This month we are featuring the beautiful Reef Aquarium of Thorley Tan (Crazy4Acros). Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful Reef Puddle of Tom Zielinski (TMZ). Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful 400-gallon Mixed reef of Brad Blankenship (Mantis). Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful 180 gallon SPS dominated reef aquarium of Audrey Schnepel. Learn how she has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful 198-gallon mixed reef aquarium of Krzysztof Tryc. Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful 400-gallon mixed reef aquarium of Greg Timms. Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

If you'd like to nominate a tank for Tank of the Month, click here or use the button to the right.

This month we are featuring the beautiful 120-gallon mixed reef aquarium of Mark Hallett from Little Britain, Ontario, Canada. Learn how he has created this beautiful system. Read more...

We all setup our tanks and get them just how we want them. We spend money, time, effort, sweat and tears getting them there. On occasion we find out we have to move, sometimes across the street, sometimes across town, and sometimes across the country.

Below I will outline how I made a successful 1000 mile move from Chicago to Denver.

Back in June of 2004, right after finding out I was going to be moving to Colorado, one of the first things I thought of was, “How the heck am I going to move my tank?” In between all of the other packing and getting ready to move projects, all I kept going back to is, “How the heck am I going to move my tank?”

In preparation for the move, I hit up my LFS and some other buddies for some extra 5-gallon buckets. I picked up a couple of extra 50-watt heaters and a big air pump. I also picked up a good power inverter that would plug into the cigarette lighter and would allow for my heaters and air pump to simply be plugged in to the car's electrical system.

We woke up at 6am the morning of the move, loaded up the enclosed moving trailer we had rented to pull behind the truck with everything else from the house, and all we had left to load was the fish tank. The tank was a 55-gallon with about 20 corals and about 8 fish in it. The first thing we did was drain out about 15 gallons of water into 5 different buckets. We took the rock and corals out and added them to the buckets. Displacement from the rocks pretty much filled up those buckets. If not, we topped them off with water. “Here, fishy fishy!” Yep, the fish came next. They were pretty easy to catch as the tank had nothing else in it now. I put most of the fish in the buckets that had rock in them, so they had some security with the rocks. Others had to go into buckets with nothing in them. We finished draining the water from the tank, filling up buckets as we went. I made 20 gallons (four, 5-gallon buckets worth), of fresh water, with the idea that it would mix along the way and I could essentially do a good size water change once arriving at our new home. The trailer was loaded with everything from the house, the tank and stand, and all the other equipment. Any buckets that didn’t have any type of livestock in them went in the trailer. All the buckets that had fish and/or corals in them went in the back of our SUV we were driving. I plugged in the power inverter into the cigarette lighter and plugged in all of the heaters and the air pump into the inverter. I drilled holes in the top of the buckets so I could get the plugs and airlines through and still was able to close the lids tightly on the buckets.

So, with everything tied down and all the buckets with livestock in the truck, we were off. When we left it was 86 degrees. I was so worried about the fish boiling that we unplugged the heaters and cranked up the air conditioning in the truck. A few hours in, somewhere in Iowa, the temperature started to drop, and within an hour it was at 42 degrees. We plugged in all the heaters and cranked the heat up in the truck. The rest of the trip it stayed in the lower 40’s. I was so worried about all the livestock. With the truck, and having to pull a loaded trailer, the gas was getting sucked up like crazy. We were having to stop every couple/few hours to fill up with fuel, that and not being able to drive very fast as I was worried about the things in the trailer falling over, and the fish in the truck, the trip took 19 hours, and that’s with driving straight through. The wife was able to sleep for quite a while, but I didn’t. I just kept driving. I just wanted this to be over. So, around 1pm we rolled into Denver. The first thing to get unloaded was the fish tank and stand. We set those up in the living room where we wanted them. I had left the sand in the tank as I only had a shallow sand bed of about 1”. I hooked up all the equipment, and started to fill the tank back up. The buckets that were up front with us and had the heaters in them, were not too bad, temperature wise. They were in the mid 70’s. The ones that were in the trailer were in the upper 50’s. I put all the colder water in the tank first and put 4 heaters in the water to try and bring the temperature up quickly. While we were waiting for the temp to rise in the tank, we unloaded the rest of the truck. I had to also go and drop off my tool box at the shop I was going to be working at, and at the same time I dropped off the rental trailer.

I raced back home so I could get those poor fish out of the buckets. The water in the tank was up to temp now so I started by adding the rock back to the tank, and placing the corals. We added all the fish back to the tank, and finished filling the tank all of the way up. Everything looked stressed and a little ticked off, but nothing really unexpected for what they had just gone through. I arranged a few more things, pulled the extra heaters and set things up pretty much how I had them before the move.

