ok all....i have to move my tank

D

Drake Titan

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May 8, 2003
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Union City, CA
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any pointers? The move is about 18 miles

Its a 55 gallong tank with a 5" Jack Dempsey, 3" Firemouth, 6" Pleco...and 4 giant danio's

I plan on doing it this sunday. i know I'm gonna need something to transport the fish in....i was thinking coolers to keep the water temp consistent, but can i use those stryofoam coolers? or should i go out and buy a couple plastic coolers? the styro ones are significantly cheaper...but are more delicate.

once i decide what type of coolers....how should I divide the fish? or do i have to at all? its a short move but the fish will be in the coolers for i'm thinking atleast 2 hours (tear down & set up)

decor....i have all fake decor in that tank....do i need to keep them wet? i will use a bucket to transport the gravel and keep them wet and put the filter media in the bucket as well.

how much of the old water should i try and take with it? its not looking like it could be more then what the fish will be transported in and whats inthe bucket......should I shoot for about 25 gallons?

i'll stop feeding them on thursday or friday to make it less stressfull on the fish....but do you guys/gals have any other pointers?


thanks in advance!

oh...btw..its my first move!
 
Hello there!

If you do a search on moving (search button up there /\), you can find tons of advice.

Good luck with everything!:)
 
the disposable styrofoam coolers are great for storing fish, however after a little while they develop a slow leak. though it is a very slow leak.


you have fake plants? I would put at least one in each cooler. I do this it makes the fish much more comfortable and lets them have something to hide under.

For just a 2 hour journey I would not worry about the temperature too much. Unless its really really cold outside!

I would just the jack dempsey and the big pleco in one box and the fire mouth and the danios in another.

and be gentle with the coolers they break easy.
 
If you use the styrofoam, you'll want to line them with plastic, and I wouldn't put more than about 5-10 gallon in each one, which means splitting up the fish. I'd probably split the fish up anyway--a ticked off jd in close confines could do some serious damage to another fish.

Keep the filter media, gravel, and decorations moist. This will preserve the bacteria on them.

Don't worry about keeping any of the old water unless the new water will be drastically different (hardness/pH) than the tank is now. If it's the same, using the old water will just import waste, not bacteria.
 
I may be doing the same here soon. What I found was a huge plastic cooler (I don't trust styrofoam for that much weight), probably holds about 30 gallons of water. For as long as they are going to be in there, I don't think you'll need to split them up. I will need 2 coolers cause my fish are much bigger and the tank is 150 gallon. However, I plan to get them out of the current tank and to the new house ASAP. Then I plan to but an air bar in each cooler to give them plenty of oxygen while setting up the new tank. I don't think the fake decor will need to stay wet. Rinsing really good after it comes out and before it goes in should be fine. Same with the gravel. The big part is getting the water stabalized ASAP. The water here in the St. Louis area is junk, so I have to go with bottled water. I plan to use 60 gallons of the old water and the rest bottled water. Get the filters running about 1 hour and all should be good. This is my plan and if I'm wrong here somewhere, someone please set me straight. I want this to be less stressful for them than me.
 
You do want to keep the decorations and such moist during transport because all of these are coated in the beneficial bacteria you need to process wastes. The more of this that can be preserved, the less chance you have of the tank spiking and re-cycling on setup.

If you must use old water, I would recommend doing several 30% water changes--like one each day before the move. This will dilute the wastes you're importing to the new tank.
 
oriongirl - plastic bags? like a trash bag? thats perfect...then i could use my old coolers (didn't think i could cause i thought they'd be contaminated)

travelingman - I'll want to rinse my gravel? won't that eliminate all the good bacteria? in my regular tank maintenance i use a gravel vac about every other week



thanks all...keep em coming!
 
As long as it's clean and untreated, a trash bag will work. Some contain chemicals to reduce odor and should be avoided. The untreated ones are usually the cheapest, as well. You could also check with your LFS--they may have large bags they will let you borrow.

An existing cooler can be cleaned with oxyclean and used for fish safely as long as it hasn't been used for storing toxic chemicals (2 week old potato salad from a picnic doesn't count! :) )

Rinsing the accumulated mulm from the gravel won't hurt. It's not necessary, especially if you've never run a UGF that would pull lots of debris deep into the gravel. The bacteria won't be removed by a quick rinse, but can killed if the gravel dries out.
 
Your 55 gallon will be pretty heavy so you may not be able to do this, depending how many people you have to help move it.

When I moved my 35 gallon I vacuumed the bottom then filled a good sized rubbermaid container with the tank's water and moved the fish over. I threw a couple plants in keep the fish happy then finished taking most of the water out of the tank. To be honest I didn't even know about cycling or beneficial bacteria at the time but I left about a 3 inch layer of water above the gravel.

To be honest I don't really see any reason to take everything out of the tank, like the gravel and decorations. If it wasn't so big one strong guy could probably carry my 35 gallon as it was. So 2 or 3 people shouldn't have a problem with your 55 with some gravel and plants. You may want to take out any heavy rocks or anything.
 
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