Moving house - Need ideas

[Ghostknife]

Hi all,

Moving house, and of course gonna bring my tank. its a 4 foot, and not sure how to move it.
1.) Of course I take out all the fish, but will they be okay for a few hours in bags? I am concerned. Any suggestions?
2.) Also, I am kinda lazy, will a tank hold 30/40 kgs gravel while being lifted or will it crack from the force? (p.s I have to walk down 4 flights of stairs)
3.) Should I keep all the canister water, and whatever goes in the fish bags? Should I top up with normal water after that or should I bring some more water from the tank with me? Kinda worried about the good/ bad bacteria.

Thanks

[Ghostknife]

Oh yeah, if you feel there is anything else serious I should be thinking about, then let me know!

Cheers

[korith]

Hi all,

Moving house, and of course gonna bring my tank. its a 4 foot, and not sure how to move it.
1.) Of course I take out all the fish, but will they be okay for a few hours in bags? I am concerned. Any suggestions?
2.) Also, I am kinda lazy, will a tank hold 30/40 kgs gravel while being lifted or will it crack from the force? (p.s I have to walk down 4 flights of stairs)
3.) Should I keep all the canister water, and whatever goes in the fish bags? Should I top up with normal water after that or should I bring some more water from the tank with me? Kinda worried about the good/ bad bacteria.

Thanks


You could bag and put a few fish into each. People ship fish that last for days in the mail, so I think you should be fine for a few hours. Or you could get a cooler and put the fish into that, along with a battery operated air pump and air stone. Or any sort of bucket container. How big are the fish? Oh if you keep the fish in the dark during the move that will help as well.

For the tank itself, I would empty it completely. If it was a small tank I would say go for it and just be careful but a 40g long with substrate I don't know. Why risk it you know? Scoop out all the substrate and put it into a bucket, maybe add some tank water to the bucket, to keep it wet.

For the canister filter, if you can keep it wet that works. If not take the media out and put it in with your fish maybe.

I don't see any real point of lugging too much old tank water around, you'll already have the bulk of your bacteria in your canister media, and substrate.

[The Shield]

When I moved my 50g I took all the fish and put them in a cooler. I saved 3-5 gallon buckets of the tank water, drained the rest only leaving enough to cover the gravel, and put the filter media in one of the buckets of tank water. I left the gravel in the tank, which made it extremely heavy, but did not have any issues with the weight on the glass. Just make sure you have a strong person with you when carrying it down the stairs or the bottom person will get soaked with any water left in splashing around.

I left my tank as the last thing to be moved, that way I limited the time the fish were out of it. Add the saved tank water, add dechlorinator, then refill the rest. Then you can started acclimating the fish back into the tank.

I didn't lose any fish in the move, but then again I only moved about 12 miles so the fish were only out of the tank for no more than a couple of hours.

Good luck on the move. thumbs2:

[Lady Hobbs]

Everything should come out of a tank any larger than 20 gallon due to the weight. Fish go in a cooler or rubbermaid tubs in some tank water. Gravel and filter media in another tub of tank water. All other water dump out. The bacteria is in the filter media and gravel and not in the water so it's a waste of time to save it.

When you get to the new residence, drop an air stone in the buckets with the fish and get your tank set up. There ya go. Not hard at all.

[Northernguy]

Everything should come out of a tank any larger than 20 gallon due to the weight. Fish go in a cooler or rubbermaid tubs in some tank water. Gravel and filter media in another tub of tank water. All other water dump out. The bacteria is in the filter media and gravel and not in the water so it's a waste of time to save it.

When you get to the new residence, drop an air stone in the buckets with the fish and get your tank set up. There ya go. Not hard at all.

Thats the way I would do it!thumbs2: Lotsa cardboard around your tanks and drive carefully!
Good luck,I hope the move goes well!

[Sharon]

We moved my daughters 90gal awhile ago. Hobbs basically covers it well...it sounds more difficult than it actually is. We did save some of the original tank water, as we were nervous about giving the fish a 100% water change...

[Ghostknife]

Thats cool, thanks everyone!
I will let you know if there are any casualties. Hopefully not!
Fingers crossed!

[Lady Hobbs]

It takes such a short time to empty a tank I don't know why people try to leave water and gravel in it. You can scoop it out with a net in about 15 minutes.

[Ghostknife]

Well, the move was easier than originally anticipated. Everyone made is safely over. It was a task and a half trying to catch all of them, but worked in the end. I did however lose a neon today, I doubt its related as they are pretty old and all the other tetras made it!

On another story, I just bought a new female Fighting fish. New thread on the way.

[troy]

Good to hear everything went well.thumbs2: