Relocating a Reef Aquarium

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Has anyone ever relocated a reef aquarium in excess of 100 gallons?

How far was the move? How did you do it? What were the lessons learned in the process?

I may need to relocate my aquarium in a year or two, and I wanted to get ahead of the planning curve. I'm a big proponent of learning from others' experiences, so please share yours!

 

[shollis2814]

I just started this thread this morning.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/m...n-vicksburg-to-nashville.549266/#post-5654862

Feel free to jump in and ask questions. I have not moved one that large yet, but I have moved smaller ones quite the distance.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I just started this thread this morning.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/m...n-vicksburg-to-nashville.549266/#post-5654862

Feel free to jump in and ask questions. I have not moved one that large yet, but I have moved smaller ones quite the distance.

I totally missed your thread! Very interesting!

 

[This guy is Extra Salty]

I had to move 120 display and 100 frag tank.
I was fortunate enough I had two tanks to move stuff into and broke one of the systems down. Make sure you have plenty of premixed salt water ready for anything and go slow

 

[sandswhitson]

Having plenty of premixed saltwater is a must. We have moved a few tanks and usually just use rubbermaid totes and fill them with the rock, fish, corals and throw a powerhead and heater in with them and they will be fine until you get the new tank ready.

 

[justmee]

I've relocated a 125 gallon mixed reef tank approx. 20-30mins away. It took me almost 1 month since I did it all by myself, and I definitely had to sit down and precisely plan each step. I decided to buy a new tank for the new place instead of keeping the old tank, and having a new tank makes it much easier.

Steps I took:
1. Setup new tank at the new place, have all equipment ready
2. A) Perform water change to old tank and transfer water to new tank:
New tank = 50% water from old tank and 50% new water. Also added new sand.
Old Tank = remove rocks and fill tank back up
B) Transfer rocks and re-aquascaping new tank
3. Transfer fish after aquascape is complete for the new tank
4. Dumped old sand, and cleaned old tank and sold it.

Might seem like simple steps, but it does take time.

Fortunately I didn't have much lessons learned since I took quite a bit of time planning and visualizing to move.

Hope this helps.

Goodluck!!

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I've relocated a 125 gallon mixed reef tank approx. 20-30mins away. It took me almost 1 month since I did it all by myself, and I definitely had to sit down and precisely plan each step. I decided to buy a new tank for the new place instead of keeping the old tank, and having a new tank makes it much easier.

Steps I took:
1. Setup new tank at the new place, have all equipment ready
2. A) Perform water change to old tank and transfer water to new tank:
New tank = 50% water from old tank and 50% new water. Also added new sand.
Old Tank = remove rocks and fill tank back up
B) Transfer rocks and re-aquascaping new tank
3. Transfer fish after aquascape is complete for the new tank
4. Dumped old sand, and cleaned old tank and sold it.

Might seem like simple steps, but it does take time.

Fortunately I didn't have much lessons learned since I took quite a bit of time planning and visualizing to move.

Hope this helps.

Goodluck!!

This is very similar to what I was thinking about doing. I probably won't have a month to make the transfer, but it seems like a person could do it fairly easily in a weekend. Cleaning the old tank comes later

 

[justmee]

This is very similar to what I was thinking about doing. I probably won't have a month to make the transfer, but it seems like a person could do it fairly easily in a weekend. Cleaning the old tank comes later

Transfer may take more than a weekend depending on how fast you can re-aquascape your new tank.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Transfer may take more than a weekend depending on how fast you can re-aquascape your new tank.

That's very true. My thought was to start with some dead rock in the new tank and add my live rock on top since I wanted to upgrade in size. This would allow for more area to grow corals while making use of my existing live rock.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes and I salvaged water in buckets and used 2” pvc under stand which become solud rollers and glides entire unit across floor and carpet without snagging. Super cheap yet effective