Moving a fish tank ...

[twig]

Hey,
I'm going to start making room for an 80 gallon in my room. I need to move the 20 gallon off a table and onto a stand.

Twenty gallons isn't all that much but it's not like I can lift the thing right? I was wondering how low I can lower the water in the fish tank without harming the fish ....

I don't really want to take them out of the tank because I have a lot of cardinals and moving them like that will probably cause a death or two.

What can I do?

 

[Red Tailed Wonder]

sorry im afraid that if u leave water or gravel in ur tank theres a 80% chance that it will crack and you will hav 2 by a new 1.

i did this,,

1 bag up all fish
2 bucket 80% of water
3 remove everything from tank
4 move tank
5 set it all back up!

 

[TheZoo]

yeah, i wouldnt try to move the tank with the fish in it. theyd slosh into the sides and each other, and might hurt themselves. It would be easiest to do what was suggested above - put the fish in a clean container of some sort, siphon out just about all of the water, remove everything and move the tank. Then you can have fun redecorating and reintroduce your fish. You may be able to leave the gravel in, depends on how far you are moving it and how strong you are! Id do this with some help, at any rate, in case of disaster.
why are you thinking that moving the cardinals will kill them?

 

[webcricket]

One gallon of water equals about 8 pounds, then figure in the weight of the gravel/decorations and the aquarium itself (especially if it is glass) and your 20 gallon probably weighs in a 200 pounds. Now two strong backed people could move 200 pounds with no problem, however, as other have pointed out, if the tank is subjected to that kind of pressure during a move odds are not in your favor.

That said, I had to move one of my 20 gallons to a new stand a few months ago. I emptied all but 4 inches of water (left the fish in). We then picked up the current stand with the aquarium on it (less uneeded pressure on the aquarium itself) and moved it away from the wall leaving just enough room to put the new stand behind it. We then lifted the aquarium straight up carefully holding each corner (lift from anywhere else and you will split seams) and back on to the new stand. All in all the aquarium travelled about 16 inches max through the air and thank goodness we had no mishaps. Even emptied so much it was still very heavy, so be careful!

 

[azrednex]

take the water down about 3/4 of the way and move the tank I've done this lot's of tomes with no ill affects.

 

[twig]

Cardinals don't deal well with the stress of being moved.

I'm only moving the tank from one end of the house to the other.

I can't move it with a stand because its on a table o.o
i'm going to just bring it down to 3/4th then get a bud to help me move it across the house to it's new stand.

 

[jaymasta]

I have done it as well with a 10 gallon and a 29 gallon, just remove most of the water, and any big heavier objects and you shold be ok, the main thing you want to make sure of, is to keep your biological filtration bacteria alive, wherever it might be, or one whatever biomedia you use, make sure you keep it wet, preferable submered in aquarium water...do not keep it wet with untreated tap water...

 

[VippiN]

I have done it as well with a 10 gallon and a 29 gallon, just remove most of the water, and any big heavier objects and you shold be ok, the main thing you want to make sure of, is to keep your biological filtration bacteria alive, wherever it might be, or one whatever biomedia you use, make sure you keep it wet, preferable submered in aquarium water...do not keep it wet with untreated tap water...

So I assume when moving a canister just to leave it full?

I'm moving house shortly and changing to a larger tank, was thinking to put as much water in buckets as possible and bring it to the new place, that'd fill half the new tank. This way the cycle process will take not much time at all if any, it'd be like a huge water change.

yes/no?