Moving a tank

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baxter

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Mar 25, 2003
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Does anybody have a better idea?

I'm getting married in March, and therefore will need to move my 55 to a new house (luckily it's only about a 15 minute drive from where I currently live). I've purposefully kept the stocking low because I knew I was going to have to move it soon.

My current plan:
Purchase a large Rubbermaid storage container - probably about 30 gallons or so.
Cut back on feeding a few days prior to the move.
I want to move as much water as I can, but knowing that water is extremely heavy, I don't want to have to carry it. So, I plan on keeping the container in the suv (after it's been thoroughly rinsed of course) and siphoning the tank water into it using a garden hose (again thoroughly rinsed). After I fill up the container, I'll put the fish in, seal it up, pack up the tank and the stand and head over. Reassemble the tank and stand and siphon the water back into the tank. Once I get enough in there I'll put the fish back in and be done.

Now I'm sure there's holes here, so fire away!
 
just make sure the tub's temp doesn't drop too much. The drive is only 15 mins, but the time that the fish will be in the container is gonna be at least a couple hours
Maybe add a heater to the tub while its waiting to be transported, and when you get to the new place and set up the new tank.

Unless its really warm outside :D
 
your plan sounds pretty good.

saving the water is far less important than saving the filter media and keeping the current gravel moist as to maintain the bacterial colonies. when i moved 20+ fish from new jersey to florida along with all of my other earthly possessions, it was clear i couldn't move all of the water! i brought my fish in two coolers...a rubbermaid container will be a fine replacement for this for a short trip. i only brought about 5 gallons of water in those coolers, so my 50g had 90% new water. all of my fish survived the trip. now, if you can easily move more water than this, it's certainly a plus. of course, there are risks siphoning the water through a garden hose (there could be latent chemicals or minerals in the hose, for example), so i wouldn't even do that if i were you. it's probably more work than it's worth, basically.
 
I moved 90G tank, I took one 5G pail with the fish, kept gravel wet in another bucket and no problems at all. Took several hours to move and setup tank again. Good luck!
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'd always heard that it's extremely important to take as much water as possible, that's why I was focused there. I had planned on keeping the gravel wet the whole time, but hadn't thought much about filter media, including the bio-wheel. Of course I'll make sure both will be wet the whole time now.

Thanks again!
 
Scratch the heater idea and spend a few extra bucks on a big cooler. I'm sure you would use it sometime in the future anyway. I just moved my 150 and put all my fish in a 50 gallon cooler (Probably much bigger than you would need, and quite pricey), moved it in the back of a pickup and it was 25 degrees out. It was about a 20 minute drive. We brought them into the house right away. They had to stay in there for 12 hours and the temp dropped from 80 to 74 in that time, with no heater. I just made sure to put an air bar in with them.

You should really only need to worry about keeping 50% of your water. Consider it a 50% water change. Otherwise the plan is sound. One thing to consider, which screwed me up. Unless the cooler is higher than the tank, it's almost impossible to siphon water uphill. :sick:
 
Originally posted by baxter
Does anybody have a better idea?

I'm getting married in March,....

Now I'm sure there's holes here, so fire away!
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Don't do it!!!

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LOL :D

It's a good idea to use most of the water from the tank. Keep your lights off for awhile after the new set-up is in place.

And, good luck with both endeavors!! :)
 
skip the water.

i didn't see a battery operated airpump mentioned? they're pretty cheap, only around $15 here, cheaper online.

put the filter pads and/or bio wheels in a ziplock with some tank water. NOT full, they need water *and* air to survive. same thing for the gravel, keep it wet, but not "drowned". being exposed to air won't kill bacteria, not having it will. it will also die if it dries out tho.

load up the tub or whatever, add fish and away you go. heat would also be good as mentioned.

i think that's about where i diverge tho, acclimate the fish to the new water slowly and then chuck the old. or only use what you brought with the fish. there is no need to start the tank back out with extra pollutants that imported water will bring. the bacteria is adhered to surfaces not suspended in the water column. very little of what's in the used water column suspended will do you any good.

good luck
 
Originally posted by ewok
skip the water.
...
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Could there be a huge pH difference by not using the same water, or at least part of it? After the stress of moving, and the tank has settled down, then water changes should be done.. Just my opinion.. Maybe even after a couple days a water change would be good.
 
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