transporting a established tank

[demonicbrittany]

so as im a single mother buying brand new isnt a option for me. I found someone who is going to sell me a 20 gallon tank. it has a aquarium stand, filter, heater, lid with light, vac, all chemicals and even the fish. they are gonna sell my there entire fish possesions so to speak. it has a angel fish and some tetras all for $50.
i was thinking this was a good idea as it is a already cycled and established set up. I would just have to transport it to my house and bring them back to a happy aquatic life once refilling the water i would have to take out for transport. I would like advice on if this is a good idea or am i taking on more than a newbie should. I dont want to kill the poor fish but starting from scratch and having to do my own cycle just seems very time consuming. any advice would be great

 

[eco23]

Welcome to the site

I've moved tanks before and it can be a borderline nightmare (especially for your back), lol.

The key is going to be keeping as much wet as you can. If you've read up a bit on cycling, I'm sure you know that the beneficial bacteria that are so important to your tank live mostly in the filter media...but also on every surface of the tank, decorations, gravel, etc... Any surface that has bacteria that dries out = dead bacteria

Assuming you'll be removing the fish, breaking everything down and moving it...I'd put every piece of filter media, decoration and hopefully the substrate in buckets under water for the transfer. You should still be very cautious and closely monitor your ammo, no2 and no3 levels with a quality test kit like an API master kit to make sure there is not what's called a min-cycle due to loss of beneficial bacteria once everything is set back up.

You can use your own tap water (dechlorinated of course) in your house once the tank is set back up instead of transferring all the water...but you'll want to slowly acclimate the fish to their new water, just as you would if you just brought them home from the store. I always drip acclimate personally, but a nice, slow bag acclimation is fine too unless you have extreme pH, hardness, etc...issues.

I wish you luck and hope you have some strong friends

 

[alex07]

Well said eco.

Since its a 20 gallon, you can use 3 or 4 5gal buckets. In 1 bucket you can put the fish and in the other buckets put the filter media, decor, etc... Try to fill the buckets with as much water as possible from the aquarium.