Being that I have been up for over 36 straight hours, I needed to go to sleep, and sleep I did, until the next morning!! When I woke up, all I could think about was the tank and its inhabitants. I went out to the living room and counted all the fish. They were all in there and swam to the front of the tank like they always had when I walked up to it, as they thought they might get fed. I turned the lights on a little early that day so I could see how things were and to make sure everyone was doing well. I fed the tank, and throughout the day I closely observed the tank, the temperature, the inhabitants and all the corals. Everything had survived this traumatic ordeal. I could not have been happier! I didn’t mess with the tank for a few days, other than keeping a close eye on everything, so things could settle down, and I didn’t think the fish and corals needed any extra stress. After a couple of days, I did some final arranging of the rocks and did another water change.

In conclusion, whether you are moving near or far, the same procedures can pretty much be followed. Your move may be different, and you may have more obstacles, or you may have fewer obstacles to overcome, but just know it can be done.

In my opinion, do-it-yourself homemade frozen foods are a great way to feed all of the picky fish in your tank, and it also offers a way to find something that all of them like. So, I thought I would write something up and show how I make mine.

I will start by suggesting you find as much fresh seafood as you can from the seafood market at better grocery stores. Some of the frozen stuff has a lot of extra additives that I just don't feel comfortable with, so I typically avoid using any of that.

Here is what is in mine:

From the seafood department at a grocery store-

• Salmon
• Scallops
• Halibut
• Shrimp
• Oysters
• Mussels
• Squid
• Clams

Already frozen prepared food-

• Brine shrimp
• Mysis
• Silversides
• Bloodworms
• Formula 1
• Formula 2
• Prime Reef

Dry foods-

• Formula 1 pellets
• Formula 1 flakes
• Formula 2 pellets
• Formula 2 flakes
• Prime reef flakes
• Brine shrimp flakes
• Marine complete pellets
• Marine grow flakes
• Jullian Sprung's algae
• 3 different types of Spirulina: red, green & brown

I also add-

• Phytoplankton
• Garlic
• Vitachem^®

Throw all of this in the food processor and blend away, trying not to make it into mush. Just blend it enough to get all the pieces so that they are very small. I then take a couple of large cookie sheets, and cut a piece of eggcrate to fit into the cookie sheet, then spread out the food and press it into all of the squares on the eggcrate. Throw it all in the freezer, then take it out the next day, and press out all the new "cubes." I usually put them in bags of 20 and keep them in the freezer.

My fish seem to love it and they eat everything!

Recommended marine emergency kit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing worse than being caught short---especially on a holiday weekend.
I've been at this a few years: here's what I recommend you have on hand...in order of price,versus benefit, versus likelihood of need.

1. Enough salt to replace 50% of the water in your tank. You never know when you will have an accident.
2. Carbon and bags or ladies kneehigh nylons: carbon can remove ammonia, among many other things, and save your tank. When something bad has happened, you will not go wrong running carbon as a first try at fixing it.
3. Alkalinity test: do this weekly: your reading should be between 7 and 11. IMHO, this is an important test for all tanks, FOWLR to reef.
4. Test strips for ammonia/nitrate
5. A bottle of Amquel or equivalent. Read the instructions, you don't have to use this, but it is good to have it just in case. I use it in the kitchen, when I've gotten bleach on my hands. It's good for that.
6. A stack of old towels: when you need one, you will be glad you have them!
7. Enough polystyrene 5 gallon buckets to replace half the water in your tank.
8. A mixing pump, or powerhead: the Maxi-Jet 1200 is good choice.
9. Some Gutterguard(from Lowe's or Home Depot) or some plastic needlepoint canvas(from hobby store) AND plastic sewing thread or fishing line.
10. A sheet of white lighting grid/eggcrate(found in the Lowes or Home Depot lighting department).
11. A spare thermometer for a fast crosscheck (I stick mine onto the sump).
12. Spare hose of every diameter. Couplers(hose barbs) for these sizes: no reefer ever has too many varieties of hose.
13. If you can afford, it/employ it---a backup generator; or at very least a plan. I have kept fish alive for 3 days with a hand squeeze bulb...this is how basic you can get if you are stuck for a solution, and do NOT over-stock your tank: you never know when ice or wind is going to hand you an 8-hour power-outage, or worse.
14. Also, if you can afford it, a spare main pump. Your tank can live without lights for a week, easy; without a skimmer for a week, easy; but without the main pump, you are in increasing trouble after a few hours.

Brought to you courtesy of Sk8r