How hard is it to move a cycled tank?

[ess17]

Hello. I am new to the forum. I have just started researching to set up a reef tank. I have never done one before, only freshwater. We just moved and are leasing right now, so we don't know how long we will be in this house. I really want to start a reef tank, but I don't know how hard it will be to move whenever that will be. Does moving a tank usually have a pretty good success rate? I don't want to be cruel to the fish/coral.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Won't the tank be reeeeallly heavy? I doubt you can carry it, I can hardly carry my 5 gal. You could bag the fish up, bag up the gravel without cleaning it much with some water in and not clean the filter media too much...

 

[sylvia]

The fact that you want a REEF tank would make it somewhat more complex to move. Honestly, I think you are better off patiently waiting to settle in your new home before setting up this tank.
If you do go ahead with it, you'll need to empty the tank, re-locate it QUICKLY, move all the live rock/substrate, filtrations system, coral and fish and set it up again without causing the tank to re-cycle. You can imagine the difficulty involved with moving everything...

 

[sylvia]

Oh and also consider asking in the saltwater section.