Moving my 120 gallon

[rush]

So this is not the first time I move a tank but it is the first time I move a 120 gallon full of fish, corals, inverts, CUC and LR. I am moving April 1st and I am starting to plan my tank take down process and set up. I am moving a 15 minute drive from where I currently live. I want to make sure I am covering all angles to the best of my ability and with the least amount of stress for the fish and other inhabitants.

So I normally tell people to only keep 75% of the water when doing a tank transfer or buying someone else tank but since I know my water is fine I am hoping to keep most of it (90%). This is my plan so far:

Go to Wal-Mart and buy about 15 rubber mead containers (the ones used for storage). I plan on using my mag 3 to pump the water from my tank into the containers. I was going to divide my live rock equally into 5 of the containers so it would not be too heavy (I have roughly 160 lbs of LR). So with water and LR in each container should weight no more then 70-80lbs. That takes care of the live rock.

Next; for the fish I was actually going to separate them by specie per container. I should have about 10 left after the LR. 5 of them going to be used for fish and the other 5 for corals and inverts. 4 clowns in one, 4 cardinals in another, the tangs in another, gramma and anthia in the 4th and the wrasses in the last one. I have enough maxi jets and PH for all the containers with fish and corals.

Next; for the corals. This is the tricky part as some are reef glued or attached to some of the LR. So I have to place them to they don't tumble or roll in the containers. I have not figured out how yet.

Once I have all the LR, fish and corals and inverts out. I will separate the remaining water in all 15 containers until the tank is almost empty, leaving 1 inch of water for the sand bed and anything still remaining in the bed such as nassarius snails and sand sifters.
This will also allow us to move the tank without disturbing the sand bed.

Once we get to the new place I will remove the one inch of water since it will be pretty gross and full of contaminants from the sand. I will then add some water to about the 25% mark of the tank and start setting up my LR.

Now I need some cool suggestions for a LR wall. Not sure what I want to do with it yet. The tank is 60 x 24 x 18. Once the LR is in place I will fill the tank up to about 60%. Start adding my corals that are on LR and then the rest. Once all corals are in place with proper set up of the power heads I will start adding the fish. Hopefully this will all go smooth with no losses.

Since I am keeping the same water, I do not believe I will have to cycle anything again. Is there anything I a missing?

Should I be dosing the water with fish only with some sort of ammonia remover for such a short move?

Please chime in guys, thanks.

[laffy]

the only thing i'd be a little concerned about would be the sand in your tank. what are you planning on doing with it? if you take it out and put it back in your risking having some spikes. as for your fish in the containers, look into getting an air pump and manifold. this will get some oxygen back into the water while you setup the tank.

[rush]

Like I said the sand is staying in the tank with one inch of water so it doesn't get disturbed during the move. And once I get to my new place I will get rid of the one inch of water.

And for the fish I have a maxi jet or power head available for all the containers (source of oxygen).

[JetJumper]

Whats the time frame you are going to have the tank down for?  That would be my determining factor on what to do with the sand. 

When I moved my tank from one end of the room to the other I had the Sand bed in the same situation as you.  It was drained for a total of 8-9 hours and I had no extreme results.  I did loose a yellow tang a few days later but all other fish were still fine so I don't have a direct answer as to how he died

[rush]

Well this sand actually came with the tank when I bought it. I moved it to my place the first time the same way I am about to do it this time and I had no problems. I hope to do the same this time.

I have no time frame, I will take a full day for this.

[RossW]

A 120g tank plus sand and some water sounds like a physical moving nightmare and accident waiting to happen.  I would def take the sand and all water out!

[NanoSF]

The only things I can think of is temperature and maxijets blowing away certain corals. If you have diffusers to spread out the flow of the maxijet that would help. If not just take into account placement of corals away from the direct flow of the maxijets. Koralias would be better, but you use what you have. My only loss of coral was due to temperature drops. The powerheads don't produce enough temperature to keep the water warm enough. I had a much smaller tank and it took a long time to load the truck, unload the truck, set up the aquarium, remove some water, add some water back, then set up the rock. I mean this is the chance to get the rock into a new more desirable structure. It is going to take a long time to get this done in a tank this large. If you can place the corals in a room that has been preheated with a space heater to a higher than room temperature, that might help.

