Moving an Aquarium advice

[JLStevens]

I have a 55 gallon tank I have to move in March. I'm moving from a 4th floor apartment to a town home 10 mins away. Not a long distance. But wondering about some advice on how everyone has moved before. This will be my first time moving a tank. I plan on leaving my substrate and 20% water in the tank. I am a bit nervous about everything... Any suggestions, help, what you did/didn't do would be great! Thanks everyone!!

 

[fish wrangler]

I would say 5 gallon buckets for the fish(aerator and prime), plants, and biomedia. Personally I would drain all the water to lighten the load on you, and the bottom panel/seams

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[Nils]

Get mason jars, Tupperware containers, and all that other good stuff and siphon the water into them. Or seize the opportunity to do a huge water change and only leave 25% of the water in there. Haven't had this problem yet so idrk.

Nils

 

[JLStevens]

I would say 5 gallon buckets for the fish(aerator and prime), plants, and biomedia. Personally I would drain all the water to lighten the load on you, and the bottom panel/seams

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I want to leave at least 20% because I have baby cherry barbs that live in my Java moss haha and they are too tiny to net. 5 gallon buckets, check. How long does the water have before dropping significant temperature do you think?

 

[JLStevens]

Get mason jars, Tupperware containers, and all that other good stuff and siphon the water into them. Or seize the opportunity to do a huge water change and only leave 25% of the water in there. Haven't had this problem yet so idrk.

Nils

Yes, I was thinking that same thing. Going to treat it as a 50% water change. Thanks!

 

[fish wrangler]

That depends on the outside weather. If it is really cold out(below 32 degrees F) then I would say 30 minutes. You could test this by leaving a bucket of tank water outside and see how long it takes.

Can you take the java moss anf babies out at the same time? The water weight if you leave 20% is 77 pounds. Add in the substrate and tank weight itself and I would guess around 200 pounds.

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[JLStevens]

That depends on the outside weather. If it is really cold out(below 32 degrees F) then I would say 30 minutes. You could test this by leaving a bucket of tank water outside and see how long it takes.

Can you take the java moss anf babies out at the same time? The water weight if you leave 20% is 77 pounds. Add in the substrate and tank weight itself and I would guess around 200 pounds.

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Ya good idea, they won't be without a heater too long. Just the car ride and however long it takes to get the tank set up again. So all in all probably under 30 mins. And they definitely won't be left outside anyway. Too cold up here, -22 today haha Celsius.

I doubt very much about the babies but once all the big fish are out I'll have to try because that is a heck of a lot of weight. We shall see haha this is going to be quite the adventure. I'm having nightmares about it. Sigh.

 

[Slade]

Plan, plan, plan. Get your fish into Tupperware containers in your old place with whatever water you want to keep. Then empty your tank, move it and set it up at your new place. Now transport the fish to their waiting home.

 

[Ryanplaya]

Plan, plan, plan. Get your fish into Tupperware containers in your old place with whatever water you want to keep. Then empty your tank, move it and set it up at your new place. Now transport the fish to their waiting home.

This is definitely the way to go.

I'd:
1) Drain as much as possible out of the tank (don't forget to fill the 5 gallon buckets with this water to put the fish in)
2) Take the fish out when water level is 50%ish then finish draining to 10-15% would be my guess. It will be heavy if you leave anywhere near 25%
3) Move tank to new place along with fish
- Heat car up in advance and heat new place in advance
4) Setup tank first thing and be sure to use water heated to the same temp they came out of (or close to)
5) Put fish in
6) Live happily ever after