Tips on moving house...and tank!

[gemmabarber5]

hi, wondered if anyone might be able to offer any advice or tips. We are due to move house in 4-6 weeks time. of course we are taking our tank with us. we have a 260litre tank with lots of live rock, corals and of course fish!! :roll:

the thought of safely emptying the tank and then setting it all up again is so daunting! any advice would be wonderful!! our new house is only 15 minute drive and we will have plenty of help moving the equipment.

Thanks

 

[northernmonkey]

Where abouts are you ? There is usually no shortage of Reefers ready to help with a tank move

 

[lucycat]

I would get plenty of plastic bags and poly boxes.when i moved house the tanks were the last things to be dismantled and first to be set up.
first keep as much water as poss use 5 gall containers and salt buckets
then catch fish bag them up and put in poly boxes they will last quite a while in there.next bag up corals or put them in water in salt buckets the same with any live rock,
try not to disturb the sand bed,but if you have to it will need to be washed as you could release ammonia into the tank.
most fish shops will give you bags and lend you a poly box or two if your a regular.they will also lease you the use of 5 gall jerry cans.i dont think you will need heat pads in this weather.
when you arrive you need to get the tank set up asap but if you are moving yourself it is very difficult.
when we moved we had removers which was easier but i had two tanks to dismantle and setup we also moved 2 hrs away from where we lived so the total time the fish were tankless was 7hrs,but they all survived,just dont panic and take one step at a time.
the other thing which is a godsend is bubble wrap and some plastic bags to wrap around plugs.if you can find some one to help and just set up the tank it would help so you can concentrate on the move.good luck with the move and i hope everything goes well...lucy

 

[cleverdave2k]

If you can i would ask a lfs save your stuff for you or set up a holding tank for a few days as i moved house last month and lost everything and i only moved across the road

 

[Realist]

Some great advice there. All I can say is borrow as many heaters, buckets and strong people as possible. Also make sure you have salted RO at the ready as you will loose some on the way.

Hope all goes well for you

 

[gemmabarber5]

Thankyou all for your advice! yeh we plan to buy lots of buckets for the water it is quite a tall tank so it wouldnt matter too much if we lost water as the fish will still have plenty of depth, but we will be sure to make sure we have lots of supplies. we did contemplate buying a holding tank or asking our LFS to hold them but then it would mean 2 moves for the fish, we are only moving 10-20mins away so im sure we will have plenty of time.

How long can the fish safely stay in the poly bags for? (the ones u get them in when u buy them!)

we also have seen a bag u can get to keep heat contained which we may also consider.

Thankyou again, we will be sure to let you know how it goes...i have lots of bubble wrap for my butter fingers!!

 

[Guest]

as long as there is plenty of air in the bag the fish will survive several hours I moved on the 13th july just gone and had a 4 foot and a 5 foot to move and setup lol and i did the same thing as lucycat and all is well.
Where to are you located maybe there are fellow reefers on the forum that are close by and wouldnt mind helping you with the tank.