrs away I just drained about 1gallon, set it on the front set of my Jeep, seat belted it in, and ran the heater and pump off an inverter. I Had 2 - 5g buckets (one with fresh, one with premixed saltwater) with me for when I arrived. No problems at all.

No parameter swings or anything crazy after? Those tanks have always kinda felt like they’re finicky to me.

I sold my 125G when I moved from Socal to Las Vegas. If I had a place set up with a new tank and just transferred inhabitants it would be doable. I practically gave that tank away.

Are you in between tanks right now or did you get a new tank?

 

[Hermie]

Hey props on making the new channel and your tank journey. My feedback is that I don't really watch youtube reef channels that are simply video footage without narration or any input from the tank owner themself. There is another few channels that are quite popular but I simply don't watch them because I go to youtube for information more than eye candy. My good faith feedback is that I hope you will talk or appear in your videos going forward because it helps me connect the tank, the reefkeeper and their story. Anyway good luck and happy reefkeeping!

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Hey props on making the new channel and your tank journey. My feedback is that I don't really watch youtube reef channels that are simply video footage without narration or any input from the tank owner themself. There is another few channels that are quite popular but I simply don't watch them because I go to youtube for information more than eye candy. My good faith feedback is that I hope you will talk or appear in your videos going forward because it helps me connect the tank, the reefkeeper and their story. Anyway good luck and happy reefkeeping!

Hey thanks for the feedback. My channel style has been built around cinematic shots similar to channels like Foo the Flowerhorn, Danny’s Aquarium, Aqua Splendor, Blue Reef Tank, and various others. I have considered doing a voice over on my videos because there are a few things that are just so content packed, I can’t put it into a few captions. Or there’s several things I’d love to just tell stories about. So I may do it in my upcoming videos, so keep an eye out for that.

 

[musaabi]

Here was my process for moving my 32 gallon Biocube:
1. Take the corals out and put them into ziplock bags. Put them into a 5 gallon bucket and put a lid to retain heat. Unplug tank as late as possible.
2. Take out rocks and put them in a large bucket. Fill large bucket with 2/3 of the tank water. Keep the other 1/3 in the tank for the fish. They will stay in the tank.
3. Move tank off stand and put in another location
4. Move stand upstairs as well as the water, rocks, and corals
5. Move tank upstairs and place on stand.
6. Put water in, then rocks, then corals. Let the fish relax and little bit and don’t make any Aquascape. Make an Aquascape after the fish are less stressed. Don’t address anything that isn’t of any major concern

I have never had to move my tank that much of a distance (only throughout my house), but it is possible, just different methods are needed to prepare everything for huge moves. I listed my method above, for some helpful tricks you may be able to take away from this. Just know, it is possible, and it’s easier than you think it is. The first time I moved my tank, I was freaking out and couldn’t think straight. But I had a well thought out plan all on my phone and 5 people to help me with it. The second time around, still was kinda stressed about it but it wasn’t my first rodeo. I improved a lot of the methods I did my first move and made the move much more efficient. I wish the best of luck moving it.

Oh it’s a process. It took an hour to move mine but days of planning and brainstorming the best way to go about moving it. It’s definitely a process I don’t want to relive.

Thanks for sharing! That sounds like it was a big process and for the most part you were successful! I love your dog by the way.

She’s great, napped the entire road trip. It was a process to say the least. Originally I was going to have my lfs in Cali overnight everything once I arrived but it was ridiculously expensive if you don’t have a deal with FedEx or ups so opted to just “yolo” it. Here’s an updated pic but still not the latest. I’ve added a ton of stuff since this

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

She’s great, napped the entire road trip. It was a process to say the least. Originally I was going to have my lfs in Cali overnight everything once I arrived but it was ridiculously expensive if you don’t have a deal with FedEx or ups so opted to just “yolo” it. Here’s an updated pic but still not the latest. I’ve added a ton of stuff since this

My dog would probably gnaw on the box the entire trip. He loves to bite everything.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Little bump for the evening crowd. I’m trying to get to 60 subs before the new year, if I could make that goal, I will try to get a new video out for New Years!

