The Aftermath of Moving my Reef

Have you ever moved your tank before?


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Ocean’s Piece

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Have you ever had to move your reef tank? Well, I have TWICE in the past 6 months. This should be the last time I have to move my tank, thankfully. If anyone has gone through the experience, they know it can be very stressing at times, and there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. But fortunately, both times, I had this operation planned out well and both moves were successful!

If you have moved your tank before, please share the experience. I’ll be sharing my method below and maybe we can clear somethings up for some people that are considering moving their tanks.

Also, it would make my Christmas and New Year if you could simply just watch my video at minimum. I spend around 6 hours filming and editing each of these videos and I am trying to gain more traffic. A like and Subscribe means a lot and shows me you are enjoying my content. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year.

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reeftwincities

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Nice video--I will be moving about 8 hours away from my current location the end of August. Not looking forward to the tank move. What was your process and is there anything you would have done differently?
 

Utubereefer

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O man I moved my 65 gallon tank downstairs and it was an all day affair! Prepared new stand and saltwater. Put everything in buckets. Pretty sure I carried it down by myself. Ugh what a headache. Then I moved it again when I set up my 120 gallon tank. Crazy!
B5EADCF8-393A-435A-BEB0-EE967F04A16D.jpeg
 

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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.
 

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Ocean’s Piece

Ocean’s Piece

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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
Nice video--I will be moving about 8 hours away from my current location the end of August. Not looking forward to the tank move. What was your process and is there anything you would have done differently?
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.
O man I moved my 65 gallon tank downstairs and it was an all day affair! Prepared new stand and saltwater. Put everything in buckets. Pretty sure I carried it down by myself. Ugh what a headache. Then I moved it again when I set up my 120 gallon tank. Crazy!
B5EADCF8-393A-435A-BEB0-EE967F04A16D.jpeg
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.
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.
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.
 

A Young Reefer

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Have you ever had to move your reef tank? Well, I have TWICE in the past 6 months. This should be the last time I have to move my tank, thankfully. If anyone has gone through the experience, they know it can be very stressing at times, and there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. But fortunately, both times, I had this operation planned out well and both moves were successful!

If you have moved your tank before, please share the experience. I’ll be sharing my method below and maybe we can clear somethings up for some people that are considering moving their tanks.

Also, it would make my Christmas and New Year if you could simply just watch my video at minimum. I spend around 6 hours filming and editing each of these videos and I am trying to gain more traffic. A like and Subscribe means a lot and shows me you are enjoying my content. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year.

Channel:

nice video hopefully the channel will grow. I have not yet moved my aquarium but I think that I will definitely will in the near future once we move out. oh and also yes get more zoas!
 

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Many, many times. Most with total success. One time was the biggest nightmare of my reefing journey and eventually pushed me out of the hobby for a little bit. I think I went over the experience in my current build thread but can't remember
 
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nice video hopefully the channel will grow. I have not yet moved my aquarium but I think that I will definitely will in the near future once we move out. oh and also yes get more zoas!
Thanks for watching! Hopefully this thread and some other resources can provide you with some tips on moving it. I watched many hours of YouTube and digging on this forum. A lot more people have moved their tanks than I would have ever imagined. And I will be looking at some more zoas! Planning to get some fire and ice, rastas, maybe some white zombies, so keep an eye out for that!
 

A Young Reefer

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Thanks for watching! Hopefully this thread and some other resources can provide you with some tips on moving it. I watched many hours of YouTube and digging on this forum. A lot more people have moved their tanks than I would have ever imagined. And I will be looking at some more zoas! Planning to get some fire and ice, rastas, maybe some white zombies, so keep an eye out for that!
sounds promising!!
 
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Many, many times. Most with total success. One time was the biggest nightmare of my reefing journey and eventually pushed me out of the hobby for a little bit. I think I went over the experience in my current build thread but can't remember
I’ll make sure to check it out. Good you’re back though! This hobby seems to be an itch that can never be scratched. I honestly think I will probably always have a reef tank now. I have had aquariums all my life and Reefing has been the best experience.
also we both live on earth so hypothetically speaking I can hoke you up with some frags we should be close!
I would be interested. Send me a DM if you have some things you’re interested in selling. I’m probably gonna let things grow a little while because I did get a lot of corals a few months back but it’s probably about time.
 

