Moving a 55 gallon and a 3 gallon, need advice

[papa_bear_21]

We are looking to move, and will be taking our tanks with us. We have a 55 gallon tank, stocked with: 3 dojo loaches, 2 golden dojo's, 3 khuli's, 1 black lyre tail mollie, 1 baby mollie, 1 baby guppy, 2 black skirt tetra's, 1 gibbi pleco, 1 common pleco, 3 rasbora's, 1 platy, and a couple others. How big of a container would I need for this clan, and what are the minimum supplies we would need to outfit this container? We will only be moving about an hour away, would I need any kind of filter, or would air work? Also, what do I do about the substrate, do I put that in the container with the fish? Also, the 3 gallon tank is our guppy fry tank, containing about 10 fry, how do I move them? Would it be a good idea to add another bag of substrate to the 55 gallon, to bring the tank to the appropriate amount of substrate, before adding the old substrate so that the new is on the bottom?

Thank you for the help in advance,

Bear

[Zagz]

It should be relatively easy for you to move. Get some rubbermaid containers and remove the fish the day of the move. I ran airstones in the containers until we actually left the house. Keep your filters wet during the move and your bacteria will be fine. It is like doing 100% water change. I did it with 12 tanks and not one loss. Other than the rubbermaid containers for the fish, you shouldn't need anything you don't already have in the tanks. It is a good idea to not feed the fish the night before the move. The fry you can feed a small amount. I would put the new substrate on the bottom and the old on the top as you suggested.
As for the guppy fry tank, you could easily remove 2/3rds of the water and move the whole tank.

[papa_bear_21]

Thank you Zags

should the substrate be kept seperate from the fish or in the totes with them? how big and how many totes should I use? I dont want to go to heavy, as my fiance and I will likely be the ones carrying them. Would be be able to have the 29 setup and add the fish from the totes into it and bring the big tank on the next trip? I dont want to stress them too bad, but also dont want to over load any vehicle...

[Zagz]

I kept the fish and susbstrate separate because it was easier for me. Keep in mind water weighs 8.35lbs per gallon I believe. The fish from your 55 gal can most likely all be kept in 2 containers. You need only fill them up 1/3 of the way as long as the fish have enough room to move around and not be touching the bottom of course. I bought 40 gal totes because I had cichlids. Check the prices you may find the 20 gal ones cheap enough. You could put the fish into the 29 gal and then transfer them later, just run the filter from the 55 gal on the 29 to keep it cycled if not moving the same day. My fish were in the containers for 6 hours about and were fine.