On Friday I moved my 55 gallon to my new place across town. It wasn't a long move (only about a 15-20 minute drive) but I had been very nervous about it!. I am glad to report that 3 days later everyone appears to be happy and healthy in their new home. I did not feed at all the 2 days prior to the move. I bought a half-a-dozen, brand new, 5 gallon buckets with lids from Home Depot. The first thing I did was put about 4 gallons of water and my fish and snails into one of them. I then cut a hole in the top and stuck the wand from my bubble wall in with them. I sat that aside while I got the rest of the tank ready to move. My plants and another 4 gallons of water went into one bucket, my rocks and driftwood plus more water into another, then my filters and thermometer with another 4 gallons into a third. I then scooped out all my gravel and split it between the two remaining buckets with enough water to cover all of it. I then quickly drained the rest of the water from the tank and had a friend on hand to help me load the tank and stand in my truck. We then loaded the buckets into the back seat and headed to the new place. Once there I plugged the bubble wall back in and set the bucket with the fish in it to the side, then got everything else back into the tank. I had managed to bring almost half the water along with everything else, so I only had to add a bit more than 50% new water. The fish and snails were probably in the bucket for about 2 hours, maybe a bit more. By Saturday morning most of the murk had cleared up and everyone was alive and HUNGRY! I tested the water Saturday and Sunday and had no spikes. By this morning the water was clear and everyone seemed to have settled in without any injury or ill effects. YEAH!
Successful Move!
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I'd try pretty much what I did, with the exception that I would substitute the plastic buckets for styrofoam coolers (the kind you can buy at liquor stores). I would think that they would keep the heat loss at a minimum over the longer drive. Do they make an adaptor that would let you plug a standard electrical plug into your car lighter? If you could find something like that it would let you keep an airstone running in the fish cooler.zave2340 said:
You can buy battery operated air pumps at Wal Mart in the fishing section. If you're moving a REALLY far distance, you can season a sponge filter and run the sponge filter to keep the water clean.