Alright, It's all moved in. Actually, it's been moved in since the 15th but I've been busy
To move the water, we went to wally world and scored 2 Rubbermaid containers that each hold 31 gallons! For only $8 a piece! That made my day! They were very sturdy (esp. when the lid was on) and I knew we'd be able to slide them right down the hallway. We used them to move both the 55g and the 29g and they were nearly invaluable. I'll definitely be using them again if/when we have to move again.
Here is a brief summation of what we did to move the 55g:
Fill each 31g container with 5g fresh water (to raise the level a bit so that there's more water in the tubs)
Drain about 18-20 gallons of tank water into one of the buckets. Add half of the plants from the tank to the bucket.
Catch the fish and place them in this container. I didnt worry about the otos in the driftwood because I immediately submerged the entire pieces
Remove the rest of the plants from the tank and place in the second tub. Drain about 18-20 more gallons into this bucket.
Took out the gravel and scooped into a couple of 5g buckets.
Carried the tank/stand down the hall and set up.
Dragged the big container with just plants and water down the hall. We set the fluval up and used it to pump most of the water out of the container and into the tank. Add the plants into the tank and just let them float.
Went down and got the other container with the fish and the rest of the plants. Got the driftwood and large swords in place.
I snagged a quick picture of the main Java log to show how attached the Java is and to show how big it is. This is the back side (I didnt realize it was backwards ) so you can't see how pretty it is since all of the nice leaves are facing frontwards on the other side.
(BTW - Note how grouchy chris is getting because "water is dripping on my foot"...poor thing
)
Sucked about half of the water out (again using the fluval to act as a pump) to make catching the fish easier and to raise the tank's water level.
Take the fish out and put them back into the tank.
Added the rest of the plants from that container back into the tank and let them float around.
We only lost 10-15 gallons max of the old water so it wasn't a shock.
Fill the tank with new water up the rest of the way.
I let the plants just float around for awhile so I didn't freak the fish out by waving my hand around in the tank.
After half an hour or so it was clear again...
I still haven't scaped it, yet. At some point during the move I managed to lose my trusty 1' tweezers
and now I need to order some more...
~~~
I will say that I definitely liked using the big containers to hold the fish. It's almost like they didn't even notice that anything was different while they were in there. I purposely put half of the plants in that container so that they'd have hiding places. I was watching them swim back and forth in the container. They had their full colors and the little fish weren't even schooling.
The measurements of the containers we used were pretty big so they had a lot of room to swim around and could have stayed in there for quite awhile. (32.5" X 20.8" X 16.8" or 82.6cm X 50cmX 42.5cm).
Ok, just wanted to finish up this thread
To move the water, we went to wally world and scored 2 Rubbermaid containers that each hold 31 gallons! For only $8 a piece! That made my day! They were very sturdy (esp. when the lid was on) and I knew we'd be able to slide them right down the hallway. We used them to move both the 55g and the 29g and they were nearly invaluable. I'll definitely be using them again if/when we have to move again.
Here is a brief summation of what we did to move the 55g:
Fill each 31g container with 5g fresh water (to raise the level a bit so that there's more water in the tubs)
Drain about 18-20 gallons of tank water into one of the buckets. Add half of the plants from the tank to the bucket.
Catch the fish and place them in this container. I didnt worry about the otos in the driftwood because I immediately submerged the entire pieces
Remove the rest of the plants from the tank and place in the second tub. Drain about 18-20 more gallons into this bucket.
Took out the gravel and scooped into a couple of 5g buckets.
Carried the tank/stand down the hall and set up.
Dragged the big container with just plants and water down the hall. We set the fluval up and used it to pump most of the water out of the container and into the tank. Add the plants into the tank and just let them float.
Went down and got the other container with the fish and the rest of the plants. Got the driftwood and large swords in place.
I snagged a quick picture of the main Java log to show how attached the Java is and to show how big it is. This is the back side (I didnt realize it was backwards ) so you can't see how pretty it is since all of the nice leaves are facing frontwards on the other side.
(BTW - Note how grouchy chris is getting because "water is dripping on my foot"...poor thing
)
Sucked about half of the water out (again using the fluval to act as a pump) to make catching the fish easier and to raise the tank's water level.
Take the fish out and put them back into the tank.
Added the rest of the plants from that container back into the tank and let them float around.
We only lost 10-15 gallons max of the old water so it wasn't a shock.
Fill the tank with new water up the rest of the way.
I let the plants just float around for awhile so I didn't freak the fish out by waving my hand around in the tank.
After half an hour or so it was clear again...
I still haven't scaped it, yet. At some point during the move I managed to lose my trusty 1' tweezers
and now I need to order some more...~~~
I will say that I definitely liked using the big containers to hold the fish. It's almost like they didn't even notice that anything was different while they were in there. I purposely put half of the plants in that container so that they'd have hiding places. I was watching them swim back and forth in the container. They had their full colors and the little fish weren't even schooling.
The measurements of the containers we used were pretty big so they had a lot of room to swim around and could have stayed in there for quite awhile. (32.5" X 20.8" X 16.8" or 82.6cm X 50cmX 42.5cm).
Ok, just wanted to finish up this thread
It's pretty non-intensive as far as needs go.
