8 guys and some fish: moving a 180g tank

[ggenz]

Ok, its spring break and I finally have some time to make this thread, so here we go…

I am a freshman in high school and have been interested in aquariums for some time. At the moment I just have some freshwater tanks, but have been researching saltwater tanks for about 6 months. In the near future, I hope to start up a 38 gallon reef set up, but more on that later. On another note, the middle school that I attended asked if my friend and I would set up a fish tank in one of the classrooms. My friend is also quite interested in aquariums but instead of taking the marine route, he went the way of freshwater planted. The school has a couple of teachers that are also interested in fish tanks but they wanted one to be set up and maintained by the students. After looking at the available space, budget, and time, we decided that a marine tank would be a good thing for the students to work on. The original plan was to set up a 75 gallon fish-only-with-live-rock tank. It would house a snowflake eel and several fishes that would be “compatible� with it (at least for a while). We decided that this would be a good way to get the 7th and 8th grade boys interested in fish tanks in general, both freshwater and marine. (By the way, I forgot to mention that the middle school and high school are all-guys-schools, hence the interest in the eel that eats other fish for lunch.)

So, everything is going well, the tank is set up with liverock and sand and going through the cycle. Just before the new tank hits the 4 week mark, I go to the local fish store and the owner tells me about a tank that someone is getting rid of. The owner of the tank wanted it to go to a school and I was the first person that the LFS owner had seen. I called the tank owner up and he said that we could have it. He apparently was moving and he was building a bigger tank at his new house.

So, now that the very detailed, story-of-my-life style introduction is over (sorry it is so long), the main part of the thread can begin.

First, I decided that some research was in order. I had never moved a tank that was up and running, let alone one with marine organisms. I looked all over reefcentral for information on moving a tank and without luck, decided to just wing it. (The lack of tank moving “journals� is my main reason for starting this thread, hopefully it helps someone.)

Here are some details of what the set up was:

Tank-180 gallon acrylic tank, viewable from 3 sides with an overflow tower in the center 72� by 24� by 24�

Filtration-Wet/dry filter in the stand- only a built-in protein skimmer

Lights-72 “ long, 4x 96 watt power compacts, moonlights

-75 to 100 lbs liverock, 2 to 3 inch sandbed,

Fish
-Flame Hawk
-Bicolor Angel
-Sleeper Goby
-Maroon Clown-hosting in a small rose BTA
-some species of psuedochromis, possibly a Magenta Dottyback
-Cleaner Wrasse

Inverts
-2 brittle stars
-hermit crabs
-snails
-queen conch

Coral
-a Hammer coral
-an Elegance coral
-2x-some other coral I haven’t identified- maybe a leather?

After calling the guy and figuring out what was in the tank, a plan was devised. We needed about 5 people to help move the tank and many buckets and tubs.

Here’s the list of things we brought to move the tank:

-4 fish shipping boxes that the LFS let us have for free
-3 other Styrofoam boxes that I had lying around
-2 unused Rubbermaid trash cans (one had some dirt that I washed out)
-2 Rubbermaid bins made for clothes or the like
-a cardboard box for dry goods
-2 five-gallon buckets
-3 five gallon water jugs
-3 of my friends, 2 of our dads, 2 of the teachers

We also had my dad’s truck and his trailer (designed to carry lawn mowing equipment). Also, we ended up using another car to carry some dry goods and the lights. The hardest part of the whole setup was coordinating all of the other people needed. We ended up having more people than what was actually necessary, but that’s not a bad thing. I took a camera but sadly, the whole thing moved so fast, I didn’t take any pictures. In hindsight, having someone come along as dedicated “cameraman� would have guaranteed more pictures.

Here are some of the pictures I took the night before:

[ggenz]

I’ll list some of the things we did:

-We started to drain the tank and remove the animals from it; fish/inverts first, coral was saved until last minute.

-The rock was put into the large blue Rubbermaid container and filled with water.

-The plan was to put all of the livestock into the 75g tank at the school, so as much water as possible was saved in the Rubbermaid trashcans. These were filled on the trailer and NOT in the house for obvious reasons (35+ gallons each, we didn’t have that many people willing to lift)

-the tank was to be moved with the sand, so we did not do anything with it.

-the fish were put straight into the boxes and not in bags

- the clown and anemone had a box all to themselves

-the coral were put each in their own bags

-my friend’s dad works on pipe organs for a living so he showed the group how to slide the tank and stand(one on top of the other) on moving blankets
-each side of the tank is lifted up and the blanket is slid under the whole thing
-with the whole tank on the blanket, the blanket is pulled across the ground (wood floors) and the tank slides with it
-we got the tank to the door, carried it out into the garage, and slid it onto some moving blankets on the trailer
-everything was loaded up and we drove 30 minutes to the school


At the school

-Fish and coral were immediately moved up to the 75 gallon tank and a drip acclimation was set up for each box, the coral were put into one big bin together (not touching) and that was drip-acclimated

-the 180g was put on a rolling cart that the school had and sent upstairs on the elevator, the stand was moved the same way

-one water barrel and the liverock bin were also put on this cart and sent upstairs.

-An extra heater was added to the water to warm it up so that we could swap some of the water (water change for 75g with 180g water)

-some liverock from the 75 was taken out and some from the 180 was added

- after everyone felt that “the fish were acclimated� (aka. They wanted to go home---I tried to acclimate a little longer), we added the fish and coral

- I ended up taking whatever liverock and sand wouldn’t fit in the 75 home, it is now sitting in a bin waiting for the startup of my 38 gallon tank




I think I covered everything, too bad I couldn’t get more pictures of the actual move though.

Here are some pictures of the 75 after about 3 weeks:

[ggenz]

[ggenz]

[ggenz]

[ggenz]

Here is the 180:











If there are any questions about the move, I can answer them, OR if you are in a similar situation and have questions, ask away, I may be able to help… maybe .

[mapleredta]

Im totaly new to this but the tank being that close to the window, i imagine is going to cause some tempature issues.

[ggenz]

actually, that is just a temporary location, we were going to put it there and just cover up the window, but the fire marshal said it had to be moved out of the hallway. not quite sure where its going at the moment

[ggenz]

I have a quesstion, what do you guys think we should do with that 180? we had the idea of doing a native species biotope (freshwater). we were thinking that a reef or even fish only of that size would be too expensive (initial equiptment, salt).

any thoughts?

[Nano Chris]

Oh man, what i wouldn't do for a 180 freshwater is cheaper so maybe you could go that rout for the 180.

[ggenz]

yeah, thats what we were thinking