reefkeeping
New Member
Hey folks, I recently managed to successfully relocate the fish and coral from my two tanks (Read Sea 170 and Innovative Marine Nuvo 15) from Tennessee to Vermont.
No fish or coral were lost during the move itself (though one Chromis somehow went MIA in the process of tearing down the old tank and moving all the fish/coral into the transport container).
Everyone is extremely happy and healthy in their new homes, a Red Sea Reefer 350 G2+ and Innovative Marine Nuvo 15.
For those interested in the process itself, I'll break it down below.
The move was a good excuse to get a new tank, as I had some juvenile inhabitants that were getting large enough that they were rapidly approaching needing to be re-homed into a larger system anyway. I originally wanted a Red Sea 525 G2+, but time constraints with the move forced me to get a 350 G2+ instead (what I could find in stock locally in Nashville rather than needing to be ordered and shipped).
Here's the old tank:
On the first trip to the new house, I transported the new tank/stand (large 8" vacuum suction cups were indispensable for this). In order to jumpstart the cycle in the new tank, I brought a couple large pieces of live rock from the old tank with some easy corals (duncans, GSP, and a couple nems) as well as a surprise emerald crab that was hiding in the rocks. These were kept in a cooler with a light, heater, and circulation pump.
After getting the new tank installed we filled it with a mix of distilled and RO water (gallon jugs from Walmart because there was no option for locally sourced RO and our new RODI system had not yet arrived). Salt was added and mixed in-tank (Tropic Marin Reef Pro).
Once up to temp, the live rock/coral were added, as well as a bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only. The tank was going to be running unsupervised for two weeks while we completed the next/final round trip of our move. I fed heavy with some frozen mysis to give the crab something to stay busy with, and had the house visited one week later by some friends who were able to feed again.
15 gallons of RO were available for the ATO. I set up a Wyze camera and a Cradlepoint router so I could keep an eye on the tank remotely. The Red Sea ReefATO+ was awesome for keeping me aware of tank temp and water level/RO use.
Once back in TN, it was time to get ready for the big move of all the fish and remaining coral/live rock. We are very fortunate to have an RV with an onboard generator, so keeping lights, heaters, air conditioning and filtration running while in transit was possible.
The night before we officially moved out was a whirlwind of effort to tear down the old tank and get the inhabitants stowed for transport. I used a heavy duty 40 gallon tote filled with about 25 gallons of tank water. In the tote I also had two power heads, dual 100W Helios heaters, a UV sterilizer, and a Kessil A360. All of this was connected to a 1500VA UPS, and then that was connected to the RV generator.
Each fish was placed into its own perforated container (I used disposable plastic containers like you'd get live insects from the pet store in). My dwarf lionfish got a slightly larger container, as did my banded coral shrimp and urchin. Large pieces of coral that were easily separated from the live rock were placed in small containers of their own (sans lid) with the rest of the live rock placed as securely as I could get it loose in the bucket. I did run out of small fish containers, so three Chromis were placed loose in the tote with the live rock and I crossed my fingers they wouldn't get crushed by shifting rock. Thankfully all three survived unscathed.
I drove about 400-500 miles each day, and performed manual top offs with RO daily.
Once in Vermont, all the fish and coral were immediately transferred into the new tank on arrival, and within an hour or so most corals were open and all of the fish were out and about, eating and happy.
The two tank setups are equipped as follows:
**Red Sea Reefer 350 G2+**
*Livestock*
- Dwarf Lionfish
- One Spot Foxface Rabbitfish
- Valentini Pufferfish
- Flame Angelfish
- Royal Gramma
- 4x Blue Green Chromis
- 3x Lyretail Anthias
- 2x Firefish
- Banded Coral Shrimp
- Pincushion Urchin
- Emerald Crab
- 8x Red BTA
- Green BTA
*Equipment*
- Red Sea ReefMat 500 Fleece Roller
- Red Sea RSK 300 Self-Leveling DC Skimmer
- Red Sea ReefATO+
- 2x Red Sea ReefLED 90W
- Red Sea ReefRun 5500 DC Return Pump
- Red Sea Dual DC Pump Controller
- 2x Red Sea ReefWave 25 Gyres
- Innovative Marine Helio PTC Smart Heater w/ 2x 200W Elements
- Aqua Ultraviolet 15W Classic UV Sterilizer
- MightyJet DC Pump (for UV)
- Neptune Apex A2 Controller
- Neptune EB832 Energy Bar (Not used for critical systems)
- Neptune Trident
- Neptune DOS Dosing Pump + DDR Reservoir
- Cyperpower OL1500RTXL2UN Double-Conversion UPS with Network Monitoring
- Innovative Marine HydroFill 15 Gallon ATO Reservoir
**Innovative Marine Nuvo 15**
*Livestock*
- Juvenile Valentini Pufferfish
- 2x Longfin Mocha Storm Clownfish
- 2x Red BTA
*Equipment*
- Red Sea ReefLED 90 (I know this is overkill, but I had a spare)
- Innovative Marine NuvoSkim DC Skimmer
- Neptune Apex (1st Gen)
- Neptune EB8 Energy Bar
- Neptune ATK w/ 5 Gal ATO Reservoir
- Neptune FMM
- DC Powerhead w/ Controller
- Innovative Marine Helio PTC Smart Heater w/ 2x 100W Elements (also overkill)
Nuvo 15 Control Cabinet
Nuvo 15 Probe Rack and ATO
Bonus Rastas + Rock Flower
