Moving across the country with my reef

[Cobrasvt1999]

Heya all, So im moving from Anchorage to Denver in a few months, and am trying to figure out a plan to move my 180 gallon reef tank and if its even reasonable to do. Can you guys sanity check it? let me know if this is ridiculous and I should just start over with livestock or not. Would be interested to know!

So the plan starts about 1-2 months before the display is to be shut down (so right about now actually)

1. I have folks living just a few miles from where we will be moving to. I plan on going down and setting up multiple 40 gallon breeders to hold the fish and corrals until the display can be set up in Denver
2. after those displays have had a fair bit of time to get settled in, I plan on buying a non-stop plane ticket from Anchorage to Denver and checking the fish. My hope is to use boxes provided by the local fish store that they receive their fish shipments in and topping the bags off with pure O2 rather than normal air. Total time the fish would have to spend in the box is maybe 12 hours.
3. Get the fish settled in their temporary tanks in Denver
4. Teardown my main display and move it with the rest of the house as a dry tank.

I figure they would probably all in all spend about 4-5 months in the 40 gallon tanks... its not ideal, but thats honestly probably the quickest I could ever hope to get the new tank set up and start cycling it. Am I overdoing this? Should I just start with new livestock? honestly there is a fair bit in the tank, but I feel like there are so many moving parts where something can go catastrophically wrong... what do you think?

 

[mehaffydr]

I moved my 250 about 420 miles so not quite as far but sounds like youv'e got a good plan. I actually bought a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for my temporary housing and that worked quite well.

 

[Cobrasvt1999]

I moved my 250 about 420 miles so not quite as far but sounds like youv'e got a good plan. I actually bought a 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for my temporary housing and that worked quite well.

completely forgot about Rubbermaid! Not a bad idea at all!

 

[mehaffydr]

I like it because then you only need to maintain 1 tank and use 1 skimmer. Heater etc.

 

[ZoWhat]

Sell the reef and buy Cannibus chocolates when you get to Denver

Also... leave the taxidermy Moosehead in Anchorage

 

[Cobrasvt1999]

I like it because then you only need to maintain 1 tank and use 1 skimmer. Heater etc.

That actually makes alot of sense... and bigger tends to be more stable....

Sell the reef and buy Cannibus chocolates when you get to Denver

Also... leave the taxidermy Moosehead in Anchorage

But I just cant stand to leave Bullwinkle behind!

 

[iReefer12]

I did this exact thing, kind of. Moved a 180 and the entire reef from Indy to Denver. I document it on my build thread. Used 29g totes battery air pumps and drove through the night to transport the fish. I like your idea better though.

I also set up a temporary holding stock tank, about 150 gallons, my fish lived in that for a year, until I got the reef all set up again. I put the live rock in 55g brute trash cans and ran the battery operated air pumps while I drove that + all my furniture etc out.

my biggest issue was making SW when I got here. Denver uses Chloramines, so my RODI had to get revamped, and also, water pressure sucks, so needed a booster pump too.

 

[Cobrasvt1999]

I did this exact thing, kind of. Moved a 180 and the entire reef from Indy to Denver. I document it on my build thread. Used 29g totes battery air pumps and drove through the night to transport the fish. I like your idea better though.

I also set up a temporary holding stock tank, about 150 gallons, my fish lived in that for a year, until I got the reef all set up again. I put the live rock in 55g brute trash cans and ran the battery operated air pumps while I drove that + all my furniture etc out.

my biggest issue was making SW when I got here. Denver uses Chloramines, so my RODI had to get revamped, and also, water pressure sucks, so needed a booster pump too.

interesting. Did you find that the 150 was easier to manage than multiple smaller tanks? I was kinda thinking it would help split up any possible failures...

Driving is simply not a option unfortunately. at a minimum, without stops of any kind, its about a 55-60 hour drive....

 

[iReefer12]

Yeah, I had some larger fish, so several small tanks was not an option for me. Your plan of flying them is really good btw, I would even reconsider my plan if I was doing it again and fly them.

 

[Cobrasvt1999]

Yeah, I had some larger fish, so several small tanks was not an option for me. Your plan of flying them is really good btw, I would even reconsider my plan if I was doing it again and fly them.

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That is quite the temporary setup! Unfortunately I won't have quite that much space it seems. Though if I can do a Rubbermaid I will. Seems like the easiest by far!

 

[Lavey29]

I told my wife my next move is going to be to Forest Lawn. I can't even fathom how much effort it will take you but I wish you the best of luck and hope all your live stock arrive healthy.

My thought though, reefers are a close community so I'm sure there is an LFS in Denver. Why not make arrangements and pay a border fee to the LFS to house your livestock until you get set up? My LFS does this here for customers and I'm sure they would own your subsequent business. You could overnight ship them or drive them straight through to.