What do you guys think? Transporting Ques.

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BandiCat

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Apr 3, 2009
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Okay...where to start...I'm a college kid and I live in an on-campus dorm. I have an RCS tank at my house (two hours away) that I just love, and I'm playing around with the idea of starting a "desktop" colony (with tigers or bees maybe?) in my dorm room.

The only problem I have would be major holidays, in which the campus shuts down and the students have to leave. We also have to unplug all of our appliances. Do you think it would be a good idea to start up a tank, even though I'd have to haul it back to my house for holidays about once every month or two (including a week long spring break?) Would it be too much stress on the shrimp to have to move them around a lot, and what are ways to transport the colony safely over a two hour drive? Does the tank have to "re-cycle" every time you move it and set it up somewhere else?

Sorry if this post has way too many questions! :1zhelp:
 

jbradt

this is bat country
May 9, 2008
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I think the shrimp could handle it without too much stress if you prepare well. As far as the cycle goes as long as you keep your filter media wet in tank water during the trip, the cycle will be fine.

If you set the tank up with transport in mind I think it could be a pretty smooth process. I'll have to put some thought into it.
 

pbmax

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Aug 18, 2009
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Olympia, WA
One thing you might be careful of is tap water parameter differences between school and home. I imagine that a sudden parameter change on refill could be pretty shocking to the residents. Since it's only two hours it shouldn't be a big difference, but if home is well and school is city water, then you may have some difficulties.

In retrospect I wish I'd setup an invert tank back in school :)
 

BandiCat

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Apr 3, 2009
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Oh, good point. My house uses city water also, but as the school and my home are in two different states, I imagine the water could be very different as well. At my home the pH is incredibly high, 8-8.2. That might be a problem. I will probably take some "dorm water" home with me over thanksgiving and test it out. Thanks!

I'm now actually really excited about the idea of getting a little tank :)
 

brittanyd0203

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Mar 30, 2009
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I transport both my 10g and my 5g back and forth from college to my house (3 hrs away) and have done so since my freshman year (I'm a senior now). What I do is take enough transport bags to house all of my fish and put them in a cardboard box which I keep in the front of the car during transport. I take buckets and put the water from the tanks in there so that I will have some of their same water to put back in there tank once I get to where I'm going. I didn't start transporting the 10g until last year so I kind of changed things up from what I used to do, but when I had just the 5g, I would sometimes transfer the fish (a betta and a few ghost shrimp) in the tank and just lower the water. I found that my new method is less stressful because I don't have to worry about the fish getting knocked around in the tank during the car ride. So, I would suggest bagging them during transport and saving some of their water in their tank. Good luck!
 

Kuhlifan

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Mar 28, 2007
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Plan your tank and decoration around it. pick a tank that is easy to transport in terms of shape, like a hex. Getting a solid acrylic instead of glass might be good. That way you won't accidentally flex the seals and cause a leak.

I had a 5 gallon I transported from an old job to a new one and it had decorations that were easy to tip. Moving it ended up destroying two plants and causing a permanent tilt to my central decoration. If you plan to decorate with something like plants or driftwood, use something that is solid where it sits and doesn't move around if the tank gets shifted.
 
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