Moving

[C.w.deegan]

I am going to be moving in about a month and I have 3 tanks I need to move a 40 gal a 20 gal and a 10 gal looking for advice on the best way to move them without messing up my cycle and or stressing out my fish to much im only going to be moving 20 mins away 2 towns over if that makes any difference

 

[jake37]

Just preserved the filters in a pail (5 gallon pails are nice they are cheap and commonly available) with tank water. It is fine if the filter doesn't run 3 or 4 hours during the move. You can also put the fishes in pails. In fact i've kept my fishes in pails for a month with a sponge filter with no issue. You will have to completely drain the tank. Depending on the type of substrate you might have to replace it (very fine sand will sometime have anarobic bacteria and if this is disturb it can foul the tank; coarser substrate like eco-complete will move easy enough). What I did is remove all the substrate and put it in pails move the tank resetup the tank - keep the fishes in a pail or two (depends on what kind of fishes you have) until they were ready to add to the tank. One thing I would definitely do is test the water at the new location for ph, gh, kh and if it is similar to your current water you are good to go - if not you might have to slowly adjust the fish to the new water (a lot depends on what your stocking looks like and the type of filters you have).

 

[C.w.deegan]

I have regular aquarium gravle in my 40 and 10 gal and I have sand in my 20 gal my 40 gal is also planted and I have glofish in my 10 gal (kids room lol) my 40 gal is a community tank with mollies plattys sword tails panda Corydoras and mystery snails the 20 gal is a new tank currently in the middle of a fish in cycle I'm seeding it with a filter cartridge I took out of my 40 gal to help speed things up and all 3 of them have hob filters on them with the interchangeable filter cartridges I belive the 40 gal and 10 gal have tetra hobs and the 20 gal is a aqua tech hob filter

 

[C.w.deegan]

I'm guessing the water at the new location will be similar to what I have now all are local water comes from lake Michigan in all the surrounding areas

 

[jake37]

None of the fishes are particularly fragile - just make sure the temp doesn't get too hot or cold. I suspect given the time of year heat is the greater danger. I would start a couple of sponge filters in the tank for a few weeks to month before you move. Then you can put the sponges in the pail in case the fishes spend an extended period in them. You will want to rinse the substrate when you remove it from the tank - rinsing in tap water should be ok - rinsing is not required. The sand you will probably have to replace. As i noted not running the filters for a day probably won't hurt things - when you move the tank you should monitor for water for ammonia (I use api test kit) and if it gets above 0.5 put in a few drops of sachem prime (or similar) to neutralize the toxic effect of ammonia. The cycle should mostly transfer in the filter and sponges. After about a week after the move if you dislike the sponge filters you can remove them but to be honest sponge filters offer a lot of benefits. I use these little 3x3 cube filters - sponges are amazingly dense biological filters and you do not need these monster sponges some vendors sell. People don't realize how efffective they are but for biological filtration they are 5x more effective than hobs. You don't need a monster air pump - a $15 airpump with a $7 splittler valve can run 3 or 4 sponges.

 

[C.w.deegan]

Ok I was originally thinking drain the tanks about half way remove the fish and just bring them straight to the new place and set them up right away and put my filter media in the buckets with the fish but I wasn't sure if that would work or not

 

[jake37]

Well there are people who would advise to drain the tank till nearly empty and leave maybe 1/2 inch of water at the bottom but when i moved my tank i was more conservative and removed everything from the tank so i personally went the route of removing everything. You can try what you are suggesting but no promises the bottom won't give way during the move.Of course for the smaller tanks it is less risky.

 

[jake37]

I wanted to add more information here. The tanks are not designed to have weight on the bottom when moved but what I have read other people do is drain nearly the entire tank and then slip a piece of ply wood under the tank (i.e, they leave the substrate in the tank with just a little water). I personally have not done that when i moved and i would not trust these cheap tanks to withstand the additional weight on the bottom panel while moving. For smaller tanks (5 gallon) it is more likely to work than for a larger tank (40 breeder). I personally would never try moving one of these tanks with anything in them. Also if you are in america and petco is having a dollar sale it might even be easier to just buy a new 10 and 20 gallon tank ($30) and set them up and then just move the filter and fishes.

Also I recommended rinsing the larger substrate in tap water. I personally have found this ok but others would argue that will destory the benefiical bacteria in the substrate. The fine substrate as i said would likely have to be replaced but if you leave it in the tank with a little water it might be ok (but i would never move a tank that way even if others have with success); the reason the fine substrate is more of a problem is that it is more likely to have pockets of anarobic (sp) bacteria and if this bacteria is expose to air it will foul the substrate.

 

[C.w.deegan]

Ok thank for the advise ill just empty the tanks I'd rather not risk messing any of them up. During the move I'm probably going to wake up early and move the tanks first and then after they are moved in and set up ill move the rest to minimize the time my fish have to stay in a bucket if I don't have sponge filters for the buckets can I just put my filter media cartridge in the buckets with a air stone for a few hours wile I set the tanks back up?

 

[jake37]

As long as the water in the pail doesn't get too warm or cold they should probably be fine for 5 or 6 hours (this is a 5 gallon pail with 3 or 4 gallons of water). Just don't feed them the day before you move. Also you will probably want to partially cover the pails to keep them from jumping out. Most of the fishes you mentioned are not jumpers. Just don't cover the pail all the way as the fishes need oxygen - the air stone will help a lot. The live bearers are pretty durable and the temp slowly dropping to lower 70s should be fine i'm thinking more of accidently setting the pails in the sun and the water rising to 90+
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Also don't panic your fishes are pretty durable.

 

[C.w.deegan]

Ok what about my plants should I just put them in the bucket with tank water ?

 

[jake37]

Yea - unless they are so plentiful there is not room - i'd just float them in the pail with the fishes. THey can serve as a 'top' depending on just how many plants you have. Some will sink. Just make sure the leaves are not out of water if they will be in there for several hours (else those leaves might dry out). I've used plants weight (those metal clips that frequently come with the plants) to weigh down the ones that want to stick out of water.

 

[C.w.deegan]

Ok thanks for the help