Channel:

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEWCIj6yc7Goxg-ez80CbuA?sub_confirmation=1

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Final bump I’m gonna make for those that didn’t see it. Thanks for all the views guys! I gained. 5 new subscribers and got 75 views on the new video in a day, which has never happened before. Hopefully YouTube can start promoting these videos to y’all more often!

 

[Dahaker89]

I did move my 125g tank last year to our new home, however I ended up losing everything. The movers accidentally tripped moving some boxes and knocked over my containers with the fish. My tank sprung a bloom from the new sand and none of the fish survived. Took me a year to recover from the frustration and now I’m back in!

 

[N1Husker]

I don’t want to talk about it.

 

[PeterEde]

Great vid. Glad things went well.
Dreading doing a move. Maybe across the room in time

 

[Reeferdeluxe]

I recently moved from SoCal to Washington state. I sold my tank but kept all the hardware, put corals on frag plugs(luckily they were small enough) and fish in a cooler with airline tubing and heater. I did get plenty of splashing and suggest baffles for anyone going to do the same thing to avoid the water swashing around too much and maybe a water tight lid to prevent water splashing out. Took 3 days to drive but parameters fluctuated a good amount specifically temp. Once I got to my destination I was living in a temp apt for 3 months before I got my actual apt so everything went into a 10 gallon once I arrived. Surprisingly the fish and corals survived the hard trip but I did start to get recession and 2 fish died a few weeks later. Now my tank is up and running since mid Nov and the remaining corals and fish all survived. Hoping to buy a place next year so I’ll have to move all over again.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I did move my 125g tank last year to our new home, however I ended up losing everything. The movers accidentally tripped moving some boxes and knocked over my containers with the fish. My tank sprung a bloom from the new sand and none of the fish survived. Took me a year to recover from the frustration and now I’m back in!

That’s unfortunate, but it seems you got back into it, so that’s good!

Great vid. Glad things went well.
Dreading doing a move. Maybe across the room in time

Thanks!

 

[Reeferdeluxe]

My bad didn't mean to do that......

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

New video coming out tomorrow! Make sure to watch this video and give it a like to show your support before the next one releases. It’s going to be about something I have done that most people in the Reefing world don’t like the thought of

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Here’s my latest video. Thanks for all the discussion and feedback on this thread! Feel free to chime in on this thread, as well as my new video’s thread:

Do you do water changes?

I recently stopped doing water changes. Let’s be honest, water changes are a big hassle, especially if you’re doing it weekly. As a reefer, I’m always looking for new, better, and more efficient ways to achieve my goals. I found that dosing is the best method for me to go about nutrient import...

www.reef2reef.com

I recently stopped doing water changes. Let’s be honest, water changes are a big hassle, especially if you’re doing it weekly. As a reefer, I’m always looking for new, better, and more efficient ways to achieve my goals. I found that dosing is the best method for me to go about nutrient import and export. In this video, I’ll cover what I use for nutrient import and export, how I test and dose, some new challenges I have to faced because of this switch, some shocking news for those that have been following my videos, and how I keep my tank stable.

Share which method you use through the poll and in the thread. There’s not one way to achieve nutrient import and export, and I want to hear what you do to import and export nutrients. There’s pros and cons to water changes and dosing, and love to hear what method you’re currently using.

A view on my video means a lot to me. One view shows me that one person gave me time to relax and enjoy my content and hard work. I would really appreciate if you simply viewed this video, but if you want to show your support even further, I’d appreciate if you liked, subscribed, and left a comment.

Check out the other videos on my channel:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEWCIj6yc7Goxg-ez80CbuA

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

wrong thread.

BUT I will be moving my tank to our new house to a dedicated fish room in a few weeks.... I will be posting my plan in here to see if you guys see any holes in it before the move!

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

wrong thread.

BUT I will be moving my tank to our new house to a dedicated fish room in a few weeks.... I will be posting my plan in here to see if you guys see any holes in it before the move!

Sounds great let us know for sure!

 

[Balthazar]

I’ve moved my 40B (drilled with a sump) around a few times,due to relocating for work. I just recently broke it down and went slightly smaller with a aio tank.