How do you MOVE a nano?

[XeniaGirl]

Good evening,
In a few weeks I will be moving from my second-story apartment to a house about 20 miles away. I'm debating on contacting my LFS to see if they'd move the Nano since I'm paranoid about it, but wanted to get ya'll's opinion first.
At this point I plan on just rearranging the rocks and corals so that everything is on the bottom of the tank (instead of its cool rock formation now) and taking out about 1/2 the water, and saving it in a container for when we get to the house. The whole trip will take easily less than an hour, and all I have are corals and inverts, no fish.
Ideas?

[kyrie_eleison]

If you truly love your tank inhabitants you'll do one of two things:

1. Take all the pieces out; place them in bags and give them away.
2. Take all the pieces out; place them in bags and move them all "outside" the confines of the nanotank. Use the same water during transport. I wouldn't keep anything but live-sand and half the water in the nanotank. If you keep rocks in the tank during transport, you risk scratching the glass.

[storrisch]

drain the water into two buckets. One with all the rock, the other with the coral and fish. move the tank and restock.

[XeniaGirl]

So I guess it wouldn't be worth it for me to have my LFS do it then, huh? That's the main $$$-maker of their business is tank upkeep and moving.

[JimInAugusta]

Done this too many times. We are a military family and move a lot. Rocks in one bucket, corals in another with fish. Save the water. Dont touch the sand. Leave it in the tank with little or no disturbance. This last part is quite important. Reassemble at the other end. Keep an eye on everything. If the tank looks sad make a good water change.

Jim

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by JimInAugusta

Done this too many times. We are a military family and move a lot. Rocks in one bucket, corals in another with fish. Save the water. Dont touch the sand. Leave it in the tank with little or no disturbance. This last part is quite important. Reassemble at the other end. Keep an eye on everything. If the tank looks sad make a good water change.

Jim

I'd do this but change the water.

[Tynan Rasmus]

I moved one twice by just emptying the water half way and removing the rocks and putting them in a bucket with the water I removed. Then added new water when it was set up again. Nothing died in the process.

[Jflip2002]

Ive moved more of my tanks than I would have liked in the last year. Live stock in one bucket, rocks in another. I would only keep enough water to keep the live stock in the buckets submerged. Replace the rest with nice fresh saltwater. I think it should be cake moving a nano. I just moved a 20g reef, 29g FOWLR, 60g (empty lol) and 10g turtle tank this week. Your one should be easy lol

[XeniaGirl]

I certainly hope so! I'll let you guys know in a few weeks... DoomsDay is April 14.