Is It Possible To Move House With A Marine Setup

[mark7616]

I have a marine setup and i was wondering if it is possible to move house with it??? If so how long would it all surive in transport things like that i dont really need to know how to move it yet just if it is possible.

 

[Navarre]

Yes its possible. I have actually done this and helped people move house that own marine setups. The key is speed so what we need to know is how far are you travelllng and the length of time it would take to get to your new home.

 

[mark7616]

Thats where it may get tricky could be 24hrs is this impossible?

 

[demonmagus]

Probably not impossible, just very hard

 

[Navarre]

hmm.. this will cause problems.

I have managed it in 3 hours but any longer than this and you might find problems.

The fish will need bagging in seperate bags, these will need to be kept with heat packs to ensure they will last the journey. What concerns me most is the liverock. IT will ideally need to be kept underwater to allow it to survive but this will be a problem in transport. If you choose to remove it from water and wrap it in wet paper you may find that you will get some die off and this will cause a mini cycle when the tank when its setup at the other end.

HOw well mature is th eliverock and can you get the turn around tiome for setting it up any faster? You will need to dismantle the tank as the last thing done in the home you are in and then setup the tank completely in the new house you are going to to ensure the shortest turn around time.

Not easy i must admit.

 

[huntnikk]

Well I never moved a reef tank before but a salt water tank we moved about 12 hours away and it worked out with no lose of fish. It was a 150 gallon tank I believe.. We used three new garbage pails with garbage bags in them. Transfered about 75% of the water. We put all the rock (again none of it alive) in 2 of the garbage pails and the fish in 1 of the garabage pails (didn't want them crushed by rock in transport) When we got to the new house we put the tank in place and dumped the rock and water from the two pails back in the tank (we had left the sand on the bottom in the tank with about an inch or so of water when transporting the tank) we then waited about 1 hour for things to settle some and started putting the fish and the rest of the water back in.

Good luck

 

[crazyelece]

It is possible with preperation. First you need to be able to carry a few good sized, well insulated coolers. These are easy to find here in the states but I'm not sure how easy this is for you. Use your tank water and fill each cooler with rock and water. Use another cooler for your bagged fish and Another for your bagged coral. Throw all but a few pounds of your sand away. Save any other water you can in sealed buckets. Drain the tank and store all the equipment (well padded of course) in there.

Now some things to make it easier if you can do them.
Have saltwater mixed up, aerated, heated, and at the same salinity waiting for you ready to go at the destination
Be ready to set the tank up imedeatly when you reach the destination

Another way to do long moves is to work with a LFS. Let them hold on to your livestock while you take the tank. Once you get the tank up have them ship all the livestock to you.

Another way is to sell off all the livestock before the move and then start from scratch at your destination. This may seem to be the worst solution as the loss you will have to take may be great, but it is cheaper than trying to move it all and having it die.