Moving: How do I transport the tank?

C

Carpetbagger

Registered Member
Apr 30, 2005
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I've got a 40 gallon breeder, heavily planted, a large fish population. It's been going for almost 5 years. I'm moving about one hour east of here. How should I transport the tank? I'd love to keep the root system intact, but I don't know how I'd catch all the fish without uprooting all the plants first.

Option one: uproot all plants, put all the fish in a cooler and wrap all the plants. Start from scratch again.

Option two: (The desperate commando option) Drop the water level to about two inches. Put the tank in my truck. Request a police escort.

What do you think? Any other options?
 
would it work to put some sort of support in there, like load it with really soggy paper towels that would keep the plants wet but still not slosh around in the back? iono, just throwing out ideas here.
 
Put the fish in a cooler, trying to save as much of the original water as possible, especially if the water values differ much between location 1 and location 2.
Drop the water level down to 1 or 2" and try to keep the tank covered during the transportation process, or cover the plants and substrate, lightly with wet paper towels.
I have moved tanks as large as 55 gals. this way, but they need support when being lifted with all that weight still enclosed. I like 2X4's used as 'rails' with one person on each end of the tank, to lift from stand to vehicle and back at the new location.
This process can be effective if used carefully.

Len
 
Moving Jack across the world

I remember when I first got my Jack Dempsey. He was 5 years old and lived in Alameda, California. I was 14 years old and living on the central Oregon Coast (Reedsport). We were visiting family there at Thanksgiving and Jack was the "lost interest in" family fish. I begged Mom to let me have him. We loaded him into a five gallon tank, packed it in the canopy in back of our toyota pick-up and my brother, two sisters and I road the 20 hour drive back along Interstate 5, up through the mountains and snow, water splashing and fish totally freaked I'm sure!

Anyway, Jack got home to Reedsport and moved into a 20 gallon, and later 50 gallon aquarium and was quite happy. He lived another four years no problem!

Don't think that's the preferred means of transporting a fish, but then again they don't get much better treatment in truck loads, do they?
 
better safe

Better to uproot, wrap the plants and bag the fish for safety. That wet gravel will be dangerous if it shifts as you carry the tank. The plants will probably benifit from the cleaning of the gravel as well, they say to deep gravel clean a planted tank every year, have you ever done it?
 
I've moved tanks short distances in the past without uprooting everything, but I'm worried about the distance. There is no way I'll be able to catch all the fish given the density of the plant life, and they will suffer on the journey.

After reading your posts and thinking a bit more I think I'll end up tearing it down and starting over. Oh well.
 
If you're only moving an hour away, it shouldn't be a terrible tragedy to lower the water and make the move. I've transported fishes in a half-full aquarium over short distances before. I wouldn't consider an hour a major move. If it were an all-day transport or worse, it would be another issue.

Remember, when these fish were taken to the pet store in the first place they probably had it rougher.
 
I would be worried about moving the 40 gallon breeder with anything in it. It wider than most aqauriums, and I'm not sure how well the glass would hold up during the moving process. I have no experience with this though.
 
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