Off to Houston

[Beckmola24]

Well, our house is in contract and we are tenatively moving on Dec 1st. This happens to be worst possible scenario I could've dreamed of. It sold in 3 days and the people want to close in 3 weeks. I still have no idea how I am going to move things to Houston. It will take about 3 days or so to drive. I asked around and the fish stores here don't seem to want to ship my stuff to me. Could the corals make the drive? I think the fish would be fine, but I'm worried about lighting for the corals. This is so overwhelming. There are so many things going through my head right now so ANY input is appreciated!

 

[NaH2O]

Becky - with so much on your plate right now, I can understand how this is overwhelming. Any club members that can hold your stock and ship later? I'm not sure how long corals can live in the "breathable" type bags. If it is necessary to use bags, you can keep them warm with heat packs, similar to a shipping scenario. If you have the stock in a cooler, a battery powered pump could be used, but I'm not sure about a heater.....maybe an attachment that will plug it into the car's lighter? Also, water ready to do small changes if necessary. Your corals may be fine lighting wise for 3 days, but not sure about much longer than that. For sure, when they get there they will need to be acclimated back to a lighting schedule. Hmmm.....hopefully we can get some good responses, and you will feel some relief.

 

[Angelscrx]

I had a power converter (from Wal-Mart) plugged into my cigarette lighter, and a battery power pump with an air stone on it. Everything was in a cooler and rode in the back seat. The only thing I would have done different is I would have placed some plexi glass in the cooler when the lid was open. When just going down the highway in cruise control there wasn't any splashing with the lid up (for a little light) but the air stone left little salt bubbles marks in the car. I made a four day trip like that. Having to haul that heavy sucker into the hotel rooms was a pain but I didn't want anything to die in the car overnight since the weather was so cold. Hope this helps?

 

[Beckmola24]

Did your corals handle the lack of light for so long?? Yes this helps a lot! Thanks for your input.

 

[Angelscrx]

I mostly had softies but the only coral I lost was when some rock shifted and a piece fell on it. My digitata made it ok. You will want to have water made for water daily changes since you won't have any filtration going on. That was something else I didn't think about. I was planning on a three day trip but got caught in a snow storm.

 

[NaH2O]

Becky - I stumbled upon this yesterday, and thought about your move. This might be something useful for your move. It is about $150, but is a hauling tank. Have a peek at it:

Hauling Tank - Aquatic Ecosystems

Also, when you get closer to moving (if you haven't already?), you may want to ask Terry B in his forum what the best salinity is to haul your fish in. I believe that lowering the salinity may be better for transport, but he will be able to give you specifics.

Anyway, hope this helps

 

[Angelscrx]

That looks like what I made myself! All I did was drill a hole in the cooler lid and added a battery operated air pump for aeration. Then with a power inverter hooked up to the cigarette lighter I dropped a heater in the cooler. Worked pretty good.

 

[johnsmb]

Angelscrx - how many days did you transport your livestock this way? Was it fish and corals? We are potentially looking at a cross country move in the future, and I am contemplating shipping a few corals... never occurred to me to transport them myself....

 

[Angelscrx]

At first I didn't have the heater because I was moving during the summer (May) and wasn't expecting any bad weather. When I got to Nebraska we hit a snow storm so I stopped off at the local Wal-Mart and bought the converter and the heater. Total travel time was four days.

 

[invincible569]

You can ship them to me and i can hold them for you in my prop tank. Shoot me a PM if you're interested. I wont charge or ask for anything. Just a nice person

 

[Angelscrx]

That might not be a bad idea to ship them to someone already there. If I ever move again like I did this last itme that is something I would look into doing. But my way worked pretty good. I shipped fish and corals.

 

[johnsmb]

more moving questions....

It looks like we may end up moving across the country this winter. Should find out in the next week or two.

I had a question about the power inverter thing. Would it run a small heater and a powerhead, too? Then I could see buying a large, new cooler and I could possibly transport the fish and corals. But it will be winter and very cold, I'm not sure it's worth the risk...

 

[NaH2O]

johnsmb - wherever you move to, you can always try and get in touch with the local club. It may be a situation where you could ship your livestock to someone there.

 

[Angelscrx]

I know Wal-Mart sells converters for different power requirements. Some are used to power TVs and stuff. You have to see how much power they both draw and then find out how much the converter puts out?

 

[invincible569]

johnsmb - wherever you move to, you can always try and get in touch with the local club. It may be a situation where you could ship your livestock to someone there.

Ive already tried. He's ignoring this type of offer.

 

[NaH2O]

invincible - Becky may already be moving, so might not need your offer afterall (which is very generous of you, btw). I checked back at the first post on this thread, and she indicated a tentative move for Dec 1.