What will happen to your reef tank?

[CindyKz]

My son can take over when they carry my dead carcass out of here... Hopefully not for another 30 yrs, lol. This beast (600 g) has been here for 12 yrs already. We were fish only but are converting to reef

That is super cool! What are the dimensions of the tank? Do you have another viewing area?

Also, my husband wants to know how you made the rock formations with the holes

 

[CindyKz]

We are in our "until we are dead" home , so no plans to break it down soon. Our plan is to snowbird in Florida when we retire, so we'll see if I can keep it going when we are gone for 3-4 months. If we can swing that, I will break it down when I can't care for it any more. Or my kids will end up breaking it down and selling it when I'm gone.

 

[dzfish17]

That is super cool! What are the dimensions of the tank? Do you have another viewing area?

Also, my husband wants to know how you made the rock formations with the holes

Thanks!! The tank is 96x36x46 tall... Here's a link to the build thread if your husband wants to check it out. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/600-gal-restart.736671/ he will need to click on the link in my first post.

 

[vetteguy53081]

In a little over a year, will be preparing the 660g for sale.
Many know when I arrive in Florida permanently, I will have a 1500 g system which is pre-arranged.

 

[RtomKinMad]

In March my tank will be running fifty years and that was always my goal, after that, I may give it away, probably to Humblefish if he wants to drive up from Florida.
But I may keep it a few more years.

That’s super cool! Most people can’t say they’ve done anything for 50yrs!! What’s your oldest fish?

 

[RtomKinMad]

In a little over a year, will be preparing the 660g for sale.
Many know when I arrive in Florida permanently, I will have a 1500 g system which is pre-arranged.

How can you possibly leave Wisconsin?! But 1500g will be amazing! Can’t wait to see it! Wish we had room for 660.. but our house will not support that size... but I do Lov your tanks!

 

[Paul B]

That’s super cool! Most people can’t say they’ve done anything for 50yrs!! What’s your oldest fish?

The Fireclowns are 29.

Wow! Do you mind posting a picture of it? Or send any links to any videos you’ve made on it?

There are videos and pictures of my tank allover this forum. I also have a 10 year old thread on here.

This was maybe 1 1/2 years ago after I moved here. This was it's third move as I didn't live in the same house for 50 years.

 

[RtomKinMad]

The Fireclowns are 29.


There are videos and pictures of my tank allover this forum. I also have a 10 year old thread on here.

This was maybe 1 1/2 years ago after I moved here. This was it's third move as I didn't live in the same house for 50 years.

Beautiful tank!! So cool you have had for so long!!! And I lov the fact you have the 29 yr old clown fish! Thanks for sharing it’s quite an accomplishment

 

[Paul B]

Thank you, I have two of those clowns and they still spawn constantly.

 

[andrewkw]

Anywhere I go, my reef comes too (except eventual death). I really thought when I moved 4 years ago this would be my forever house or at least forever area, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I will hopefully move again long distance next year and with what I learned from the last move I think I will mostly be okay. As long as whenever I end up there is either someone to help me with a large amount of water or I can get in a day before with a large amount of water. We get corals shipped from way further then any of us can legally move with corals.

I really want to upgrade and I have tons of corals overgrowing other corals but I'm about 2-2.5 steps away from the dream tank. If I can't afford a dream tank when I move which is likely the scenario because I dream big, I will keep everything in stock tanks or buy a transition tank until I'm ready for the forever tank. While my current 2006 miracles 112 gallon is still in moderately good shape I don't think I'd want to trust it after another long distance move, nor do I think I could get all the corals back in after taking them out.

I do worry about how much stuff I will have to move whenever that comes. In addition to the main display packed with corals, I have a secondary display with breeding clowns whom I'm just attempting to raise, a nano and an equally packed frag tank. However unless you are planning many moves in a short amount of time I think it's best to just enjoy your tanks and worry about moving when the time actually comes. There is no guarantee our plans for 5,10,20 years down the road will ever happen so might as well try and be happy now. So I'll keep adding what I can now and just expand the moving plan in the future.

