Advice needed- need to move fish tank soon

[fishbeginner66]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently cycling my 16 gallon tank and in a nutshell, our house is being re-carpeted so the fish tank needs to be moved! I'm planning on waiting until the cycle has finished instead of disrupting it as I'd obviously need to take water out as it's too heavy. My question is when I move it, will having the filter off for maybe a day cause damage to the bacteria in it? Or because it's cycled will it just start working again as normal when I re-fill it and put the fish back in?

 

[librarygirl]

A day shouldn't do much damage if any. Just be sure to keep it wet. If you can add an air stone in the bucket for oxygen that's good too and make sure temps don't drop too significantly, but if you at least keep it wet I don't foresee any major issues. Once you get it set back up just start dosing ammonia again as usual and see what happens. At most you might see some slower conversion for a few days or so if that but it shouldn't be anything major and should bounce back pretty quickly.

 

[fishbeginner66]

Oh ok, so are you saying I could take water out and turn the filter off for the day DURING the cycle and it would be OK? (At the moment the cycle isn't very far along, I'm yet to see nitrites). I was thinking in terms of once the cycle has finished and I'd put the fish in there of having to do the move.

 

[fishbeginner66]

Anyone?

 

[tottenham12712]

Heres what I would do...

Take a 5 gallon bucket, some of your tank gravel and a fake plant or two, and your heater. Throw your filter on the 5 gallon bucket and start it up. Youll be able to continue dosing ammonia and keeping your BB alive and well.