Having floors refinished...need to move fish!

[joesandy1822]

Hi. I'm new here, and I have a 30-gallon, freshwater aquarium (unplanted) with about 15 platies and 2 nerite snails. I've had it for a couple years, and all is well. I don't have a problem with the fish or setup, but I definitely need some advice.

I live in Michigan. In mid October, we are having hardwood floors installed in our home. The finish we have chosen to use is not animal friendly during the curing process, as in....we have to remove all our pets, including our aquarium, and keep them out of the home for several days.

There is a company who does this type of thing, but they charge $400 to move it and bring it back. I can't justify that for $30 worth of fish, although I do like my fish a lot. What can I do with my fish? I do have an attached garage, unheated though. I could try to transfer them to the garage for a few days, and hope the weather is mild so the heaters will keep up. I just don't know the "how tos" of this process. I don't want to have to spend a bunch of money on extra aquariums to transfer to. Would rubbermaid totes work?

ANY suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm nervous just thinking of possibly killing my bacteria and having to start all over again with cycling, or killing my fish somehow. Some of them are 3rd generation, and it took awhile for me to get the hang of the whole aquarium chemistry thing. I guess the knowledge I've gained would help me set it up new if I lost everything, but I'd rather not.

Thanks a million!

Sandy

 

[leggey]

Get ya self a tank heater, $20 is better then $400

 

[senemedar]

If you have a bucket big enough to accommodate all of your fishy friends, that'll do. Put them into the bucket with the tank water; if you have more buckets then you can try save more water; then is "just" a matter of moving the tank to he garage and put the water back. Rubbermaid will work as well, I kept my fishes overnight in one of those (with running filter and heater of course) and had no problems whatsoever.
As long as you have a way of keeping the filters running in the garage I wouldn't expect any problems. Good luck!

 

[shellieca]

Why not just move the tank into the garage instead of using totes? October shouldn't be too bad ? ? Plenty of people on here have used the totes successfuly, you just need to circulate the water somehow, there is equipment that is battery operated or if you have a plug in the garage all the better. If you can't set up your tank in the garage & you use totes, maybe you can set up your filter in the tote somehow. I know you need to keep the filter wet in order for the BB to survive but I don't know how long it can survive without an ammonia source. Hopefully someone with more experience will respond. Glad to see you're thinking ahead though.

 

[joesandy1822]

Thanks everybody! Will just try to move them into the garage for a few days. Hopefully the fumes won't migrate out there, or I'm in trouble. The ventilation is probably good enough out there that it won't matter (older home).

Sandy

 

[Tetra1990]

Your on the right track. Get a large tote and move fish, water, filter and a heater. If you don't have a heater, just buy one, they aren't that expensive. 20-30$ for a heater vs400$ to 'move' your fish. Pick your poison lol. Good luck.

 

[joesandy1822]

Well, the time has come. Maybe nobody will see this post since it's about 2 months old now, but on Monday we will be getting our hardwood floors installed, and Friday they will put the sealer on. Yesterday, I moved our aquarium to the garage in preparation of the work to be done. I did about 90 percent new, dechlorinated water, and now it is cloudy. I suspect it's a bacteria bloom which should clear up quickly. I kept the existing gravel, and did NOT clean the two filters to keep the bacteria going strong. Everything is good so far, but it was near 70 today. HOWEVER, tonight it is going to drop to almost freezing, and for the next week, it's gonna be in the 30s and 40s during the nights. The garage is NOT heated. I do have 3 heaters in the tank. But heaters are not made to heat that big of a difference. I think I read they are meant to raise water only several degrees above room temperature. So.....going from 36 to 76....I just don't know if they will keep up. I might have fishcicles! They have to be out there for another 9 days.

Wish me luck! And if I'm missing anything obvious, PLEASE let me know.

Thanks,
Sandy

 

[Botanica]

Have you thought about putting a few safe space heaters out there to help warm the air a bit and help the aquarium heaters? Also...wrapping your tanks in thick blankets at night will help hold in the heat from the daytime. Just an idea.....good luck! I've always worried about having to move our 135 gallon tank when we have our floors replaced...which is in the near future...but I'm in California...so not worried about cold...just labor.

 

[Tetra1990]

Have you thought about putting a few safe space heaters out there to help warm the air a bit and help the aquarium heaters? Also...wrapping your tanks in thick blankets at night will help hold in the heat from the daytime. Just an idea.....good luck! I've always worried about having to move our 135 gallon tank when we have our floors replaced...which is in the near future...but I'm in California...so not worried about cold...just labor.

I agree with blankets. But IMO, there are no safe space heaters.

 

[tamtam]

I would do as mentioned and wrap the tank in towels or blankets.

I would also suggest if you can, grab an infrared heater. I have 1 I picked up at the local Costco for about 80 bucks and use it to heat most of the main floor of my house in winter, works great!(I live in Easter Canada). Most have automatic shut off so if the heater start to get too hot or anything begins to be a problem within the heater it will shut it'self off. Just keep it several feet from anything and it should work great to help keep the place warm enough. Good luck!

 

[joesandy1822]

Well, just an update. Last night the temperature dropped to about 39 F. I wrapped the aquarium in a sleeping bag. This morning when I checked the water temp, the 3 aquarium heaters had maintained the proper temperature. I was SO relieved. We didn't want to spend a bunch of money trying to heat the whole garage, so thought we'd just give this a shot. So far, so good! And the cloudiness from the total water change cleared up. My biofilter must have recovered already. Yipee!!

Thanks for the advice, everybody. I'll let you know if anything goes bad, but it looks like unless it gets too much colder, we'll be good here. I'm glad to know this for the future too. Maybe it can help somebody else out there.

Sandy