 

[Seaspirit]

So when you take your reef with you, how do you do that? Drain down most of the water, put in an aerator of some kind and have movers carry the whole thing out...? Or take out all the corals and fish and put them in separate containers and drive like mad hoping they survive the trip (how long could they last)? And what do you mean by "legally move with corals?" Am a newbie here and just getting set up I'm already attached to my few corals and clowns, don't want to ever sell them unless I have to. Would be ok with me if we all got old together. We talk about moving out of Florida eventually because the hurricanes here are only going to get worse over time.

 

[andrewkw]

So when you take your reef with you, how do you do that? Drain down most of the water, put in an aerator of some kind and have movers carry the whole thing out...? Or take out all the corals and fish and put them in separate containers and drive like mad hoping they survive the trip (how long could they last)? And what do you mean by "legally move with corals?" Am a newbie here and just getting set up I'm already attached to my few corals and clowns, don't want to ever sell them unless I have to. Would be ok with me if we all got old together. We talk about moving out of Florida eventually because the hurricanes here are only going to get worse over time.

When I move next time this is how I currently plan on doing it. Things may change but I've already done the long distance move (700km) minimal initial losses, lots of medium term losses because I had to wait 6 weeks to re-setup and that was just too long.

This was at my parents house for 6 weeks

The half full 90g tank had an achilles tang who got meaner and meaner in the small space and killed a lot of fish, in the 55g tank I had all kinds of euphillias which melted which in turn took out sps and so forth. Still I had a LOT of corals and fish survive like this for 6 weeks. RO/DI outside. The rest of my live rock in their garage with a pump ect.

I would get stock tanks to break down my reef the day before moving. This is breaking stuff off the rocks, separating everything so all the zoas and palys are together, LPS that are stingy have space, sps aren't touching ect. Once I had everything spread out in the stock tanks I'd start bagging and putting into foam boxes. I'd just thread it as a big coral shipment. I'd bag everything 1x1 knowing that a 7hr drive can become a 24hr time or more in the bag when you factor moving all your other stuff, eating, driving, gas and actually getting the keys of new house ect. While I would put the same species together I would try and bag everything separate to increase water volume.

I have 2 55 gallon drums for all of my live rock. I would carefully pack it and then just barely submerge it. I would want to pack it in a way so that the rock is packed in and won't break with all the jostling. This water will for sure be dumped as all the detritus from the rocks, crabs that have somehow remained hidden since 2006 when I got my live rock (seriously I found a bunch of crabs moving in 2016) and other various creatures may pop up in this. I'll save the bristleworms and what I know but random weirdos I'll say goodbye to.

IF there is room in the moving truck I would pack all of my fish in either 5 gallon buckets or 5 gallon water jugs for small fish. Again this is to have more clean water when I get to new house. The water will move enough in the truck to keep the water oxygenated and a fish in 3-4 gallons of water is a big difference then a smaller bag. If there is not room for everyone to go in 5 gallon buckets they will go in bags in boxes like the corals.

This move was hell and a half for a number of reasons, but this is still less transit time then an Indo or Australian shipment. Basically anywhere you move in your own country be it Canada, America, whatever it's going to be less distance / transit time. Now if I were moving to the west coast from the east coast I'd probably consider having everything shipped air cargo. Once you leave your country you can almost certainly forget about taking it with you not just because of cost but cites permits ect.

Finally the one big thing I did not touch on this above is I would go to new site or hire someone who is confident to prepare me at least 100 gallons of water probably red sea blue bucket because it's the closest alkalinity to my systems. I use instant ocean for my regular weekly water changes but if I was doing 100% water changes I would make sure the new salt has similar parameters to my tank. 10% water changes are not an issue with any old salt.

 

[Seaspirit]

WOW, that’s amazing. Thanks for all those details! You did one heck of a job and I’m glad that much survived.

 

[NinnJinn]

I am not really sure if I will continue with this hobby long-term or not...

3 years ago when I started this hobby for a second time I never dreamt that I would spend over $1,000 replacing fish and last 6 months only have a orange spotted goby and 2 nassaurus snails to survive from day one.

Except for 4 fish in the last three years none of the others have made it out of quarantine..

I have thought about contacting humble fish or one of the people that he recommends for quarantine fish, but With SW fish prices rising through the roof IMO, once the orange spotted goby passes on I will probably tear the 125gal tank down and never look back.