That tank is going to weigh a ton with sand and an inch of water. I hope you have a lot of help with this load. My experience was that during transport the water really gets moving in the buckets which can throw your corals around quite a bit. Even carrying the tank was crazy, with all the water splashing end to end. It stirred up my sand more than I wanted, but it was impossible to keep it still.

I think you would benefit from placing something in the buckets that gave texture to the bottom. Very large texture would be good to jam corals and rocks between, but even something with a bit of texture to stop the sliding back and forth. The brittle corals can easily break from the corals crashing together when going around corners in the vehicle.

Good luck with it. On one hand it is the biggest pain in the butt, however it is also a great opportunity to do some new things to the setup. I am much happier with my tank after this last move although I did lose a few things, and a few things are still not fully recovered.  

[rush]

The only things I can think of is temperature and maxijets blowing away certain corals. If you have diffusers to spread out the flow of the maxijet that would help. If not just take into account placement of corals away from the direct flow of the maxijets. Koralias would be better, but you use what you have. My only loss of coral was due to temperature drops. The powerheads don't produce enough temperature to keep the water warm enough. I had a much smaller tank and it took a long time to load the truck, unload the truck, set up the aquarium, remove some water, add some water back, then set up the rock. I mean this is the chance to get the rock into a new more desirable structure. It is going to take a long time to get this done in a tank this large. If you can place the corals in a room that has been preheated with a space heater to a higher than room temperature, that might help.

That tank is going to weigh a ton with sand and an inch of water. I hope you have a lot of help with this load. My experience was that during transport the water really gets moving in the buckets which can throw your corals around quite a bit. Even carrying the tank was crazy, with all the water splashing end to end. It stirred up my sand more than I wanted, but it was impossible to keep it still.

I think you would benefit from placing something in the buckets that gave texture to the bottom. Very large texture would be good to jam corals and rocks between, but even something with a bit of texture to stop the sliding back and forth. The brittle corals can easily break from the corals crashing together when going around corners in the vehicle.

Good luck with it. On one hand it is the biggest pain in the butt, however it is also a great opportunity to do some new things to the setup. I am much happier with my tank after this last move although I did lose a few things, and a few things are still not fully recovered.  

I moved the tank into my condo where I am now just me and my friend with the sand in there and had no problem. Was a bit heavy but not too bad. I am actually going to take all the water out, not even the 1 inch I was originally thinking. I will just make sure to get all the inverts out of the sand bed and my snails. the longest part is going to be undoing the tank, I have 3 heaters i can rotate through the containers to keep them warm. I agree with something texture for the corals, but what I may do is for the actual move is to put them in bags, and once the containers are at the new place is to take them out of the bags and put them in containers with flow until the tank is ready to go.

[sas]

That's a lot of water to deal with if you really want to save most of it.
Make sure you invest in heavy duty containers because they will start to buckle on you if they are
at all flimsy.
I used a Rubbermade tote to hold water, plants and fishes when I redid a 75G, it was one of the long deep ones.
I had to get hubby to use some of his woodworking clamps and wood to reinforce the sides
or we would have had a disaster.

Just lately I used a plastic 50g rain barrel when I redid a 130g tank, worked great, but
I didn't have to move it.

[rush]

I used a Rubbermaid container when I moved my last aquarium and it worked great, did not buckle. There is not an abundance of weight, we are only talking about 70-80lbs max per container. This is what I will be using, 15 of these.

[rush]

50 gallon rain bucket we will never be able to move

[NanoSF]

I agree with something texture for the corals, but what I may do is for the actual move is to put them in bags, and once the containers are at the new place is to take them out of the bags and put them in containers with flow until the tank is ready to go.

Ya I was thinking that too. I hope the bags provide the protection. I think it might very well work. Nobody has a flawless move, all you can do is minimize the stress on everything. I still think a warm room would work better. Fluctuating temperatures would almost be worse I think. Plus then you have to keep going back and changing it while you are trying to do something else. Your call though. I think you got it all covered.

