Moving the tank in the next two days. oh boy

[Homer8]

I am moving my 38 gallon tank either tomorrow or on tuesday to my new apartment and i have some questions and i need some recommendations. Im only moving a quarter mile.

Im trying to avoid a mini cycle with this move so this is how i have planed it. I am putting it on a different stand so i will be able to move the stand there first and not have to worry about the old one. I bought 3, 5 gallon homer paint buckets from home depot and im going to transport the fish in those. I know your not supposed to move the tank with anything in it but i was thinking about leaving a good amount of the gravel in it and i think it would be ok and would shift because i only have about a half of inch of gravel in there. I put a sponge from one of my old filters in the tank a few days ago in attempt to get some bacteria in it so the tank can recover quicker.

Here is how it will go down:
1. take out the decorations(except for the gravel)
2. empty the water and fish into the three buckets
3. put the sponge and filter cartridge in the buckets with the fish
4. move the fish and tank to new apartment
5. set the tank back up

any suggestions or help would be appreciated

 

[allaboutfish]

make sure to keep the gravel wet and as long as the filter and gravel stays wet it'll be ok.

 

[eco23]

If you're moving to a different area that is on a different water supply...I'd try to store up as much water from the old house as possible to use for refilling the tank and for pwc's. Adding the fish into a new tank with a totally different pH would be a major shock. I'd try to refill with as much of the old tank water as possible, and slowly transition them to the new water by changing out a little of the old with the new every few days, until you totally transition from the old water source to the new.

 

[Homer8]

yea i was going to empty the tank up to the top of the gravel and i wasnt going to vacuum the gravel at all. another problem is for a day or two after the move the fish will only be living in about 20 gallons of water. I will have to fill the buckets and the 2.5 gallon containers and let them sit a day or two.

 

[Homer8]

i live in state college pa all the water comes from the same place so i shouldnt have a problem. Im only moving about a block or so

 

[Homer8]

The fish tank is officially moved but not setup completely. I have 15 gallons in buckets aging. the tank is a little more then half full about 20 or so gallons out of 38. The fish all seem to be doing good and hopefully over the next 48 hours if they live i will be confident they will live a long happy life.

 

[Copachick]

Im glad you posted this because I was having the same issues myself. I am about to move, and i have two tanks Ive been worrying about. I was either going to do bucket, or put them all in bags. Im only going 10 minutes down the street so I figured buckets would be ok

 

[Homer8]

yea i put them in two buckets and the third had all the decorations and was filled so they would stay wet. They are all alive and its been almost a month so if they die its not because of the move. i left the gravel in the tank and I left a SMALL amount of water just to keep the gravel wet maybe a half gallon.

This is a picture of the tank now.

 

[Copachick]

Sounds like that will be the plan for me as well. thanks!