I am moving my tank and have question!

[GdbyeBlueMunday]

I am moving out of my current place this Thursday and am not moving into my new place until August 10th. I was planning on moving my tank from here to a friends, then from my friends to my new place 10 days later. I have a 30 gallon tank with 3 cichlids and 1 pleco. How should I go about moving my tank? What should i store the fish in during the transfer? I was thinking of putting them in those big 3 liter water bottles, but my main question is how should I put them back into the tank once I set it up again? Surely just dumping them into new water is not a good idea, no? Please help! I'm a noob ^_^

 

[1077]

Were it me, (and it ain't) I would drain a little more than half the water from the 30 gal into a cooler. I would place the fish in the cooler with air stone powered by battery such as those used by fisherman for keeping bait alive during transport. I would place all the filter material from the thirty in the water left in the tank after draining what I took out. I would then move the tank to new location and plug in the heater and fill the tank back up with new water that was treated with dechlorinator and was close to temp in the tank. Once the tank was again full with half new water and half old water and was proper temp,, I would then net the fish from the bucket and release them into the tank. I would want this to all happen within a few hours. Some planning is good idea. Hope some of this helps. P.S. After drainning a little more than half the water from the thirty gal. It should be easy for a couple people to move. If fish are left in cooler for more than a few hours, You will need to place a heater in the cooler.

 

[beckyd]

Wow, I like the cooler idea. I just moved 6 tanks. It was quite the undertaking. That should make you feel better I emptied the big tanks completely because I didn't want them to get broken. I put the substrate and plants in a new/rinsed plastic storage container with enough of the tank water to keep everything submerged. I think you can do this in your thirty, but I would bring the water level as low as possible. If it torques and breaks, you have a bigger problem on your hands, so choose wisely. I left substrate and about 2 inches of water in my thirty, but it is a quality tank and not at all flimsy. I put my fish in gallon sized ziplocks, but I like the cooler idea too. I left the fish in until the water was way down. Took them out. Emptied the tank as fast as I could, drove everything to the new location, replaced the substrate, filled it up monitoring the temp, so I could float the fish immediately. I use Prime, and Stability to boost the bacteria. I also used Stress Coat. DO NOT change your filter as logic may dictate to a newbie. Keep it wet and get it going in the new surroundings asap. Acclimate the fish to the temp, check the water parameters like ph to make sure there isn't a big change. If there is, acclimate slowly by adding a little new water at a time to their current water every 15 min or so. The bigger the difference, the longer this should take, a few hours at worst. Keep testing their water and the new water until they match. I even had some sick fish in a hospital tank and didn't lose any of them, so it worked. I monitored the tanks pretty closely after. Give it enough time and attention and you should be fine. In 10 days, repeat. You may get cloudy water. Don't get too bent out of shape and start messing with anything until you have accomplished the second, final move. Best of luck

 

[GdbyeBlueMunday]

Thanks so much for all the helpful info, I greatly appreciate it!!

 

[FroggyFox]

I usually use those 5 gallon buckets with lids (and holes poked in them) or my fish buckets with plastic duct taped around the top for transport. Assuming all of the places you need to move the fish to aren't more than an hour or so drive, they don't need any fancy anything. Fish are usually more resilient than you think they are

Like Becky said, be sure to keep your filter media (pad etc) wet with tank water and don't let it get dunked in chlorinated water.

If you can test the water at your friend's place before you move the tank and know that the ph isn't drastically different...there shouldn't be any problem putting the fish into a tank with all new water (as long as its dechlorinated and a pretty close match to the temperature in whatever they're in). You mostly just want to make sure that you do what you can to minimize the stress of the situation. Extreme temperatures (it is summer afterall), big chemistry changes (pH), lots of sloshing around (while travelling), exposure to chlorine and ammonia (in the holding container)....those are all things that you need to minimize as much as you can.