moving my tank...
- Thread starter matt100
- Start date
I would take all of the water out as shifting water can change the pressure on the bottoms of large tanks and cause the glass to break. The gravel wont dry out and the bacteria will be fine. Just my opinion, but better safe than sorry.
Take out as much of the water as you can.
Leaving a few gallons in can cause some sudden shifts in load that could throw someone's balance off. Or it could stress the silicone seams in ways you might not find out about for a week or two.
Lightweight makes for easy moving.
If the fish are going in a bucket, then there's no harm in moving some water along with them; but then again, there's no harm in a really big water change (assuming similar temps and parameters, etc).
Leaving a few gallons in can cause some sudden shifts in load that could throw someone's balance off. Or it could stress the silicone seams in ways you might not find out about for a week or two.
Lightweight makes for easy moving.
If the fish are going in a bucket, then there's no harm in moving some water along with them; but then again, there's no harm in a really big water change (assuming similar temps and parameters, etc).
All the books i have red so far have the same warnings "don't change all the water at the same time"carpguy said:
However i would suggest keeping as much water as possible in buckets and
empty the aquarium completly. Even the sand if the aquarium is big.
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As for not changing all the water a once I think that would be because of a shock in PH and temp. Then you have to think about most people have town or city water that is treated. Getting out the chlorine with some of the cheaper water actives will raise you ammonia a bit.
I just moved my 20 long today. I saved about 12-13 gallons of the original water (I tried to siphon off water without stirring up too much debris). I removed the gravel and gave it a quick rinse. That left about 1 1/2 inches of nasty brown water which was dumped down the drain. I gave the aquarium a quick rinse. It was set back up in its new location with the original water and topped off. I added appropriate amount of stress coat, kept the old filter media and did not scrub any of the tank decor (saving the bacteria). The fish were back in their tank within 2 hours. :dance
jimmy927 said:
I just went over and checked two books and sure enough, they said fairly small (10-20%) water changes about once a week. One said it was to protect the good bacteria, the other said it was to keep the aquarium enviroment stable.
The bacteria aren't free-floating in the water. You don't remove them at water changes.
By making larger regular changes you'll increase the stability of the tank and keep it consistently closer to source.
So neither book makes much sense to me.
There was a great thread that discussed water changes not so long ago. HappyChem's post at slot #9 was especially good.
Assuming the temp and parameters are about the same, there is no harm in a large scale water change. If you do a lot of small water changes and the tank deviates from the source then you may wind up with a problem.
Keep as much water as you like. Or as little.