How to transport an existing aquarium?

[mattleycrue76]

ok this seems like it might be a stupid question but if i don't ask i'll never know. i see a lot of complete aquarium systems for sale on craigslist i. e tank, live rock, fish, and sometimes even corals. My question is if i felt inclined to purchase an established tank how the hell do i transport it back to my house? alot of the larger systems seem like they would be much to large to pick up so there must be some seperation involved. how does one move a 75-whatever gal tank + contents properly? I am in the process of deciding whether to buy new or used so this is a very interesting qustion to me.

 

[joshinjosh]

drain and store the water in buckets/containers, transport livestocks in buckets, take down equipment, transport everything else, setup at new location, refill tank with water and livestock

 

[Seeweed]

I do it all the time... If you're serious then make sure you have extra jugs of (RODI) or water from the Grocery Market the Machine ones. If it's a 75 gallon tank, then get about 25 gallons of extra clean water or if you want to change out most of old the water then get about 50 gallons. Make sure you have salt mix too, to mix the RODI water to make your saltwater. Have a salinity tester to make sure the salt content is good. Have extra buckets to carry the existing water and containers to carry the live stock. Load everything as fast as possible. Unload everything and if you can put all the live stock in one big container with a heater while you clean out the tank. Set the tank back up and make you new mix of water. Add the rest of the old water and test out the water. Check for you PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Amonia, etc... if everything is good then you can start acclimating all the live stock back into the tank.

Another way you can go about it is, set up a smaller tank and have it running for about two weeks. Get the tank, live stock, and all the equipment. Once you get home acclimate the live stock into your small tank. Once you clean out your bigger tank and have it set up. Wait couple of weeks and if it's good to go then you can transfer everything over. Now you will have a quarantine tank just in case any of your fish get sick. That's the way I would go.


Hope that helps..... GOOD LUCK CHUCK!

 

[Allenfamily]

We just moved a fifty gallon with livestock and did exactly what's said above. Remove live stock, we bagged the fish, put the corals in buckets with water taken out of the tank, and put the rock in buckets. We didn't save much of the water from the existing set up so we had about sixty gallons of new water mixed and heated. Set up the tank and plumb it and then we added water, rock and sand and let it run for a few hours to clear the water a little bit. then reacclimate the livestock and place in the tank. Just be sure you start early in the day rpobably on a Saturday as this will take quite a long time.

 

[jeffnewt]

Thats basically what I have done,

 

[jeffnewt]

I use a 55 gallon (trash bin from home depot) that I fill up with r/o water a day or 2 before hand, and heat it up so I can just pump that water right in after its reached the proper salinity. I only use about 15 gallons of the old water. I use coolers to transport the liverock and whatever can't be bagged up. I take extra heaters and air pumps so I can keep everything up to temp in case I run into problems with plumping/electrical stuff.

setting up the smaller tank for the most sensitive things is a great idea, and you have a failsafe backup plan if something comes up. I did that the time before last and I was able to split the move up over 3 days. Much less stressful.

 

[burning2nd]

i would start new... u dont want someone else's problems

 

[james734]

Sorry, I have to do it.... My answer is Empty. All joking aside it looks like you've gotten some good answer above.

 

[Allenfamily]

Starting new is always a nice option although it's crazy money. If you are going to buy a system that is up and going you will be able to see if there are major problems. The used system we bought was not perfect, it had been gettig tap water water changes and had some red slime in it but the livestock was pretty healthy and with a couple of months of heavy water changes we have the whole system with halides & PCs, Big skimmer, huge sump, extra power heads, CA reactor, and great livestock for about the price of a new CA reactor. So I don't think you need to be scared of a used system just ready to do a little extra work in the beginning.

 

[BUlicny]

We moved a 55G to a 95G with rubbermaid storage bins and a heater installed in them. Although the move was in the same house and about 5 feet apart from each other. We experienced no die off of live rock/fish/coral. Like mentioned above, make sure you use RODI water, and mix your salt at least a couple of hours before moving everything.

 

[morgan]

depending on corals leaving them in buckets might not be as good having the on wet paper it works well for mosting things u just have to get ur lps to close all the way down other wise u could tear the flesh if u take it out of the water half inflated

 

[surf_buddy]

Everything has already pretty much been said... I'll add, make sure you have a full day. You never know what issue/s might arise.

 

[dlove18]

the one thing I would add is:

be ready to shim your stand to make it level. have materials and tools ready to go.

when I moved my 55, then new location was 5/16 out on 4'.

good luck,

dan