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I’ve moved my tank a couple times in the last year. I had a 45g AIO that I moved across the room so I could put a bigger tank in its spot. That was a relatively painless move, it just took a few hours. I first set up a 16g that I use as a QT for all the coral. I put the fish in a Rubbermaid container with all the rock. I drained most of the water from the tank but left it on the stand and used furniture sliders to move it across the room. It still took way longer than I thought but there was a heater in the fish container so it didn’t matter.

fast forward a few months and I moved all inhabitants into the larger tank. As soon as everything was nice and stable I found out I had to move. I ended up moving the tank across town to the conference room in my office.

this move was a nightmare. It took from early evening until the next morning. I had a pump fail that I was using to drain the tank. You know all that stuff at the bottom that you can’t just siphon out? The guy I had helping me was literally zero help and he wasn’t very strong. This isn’t a big tank only a reefer 350. It took so long all the buckets that the fish and coral were in got cold. I didn’t have enough heated premade salt water. It took a long time for the water to heat up. By the time I added the fish they were almost dead. By the time I got done it was about 5:00am so I went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up and went to check the tank everything was alive except for a flame hawk fish that jumped out of the tank.

I should add that I bought the 45g as a complete system, so 6-9 months before moving it across the room I moved that tank across town. too much moving. I will start another tank eventually at my house. But for right now I have a reefer 350 in my conference room and a 170 in my office.
 
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Many, many times. Most with total success. One time was the biggest nightmare of my reefing journey and eventually pushed me out of the hobby for a little bit. I think I went over the experience in my current build thread but can't remember
You have an amazing build thread my friend. Loved the stories, and definitely share more about your experiences, I find it fascinating. I’ll be following along.
I’ve moved my tank a couple times in the last year. I had a 45g AIO that I moved across the room so I could put a bigger tank in its spot. That was a relatively painless move, it just took a few hours. I first set up a 16g that I use as a QT for all the coral. I put the fish in a Rubbermaid container with all the rock. I drained most of the water from the tank but left it on the stand and used furniture sliders to move it across the room. It still took way longer than I thought but there was a heater in the fish container so it didn’t matter.

fast forward a few months and I moved all inhabitants into the larger tank. As soon as everything was nice and stable I found out I had to move. I ended up moving the tank across town to the conference room in my office.

this move was a nightmare. It took from early evening until the next morning. I had a pump fail that I was using to drain the tank. You know all that stuff at the bottom that you can’t just siphon out? The guy I had helping me was literally zero help and he wasn’t very strong. This isn’t a big tank only a reefer 350. It took so long all the buckets that the fish and coral were in got cold. I didn’t have enough heated premade salt water. It took a long time for the water to heat up. By the time I added the fish they were almost dead. By the time I got done it was about 5:00am so I went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up and went to check the tank everything was alive except for a flame hawk fish that jumped out of the tank.

I should add that I bought the 45g as a complete system, so 6-9 months before moving it across the room I moved that tank across town. too much moving. I will start another tank eventually at my house. But for right now I have a reefer 350 in my conference room and a 170 in my office.
Wow. Very interesting. Glad most everything went ok in the end for moving your tank across town.
 

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I’ll make sure to check it out. Good you’re back though! This hobby seems to be an itch that can never be scratched. I honestly think I will probably always have a reef tank now. I have had aquariums all my life and Reefing has been the best experience.

I would be interested. Send me a DM if you have some things you’re interested in selling. I’m probably gonna let things grow a little while because I did get a lot of corals a few months back but it’s probably about time.
DM sent!
 

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have not moved any tanks before, but will most likely have to do it later in the future. the task is daunting and makes me not want to move or upgrade tanks..
 
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have not moved any tanks before, but will most likely have to do it later in the future. the task is daunting and makes me not want to move or upgrade tanks..
It’s daunting at first but trust me, and the people that have shared their experiences, in the end, 95% of things went fine. This forum is also a haven of information of experiences about moving tanks.
 

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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.
 

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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.
 

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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.
 
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