[vic622]

... I agree with something texture for the corals ...

What you might consider is the perforated mat / underlay for under area carpets. I think it'd probably work well under the rock to keep it from moving.

... but what I may do is for the actual move is to put them in bags, and once the containers are at the new place is to take them out of the bags and put them in containers with flow until the tank is ready to go.

I moved a bunch of rock in Rubbermaids with very little water. What I did was put a couple of heavy duty green garbage bags in the Rubbermaid before the rock, then added the rock & only an inch or so of water. Then I squeezed out as much air as I could & tied off the bags. This seemed to hold the moisture really well.
This did a couple of things:
Less sloshing = less tendency for the rock to move.
Less water = less weight.
I was surprised how heavy a Rubbermaid full of rock was; add water and it'll quickly get to the point where you can't move it. Once you get to the other end, you can add more water, especially if you are delayed in putting them into the tank.
Another suggestion: For the rock, get the Rubbermaid's that have the low sides. This way they take up less space & you're not tempted to add too much rock!
Just some ideas ... Good luck with the move!

[rush]

Thank you. I hope it all goes well.

[Bob P]

If you bag your corals and put in a rubbermaid with no waterin it
Crumple up some newspaper between the bags and bury one of those
hand warmers you shake to activate. Works good

[rush]

If you bag your corals and put in a rubbermaid with no waterin it
Crumple up some newspaper between the bags and bury one of those
hand warmers you shake to activate. Works good

Great idea! It wont be a far move, so once get them to the new place I can put them into rubbermade that has water.

[Roland]

I moved a 65 gallon tall last summer from rural Kemptville to Ottawa. This was a full household move as well. It was hell. Do it hard and fast.

Your plan looks good. It is important that have put pen to paper and have a plan of attack because once the ball starts rolling you will only be able to stop working at certain points. Always wise to have contingency plans in place. A check list of essential items. I forgot the hygrometer on the kitchen table. 

We used zip lock bags, buckets and rubber maids. Everything was moved into a spare 70 gallon tank and sat there as I needed to construct a proper wall to hold the new 70 gallon tank. The sand has always been nicely churned so it wasn't an issue. The old sump hydrogen sulfide sand went into a rubber maid along with left over cheato, a power head and some fluorescent lighting to clean it up. The fish perculas and a small goby, LR and  corals went into the 70 gallon holding tank along with 4 maxijet 1200s, a magnum canister filter, heater and lit by my crappy CF lights. I managed to bring about half the old water. Everything sat in the holding tank for 3 weeks which is the amount of time it took construct the new set up.

Despite shear physical effort the worst thing that happened was forgetting the hydrometer at the old place on the kitchen table. Everything sat in buckets and bags for another four hours at the new place.

The tank is mostly live rock, softies and some LPS corals. Pretty much everything survived the abuse. Lost a percula to a filter with no screen. In fact the Ottawa city tap water was an improvement over my RO filtered well water and yes the move was a golden opportunity to improve and upgrade. Having gained experience in keeping a modest reef tank.

I'm no expert that's why I keep softies and use T5's. I'd say your move will be unique up to a point, depending on what you keep. When the action begins events may not go according to plan. Road blocks and some simple over sights will occur. The devil is in the details.

[White Lightning]

I think I agree with Ross. I can't imagine trying to move a 120 gallon tank filled with sand and water. Keeping the water out of that equation would be your best bet.

As for transporting the rock fish and corals.... You'll be fine with your plan. I have moved tanks so many times and suffered very minimal losses. Be that at it may, all of my corals and fish were primarily hardy species. ie clowns, softies LPS. Some of the more delicate SPS might suffer under the stress of a move.

Good luck!

[rush]

I do not think you are reading the thread properly. The water is not staying in the tank, just the sand.

[White Lightning]

In your initial post you stated that you were going to leave one inch of water.... Even with one inch of water, it could be pretty tricky.

I was not trying to imply that you were leaving the tank full of water. That would be impossible to move.