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Another moving thread.... Also, does anybody have a bunch of buckets i could borrow?

Hey Guys,
So I'm moving next weekend about 20 miles.
I cant setup a tank & water ahead of time. so I'm trying to move as much water as I can with me(plenty of room in the truck for 10-20 buckets).
I'm looking for buckets with lids that you guys can lend for a day or two. if in central jersey that'd be awesome.
I'm moving next Sunday Aug 4th and can pickup anytime after this weekend as i'll be out of town.
If not I'll just buy like 15 buckets & donate them to the next guy to try this lol

Here's the plan:
1)Saturday night/Sunday morning(haven't decided) start draining water into buckets 5 gal at a time & get them staged(in my apt) to be taken out to the truck in the morning.
2)Sunday, while the movers are moving most of our stuff I'll be drainnig more water & catching my Pbrown, clowns, & pseudo & putting them in 2 seperate buckets with lids & holes drilled into them with battery airlines running down,
corals are going to get bagged individually.
3)The one coral that is attached to my rocks is a nice size zoa colony so that'll go on top in one of the buckets of rocks & water.
4)pull the rocks, put them in buckets, fill those & remaining buckets with water.
5)put lids on & stage for moving to truck
6)drain rest of the water in the DT & fuge that I didn't have buckets for
7)scoop out & throw sand away(my tank is only ~6months old, but better safe than sorry)
8)pack up tank & have movers carry that downstairs as the 2nd to last item to go on truck
9)bring any bucket with rock, or livestock in it to truck as the final things to go on before closing doors.
10)get to the house & first thing to come off is the fish & buckets followed by the tank.
11)setup my 20L as a temp tank & get the fish into there with a piece or 2 of rock along with an MJ1200 or hydor 1050 just to keep it moving..
12)Then just do this in reverse but try my hands at bare bottom until I grab 60-80lbs of reef flakes in a week or so when I get the chance.

Question:
We're Going roughly 20 miles so ~45 mins in a truck. will my guys be ok since the water will prolly be around 74degrees when it goes out to the truck. so it might reach low to mid 80s in the truck. or should i bag them up like a LFS & drive them over in my nice cool car?
Am I an idiot thinking I can carry 10-20 buckets of water, rocks, & fish down 2 flights of stairs? I'm in pretty decent shape(training for philly half marathon, so legs are strong), but it's still a lot of moving buckets. the tank will go on the first floor in the new house.

Anything I'm missing. there's got to be something!
 
I have maybe 5 5-gal buckets you can borrow. I also have a 55 gal tank that I was going to post for sale. You can borrow that too if you need it. I'm in Union 07083.
 
Step 1. - If the Tank is next to a window or CLOSE To a window.. OR you can Run some Tubing out the window downstairs just Drain and fill the buckets right outside the window using good ole gravity!. An Alternative would be to go to HomeDepot purchase some 30 Gallon Brutes. Fill THOSE down stairs and then when you get to the house sidle up to the side of the house nearest the tank and pump the water right from the truck out of the brute containers and into the tank.

Then when your done.. keep the brutes for mixing or hose them down and return them to homedepot because they are not suitable for housing fish and coral. Opt for store credit and use that to purchase new plumbing supplies and other junk you might need during new tank setup.
 
Oh and Regarding packing the corals.

Go to the Dollar Store. Purchase 30 packs of the ziploc/Fakeloc SLIDING ZIPPER BAGS.. Please don't kill yourself trying to knot/rubberband bags. Then Use a COOLER & The 5 Gallon buckets. Put the ziploc bags in the cooler with water/air and coral. The Air in the bags will act as cushion while the water will keep them alive. And If they leak ... the are in a cooler.. But it will stop sting happy and corals that like to slime from messing up SPS etc.

I did this to move my stuff to Bob's Bunker... Didn't loose anything.
 
ROck

Oh and for the rock.. While your at the dollar store pickup some of their cheapest bedsheets.. OR.. if you have cheap/old bedsheets.... soak the rock down with water and then soak the bedsheets down with water and put the whole kit and kaboodle into one of those brute rubbermaids you bought in the first reply. Its cleaner than newspaper and for a 45minute drive while you WILL have lots of die-off... it won't be THAT bad. If you can Siphon the sand out of your tank BEFORE The move that would help you greatly.

The main reason is that i found catching fish that like to burrow tough with the sand in. Siphoning the sand out over a bucket with a net in it to catch the sand particles might make the water foul less while filling coral bags.


Do a water change 3 days before the move to ensure that your corals are the least stressed and are in good water quality before the move. Don't feed the fish for 24 hours before the move so that they don't foul their water DURING the move.

If you are putting more than 3/4 fish in a bucket during the move you can purchase an 110V Car Invertor (Cigarette Lighter to 110V) and use a cheap petco air pump and a few petco air stones and some 1/4" tubing to pump air in to the buckets during the drive. It will also allow you to take your TIME setting up your tank/temporary tank at the new location.


FINALLY

I have a 65 Gallon tank that I got from Spotter a while back. It would make a great holding tank for your critters and you can have it for the low low price of - free dollars just hook me up with a frag l8ter on when your all good to go.
 
Thanks to all who have replied for the advice & the offers. I PMed a couple of you & if I can coordinate those pickups then i will have plenty of water to move :)
 
Tanks all moved. only thing left to setup is the ATO. fish went in last night after 4 days in a temporary 20L with some LR.
I lost my favorite Pbrown tang in the move :( everybody else including coral made it.
need to rinse out the buckets & bottles & then ill be returning them next mon/tuesday :)
 
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