A huge sigh of relief.
 

Whew.

After losing ALL of my livestock earlier this week when my transport tank cracked right down the middle and leaked all over our truck midway point during an 8 hour trip......ALL of my corals, SPS and LPS, minus my pulsating xenia and bubble tip, made it. :mrgreen:

Over 1K in corals safe makes me a relieved reefer.

WOW! The xenia couldn't survive something that SPS could. Weird :razz:

Wow, so the tank cracked but you were able to transfer the corals or was it just fish that were lost when the tank cracked?

No, I had individually bagged the corals and transported them in a huge styrofoam box on my lap. For the transport tank, I had a 10 gallon tank with the fish on the console inbetween the drivers and passenger seat.

The bottom of the tank gave out and cracked lengthwise right down the middle. It should have been supported from the bottom but because it only had a couple of inches of water, we were surprised that the weight was too great but we failed to negotiate the weight of the live sand in combination with the water.

Although we had a spare tank and spare water in the back of the truck, the water was lost so fast, that the fish were left flopping around while I tried to dig them out of the live sand to make the transfer. We used the water covering the liverock in buckets, as it was warm to make the transition.

I lost my damsel fish immediately. The chromis were the next to go. Then my mandarin goby and percula clowns. I know that is may seem like small loses, but I'm a person that has a fish rescue and every little soul is important to me. I bawled for two days.

Please learn from my experiences and have a backup plan to your backup plan. We were unprepared for how fast the water escaped from the broken tank.

double bag your fish next time!!! or use salt buckets with lids that seal. I've never heard of people actually using a tank to transport fish in a truck... that just spells disaster. sorry for your loss.

really sorry to hear this. If the trip is a bit longer and heat is a concern you can also use a styrofoam box with a bag liner and that will hold the heat much better.

Power inverter with heaters works for keeping things warm


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

We had four salt buckets filled with live rock, one with live sand, and water all dispersed at the bottom of our childrens' feet. We literally had no more room for another salt bucket or anything anywhere in the truck (a quad cab).

I've transported many a fish in many a tank in exactly the same manner, albeit not with the weight of live sand or any substrate, as we live 8 hours northwest of Edmonton and there are no specialty aquatics anywhere near us.

Unfortuately, I've learned the hard way and little critters paid the price, a lesson that is not lost on me. :cry:

And that is exactly what we were using for a filter and a heater because we knew it was going to be a long cold trip.

always hard to lose a fish, let alone many. again sorry for your loss! but you can always bag them and put them in the tank next time! I've done many moves myself so I know how packed a quad cab can get with fish things and people! lol