Upcoming move. How to move SPS

[12_egg_omelette]

Alright guys, I have an upcoming move in Sept/October. I've acquired a beautiful collection of SPS from some vendors, a coupe local guys Bpb and manny, and Sam. It's not a long move about 3 hours. However I'm planning on keeping my 12 gallon nano for the time being when I set up the new planet aquarium tank. I'm afraid to lose the frags so this is my idea.

Drain the 12 half way and put keep the coral in the tank and transport it with a power supply to keep the powerhead going. Once I'm there it will be the first thing off the truck and I'll top it off with more fresh salt water aqua vitro. During that first week I'll start to set up my tank. I plan to use the same salt from the same bucket, and toss some Dr. Tim's One and only to give it a kick start of the cycle. Once the cycle is complete wait another week then start transferring a acros over to a frag rack. My hope is that since the salt is the same and it shouldn't have to much of an effect on them. I'll still keep up with the water changes for the time being which would be 1 gallon a week on the bigger system. I then plan to get the calcium reactor set up and the biopellets set up as well.

Does this seem feasible? Am I missing any vital steps? The new tank will have new sand of course and will start off with dry rock.

[victoly]

Moves are almost always pretty hard on SPS. You plan sounds solid. My only advice would be to plan to have 2x your tank volume in premix. You're going to be putting a bunch of previously sequestered nutrients back into the water when you kick up detritus. Skim heavy/Do water changes over the first few days to try and combat the probably spike. Good luck!

[12_egg_omelette]

Yeah that's a great idea ok the pre mixed. Should I 25% changes for the first couple of days. That's only 3 gallons a day and not that bad at all.

I don't run a skimmer in my 12. I was using water changes as my primary source of nutrient export. Coupled with filter floss that I've been changing in the morning and night.

[jolt]

I guess I would add that you might want to consider maintaining temp as well as flow during transport.

[12_egg_omelette]

Hmm, I'm thinking one of those small applicant batteries might be the best now connected to an inverter. I was thinking about just plugging it into one of those cigarette ones. Maybe I'll just crank the heat since it'll be in the fall.

[FarmerTy]

I don't think much is needed during transport. These things fly across the country in plastic bags with no water flow. I think 3 hrs to San Antonio will be just fine. The more difficult part is making sure the ensuing nutrient spike from the move of their current tank won't nuke them and then the new tank is properly cycled enough to contain them.

If it were me, bag all sps up for transport, float them in a 5-gallon bucket, lower the water in the nano down to just above the sandbed, save all the water I removed, and make an extra 5-gallon bucket of new water. I'd pack the tank last after already packing everything else you're moving and then the tank also be the first thing you unpack when you get to your new place.

I'd then setup the old tank again, put back in the old water, and replace the corals into the tank. I'd do a water change that night or the next day depending on other moving tasks that need to get done.

Then I'd setup the new tank with the dry rock, seed it with one rock from the old tank, dump some bacterial jump start product and allow it to fully cycle... like 3-4 weeks. Then move over 1-2 test pieces and if they do well, then move the rest of your stuff.

[FarmerTy]

I should say the ideal plan is to see if anybody in San Antonio can receive your SPS for you and babysit them in their system while you move and setup the new tank.

Then you could just pick them up a couple months later and place them in your new tank. You can pay for the lease time in their tank with frags of your stuff.

[12_egg_omelette]

Thanks Ty, that's some great advice. I'm going to proceed with that. I think what I have working in my favor is that the tank is small. I think asrger tank would have big a much bigger logistic move.

[Reburn]

^{Ty has given you some great advice.}

^{This is what I would do which is a little different then Ty.}

^Takedown

^{Remove all corals and fish and bag them individually. Place them in a Styrofoam cooler. you can pick them up at walmart for cheap.}

^{Then take another Styrofoam cooler and put a 3mm black contractor trash bag in it. Place your rock into the trash bag in the cooler. Fill the trash bag up with water (don't suck up any sand) and remove all air from the trash bag and twist down the bag and zip tie closed.}

^{Remove the rest of the water to a container until you have about an inch over the sand.}

^{remove the sand into a 5 gallon bucket and RINSE. Rinse it well with tap water. drain all the water you can off the sand. Fill 1" over the sand with fresh salt water and dump a whole small bottle of prime in it.}

^Setup

^{Setup is reverse except I would drain the water off the sand and just put the sand in. Not all the prime.}

^{I would setup your new tank and have it 100% running before you move anything over. its just easier that way. So don't put your old tank where your new tank will sit.}

