The Ups and Downs of Moving an Aquarium.

[Ty Hamatake]

It's been a while since I've posted here, mainly due to life getting busy. One of the things that's been keeping me preoccupied was finding out that I'll be moving! I've only moved a tank once before and luckily enough for me it was only about a five mile move to a house with a new tank to set everything up in. Well... this move is going to be about 2,000 miles more than the last one. I've decided to re-home the fish, but I'm actually going to try to keep the coral. I have a friend in Florida who will hopefully have his tank set up in time (move date is less than a month away and his tank isn't wet yet ) for me to ship my coral to him, then he'll ship it back once I get mine set up in Illinois. Definitely looking forward to it, but I know there are a lot of lessons I'm going to learn. Hopefully they aren't at the expense of my coral!

What have your experiences with moving been? What are some things you wish you would've done differently?

Beginning of the last move.

Final product.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Congrats on your move that’s sooo exciting yay. Honestly moves are not a fun thing to do. I bought a new home 25 min from where I use to live. I had my lfs with established tanks care for my coral and fish. It was the worst and dumbest mistake I have ever made. It’s down as Sarah’s dumbest mmments in life. I lost all my fish but one, and I lost 80% of my coral. My corals hated the move and most died in the care of experts.

In regards to your plan, it’s aweome and sad you found new homes for the fishies. I’m concerned for the corals, the tank won’t be mature and won’t be cycled. I think it’s a bad bad idea at this point being so close. If it had already cycled hmmmmmm I’d be super cautious. He probably isn’t running the same setup that your corals are use to. My corals went from leds to mh in the lfs. They didn’t respond well to them. The biggest concern is especially with sps the tank is not mature enough. Is there away to (as I bang my head on the table on this one) have a lfs help you with this? I had a horrible experience with this but they have mature tanks at least. One thing to keep in mind is take pics of all your coral. For safety reasons, in my shoes the lfs I choose which I don’t go to anymore actually said some of my coral was theirs. Do to the fact I had a pic of it in my tank and theirs proved it was mine. It saved me a lot of problems in reclaiming my little critters. I could also suggest the local aquarium as well. I’m sure they would not mind helping you out. I wish you good luck and that everything makes it okay.

Sincerely
Sarah

 

[dutch27]

I'll echo the above in concern for the friend's tank not being wet yet, and your move being a month away. I'd look for a local hobbyist or LFS to ship them to you later, or, look for a LFS/local club at the new location that you can ship them to and get them from later on.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I am also worried for my coral. I hadn't thought about reaching out to a club of sorts, I'll have to check to see if there is one local to where I'm headed. I was fully expecting to lose most of not all, but I was having trouble coming up with a better alternative. The biggest concern was how long whoever ends up with the frags will have to hold them. We don't have a house yet, so it could months before I'm ready to take them back. I don't know what to do! Lol as if moving wasn't stressful enough!

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

This is something I will face in four or five years as well when I move back to Florida from Texas. Because it's still down the road I haven't put a tremendous amount of thought into it yet. Following along to see the responses.

 

[ihavecrabs]

We have a great local community here in the Chicagoland area.

Might I suggest fragging all keeping backups at a secondary location to where you send your primaries? That's what I would do.

Where abouts are you moving? I might be able to provide some suggestions on LFS that might help hold corals too.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

I know you may not have much options in this, but I don’t suggest that it is months. If so you would be better off selling your corals and saving the money for new ones. Mine were there for almost 6 months, while my home was being built. They all went in extremely healthy and most died within 60 days. The only way they may last longer is if a lfs or aquarium is running a similar system. They may have a chance to survive. I mean I had a huge huge blue green carpet anemone, and it just went missing somehow. He was a good 10 inches around just gone. I lost bubble tips, and I lost a massive massive Hollywood stunner. It was close to 12 inches wide by 9, just died. So you may consider selling them, at least you won’t lose the entire investment. Yet, if you can have them moved and set up in your new home within 30 days definitely keep them.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

We have a great local community here in the Chicagoland area.

Might I suggest fragging all keeping backups at a secondary location to where you send your primaries? That's what I would do.

Where abouts are you moving? I might be able to provide some suggestions on LFS that might help hold corals too.

I'm headed to Scott AFB in Illinois! Turns out the LFS to that area is currently moving too, so they won't be able to help

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Hello,

I know you may not have much options in this, but I don’t suggest that it is months. If so you would be better off selling your corals and saving the money for new ones. Mine were there for almost 6 months, while my home was being built. They all went in extremely healthy and most died within 60 days. The only way they may last longer is if a lfs or aquarium is running a similar system. They may have a chance to survive. I mean I had a huge huge blue green carpet anemone, and it just went missing somehow. He was a good 10 inches around just gone. I lost bubble tips, and I lost a massive massive Hollywood stunner. It was close to 12 inches wide by 9, just died. So you may consider selling them, at least you won’t lose the entire investment. Yet, if you can have them moved and set up in your new home within 30 days definitely keep them.

This is an option I have been considering!

 

[cancun]

I'm headed to Scott AFB in Illinois! Turns out the LFS to that area is currently moving too, so they won't be able to help

Hi! I live in that area...I don't have room in my tank...but my LFS I use is very good and about 15 min from Scott AFB...PM me if you want and I will give you their info. [emoji16]

 

[ihavecrabs]

Thats down by St Louis I think. Bit of a hike from where I am at (5 hrs), but I'd be happy to watch back ups for you.

Id have to QT them for 30 days and Bayer dip twice. Would provide apex read-only access to monitor conditions.

Id only do it if our parameters were aligned though. Protecting your investment and me from guilt lol.

Pm me if you interested.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Thats down by St Louis I think. Bit of a hike from where I am at (5 hrs), but I'd be happy to watch back ups for you.

Id have to QT them for 30 days and Bayer dip twice. Would provide apex read-only access to monitor conditions.

Id only do it if our parameters were aligned though. Protecting your investment and me from guilt lol.

Pm me if you interested.

;Jawdrop I don't know why, but I am just about floored by your generosity. Thank you!

 

[Z3speed4me]

I just moved a 75 a month ago, moving it AGAIN next month.
Thankfully only 10 miles away but it was definitely a stressful 8 hours.

Never thought that bulkheads would be my biggest enemy; with the pvc glued they were kinda stuck underneath and I had to make a small platform in the back of the van we rented so we didn't put pressure on the 3-4" of pipe hanging underneath.

BIGGEST mistake was not thinking about that ahead of time so the tank could be totally flat. Rather buy new bulkheads and unions to re-run those sections of pipe since you can't pull piece through and am stuck with it just poking out underneath the overflow

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I just moved a 75 a month ago, moving it AGAIN next month.
Thankfully only 10 miles away but it was definitely a stressful 8 hours.

Never thought that bulkheads would be my biggest enemy; with the pvc glued they were kinda stuck underneath and I had to make a small platform in the back of the van we rented so we didn't put pressure on the 3-4" of pipe hanging underneath.

BIGGEST mistake was not thinking about that ahead of time so the tank could be totally flat. Rather buy new bulkheads and unions to re-run those sections of pipe since you can't pull piece through and am stuck with it just poking out underneath the overflow

I think I might run into the same problem... I'll have to look to make sure so I can have that stuff on hand for later!