Moving your Tank... Good or Bad

[ScubaSteve]

I've helped a buddy of mine (who's a member on the boards here) move his tank 10 times. Seriously. 10 times!

It's pretty straight forward:

Don't rush, but don't dilly dally.

Been methodical so you don't crush your favourite coral or squish that fish.

If you can, keep the water buckets warm with heaters. If not, don't stress about it; they can get cold (to a certain degree). You only only run into problems if the temperature increases or decreases too quickly.

Don't seal off the buckets so that air can still diffuse into the water.

Try to keep as much of the old water as possible to reduce shock to the system with regards to water parameters.

As Proteus mentioned, don't stir the sand until the very end. My buddy and I drain the tank (with all livestock and rocks removed) until there is maybe 1 cm of water left (or how ever much you can manage to get out). Then swish the frig out of the sand and clean that stuff good! My buddy swears by it. It's like hitting the reset button on the tank.

You WILL have a small cycle and you will loose some 'pods. If you have fish like mandarins (which rely on the fauna in the rocks to survive) you should re-home them, if only temporarily, unless you can supplement their diet - otherwise they starve and that's not fun.

[intarsiabox]

Have a bunch of premade salt water at the new house before you move the old tank. I just used Rubbermaid totes to put my rock and coral in and added enough water to keep them submerged. Don't get really large totes as they get heavy fast when full of water and rock. If possible set up a holding tank to store the rock and coral at your rental place then you can take your time moving the old tank, getting it set up and cleaned before transporting the livestock. I don't know if a retail store could help you any better than just a friends second set of hands to carry the heavy stuff.