^{If you feel that you are uncomfortable with the process let me know via PM and I will drive down and help you move it.}

^{Its actually very easy to move a tank that size. The big thing is you don't want to stir up your sand and start a mini cycle from the detritus that's down there. Its just easier and safer to rinse the sand and prime then it is to try and keep the sand live and having a nutrient spike and mini cycle that will kill your sps.}

[jolt]

The cooler is a good idea. If it's cold in the fall you might want to get some hand warmers from Academy and throw them in there. I did that when I drove back from houston with some corals in february and also threw a thermometer in the cooler. If temp gets too high you can just remove the handwarmers. This is how vendors ship corals cross country, and as Ty said flow is not that big a deal for such a short time.

[Timfish]

I always move all my corals the same, in a bucket of water. (Well, I guess some do have to be moved in tubs )

[Reburn]

I wouldn't move the coral together under any circumstances unless you have a setup that you can keep all the coral separated and not touching. If your sps touch each other on the ride they will kill each other. If you have a bunch touching they will start throwing slime and can cause a chain reaction which can cause them to kill each other. Don't ask me how I know this. It's just easier to individually package them for as many coral as you have.

But for the sake of argument some coral can be packaged together, zoas can be packaged together but not with anything else and not with long lash palys. Long lash palys should be separate, chalices should be separate. Sps should be separate. Torches with torches, hammers with hammers, wall hammers with wall hammers. Not torches with hammers. Not wall hammer with hammers. Leathers are largely ok with other leathers. Make sense? Now that it's clear as mud. You see why I say it's just easier to bag them separately.

[12_egg_omelette]

Thanks guys, I've reached out to a couple people over that way to see if they will watch my SPS, it's kinda weird giving someone you don't know well yet a lot of coral. But if that doesn't pan out I'm going to use a hybrid approach of everything I read from here. I think I have a solid that that will work.

[Bpb]

LOL ask a few people on here how their acropora have fared in a full tank move/upgrade...

You have something working in your favor, Your tank is about the size of most people's bubble collection sump baffle section. You could probably pick it up full if you felt so inclined. This will make the move possible for you. You can literally just divide your tank volume between two - 5 gallon buckets, and put the entire contents of your tank in said buckets. Don't vacuum the sandbed out, Just leave it with about 1" of water that way you don't stir it up. And in the vehicle, just make sure you keep the cabin temp to about 78 degrees (prepare for a sweaty ride). Set the tank back up immediately using all the same stuff. Honestly shouldn't be a whole lot different than if you had a power outage.

Moving everything over to the new tank with 4-6x the water volume...That's a little trickier. I would honestly at the VERY LEAST find a reputable person in san antonio who can babysit them for a few months, yes months. That or sell them all to me lol. Either way. if you're too attatched to them and cannot give them up, you're probably going to love them to death. I cannot tell you on paper why it happens. Probably a systemic parameter stress, plus mini-cycle getting all the new rock matured and stabilized, which leads to less growth which leads to further parameter swings, which leads to bacterial infection which leads to STN RTN ect. That would be my best guess, because myself, as well as several people on here, and countless threads I've read on RC where people upgrade to a larger tank, move everything right over, water tests are all normal for what they keep, and mass acropora death anyway.

Are there isolated incidents where someone sets up a brand new tank and it flourishes? Sure. The bad stories far outweigh the good ones though. The move wont be the hard part on your acros, but the tank upgrade will.

[12_egg_omelette]

Don't you put that evil on me Ricky bobby. Haha.

I was thinking about keeping the nano set up for about two months then moving fish into the new tank and coral last one or two pieces at a time.

The baby siting coral has also been a good possibility. My in laws live in college station we tail gate every game and we all have season tickets for football so I don't think it'll be a problem of me coming back. I forever myself there every other weekend.

[Sascha D.]

All good advice so far.

If I were moving a tank, then I would do most of what Reburn suggested. The cooler is a great idea because it will keep the temp in a decent range and it may keep the corals from breaking. If you move the corals on the LR then they will surely break as the car vibrates the glue loose. I would probably throw out the sand and transport the rock inside of a bucket. The sponges might die but everything else should last the three hour trip. If you do keep the sand then I recommend draining the tank of all water and siphon out the sand while you're draining. If you transport the sand with any water then it will kick up all sorts of stuff while in transit. You'll have a murky mess when you arrive. Any worms, pods or stars you have in the sand will survive the trip because they will go to the bottom where there is a little water left.