Transporting your reef tank

[serratus]

I want to start my first tank and have been slowly collecting used hardware. I'm very excited and am at the stage to get the live rock now. I am super eager to start the tank.

HOWEVER, here's the dilemma: I think I might be moving out of province soon.

The question is, how do people transport their tank with live stock? Even a 50Gal is like 600lbs and with water 1/2 full, it's still like 350lb. How do you get that in your car and move it around the city and eventually move it back onto the final position without resulting in losses? (I see people selling 90 Gal tanks with fish and have always wondered how they expect people to buy and move that thing?)

For me, I really don't think transportation would be a good idea since I'd be driving across many provinces, but if you had to do it, how would you do it?

[Stones]

I've had to move my 90 gallon reef 4 times in the past. I found I had the best success rate by having a smaller tank setup and already running at the new location and then transferring all livestock to the new tank. That way you can take your time transferring your existing setup from your old place to the new one.

I think it would not be the greatest idea to use your tank as the livestock transport vessel though. Having a tank full of water in transit would likely cause the seams in the tank so much stress that they could leak afterwards. What I did was buy 6 of those big rubbermaid tubs and fill each about 2/3 full of water and place all my fish, corals, and liverock in these. Since I was only moving within a city, I didn't worry about oxygen or temperature during transit since the livestock was placed into a new tank within about 30 minutes. If you are going to be moving livestock further than this, you could either individually bag each of the animals or use a heater + powerhead combo in a rubbermaid tub, powered from one of those 12 volt inverters.

[blueyota]

well i would first get a couple of rubbermaid tubs and thaen get a power inverter for your car a larger one 1000w then run a small powerhead and a heater and put the fish in a bucket with the same setup but with an airstone and not a powerhead ....this is just an idea i had !!!!