transport of saltwater aquarium

Question
I have been given a saltwater aquarium and would like to know how to transport it. It contains live coral and fish. It is only about 30 min away.  Is there an easy way to do this?

Answer
Hello Lori. The best way to move an established tank is to drain and save as much of the water as you can. Put any fish and corals in the buckets(or new never been used trash cans with wheels and lids depending on the amount of water) of water you have saved and depending on the size of the tank and how heavy it may be, leave the gravel in the bottom with just enough water to cover it and transport it that way. The more of the original water you can save the better usually 50% or more is enough. Expect that you may have a little bit of coral damage and some pretty stressed out fish in transport but as long as everything is done quickly and carefully they will eventually recover. You can also go down to your local fish supply store and ask them if you can buy some of their fish bags (of different sizes) from them. Most would gladly make the sale. You can then bag everything up separately each coral rock per bag and every fish to its own bag, and carry them in a cooler so they don't move around and become damaged so much. Take a picture of the tank before you start breaking it all down so you can try to put every coral in the same place that it was. This way they will get the same water flow and be at the same level of lighting. Sorry if it sounds like a lot of work. It isn't really and as long as you do all this as quickly as you can none of the inhabitants of the tank will know any different!