Transfering tanks to different room.

[Satsumas]

We have two tanks in our main living room or lounge, situated at the left and right of the fireplace me and my brother think they look nice. (We are the owners of the tanks though so it may be a little biased)
However my mum want's 'her old' room back and because it's her house we have no say in the matter. Both tanks have to go into my room so in total i will have 3 tanks in my bedroom! I am a little concerned with the amount of water i have to take out of my tank in order to move it.

My tank is a 20gal and my brothers a 30. What would be the best and easiest method of moving the tanks both for us and the fish?

At the moment the best option is for us to take the water level down to a safe level for us to lift the tank but i am worried about the effect of water chemistry as it would be more like a 40-60% water change.

Are there any safer options for the fish that would cause them the least amount of stress possible? thanks.

Here is a picture of the living room at the moment.
http://img204.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc09852bl9.jpg

 

[maxwell1295]

That should not be a problem at all. Just drop the water level in the tank down to a level where you guys can handle it weight wise. Water chemistry is not an issue. In fact, you fish will appreciate a big PWC. Just treat it like a normal PWC. Make sure you use dechlor and match the water temp. Good luck!

 

[coldmachineUK]

Hi there,

I had a similar problem: I set up a 2' tank in my room but the noise from the filters was too much to sleep with. I had to move the tank downstairs and it's now on a rack with another 2' (two-tiered stand).

Here is what we did to move it (and 'we' is important: you won't be able to do this easily on your own...):

#1: Siphoned out 50% of water into buckets (I have 8-10 buckets on hand as necessary lol).

#2: Caught all fish except two botias who refused (and we had a 1 hour time limit for filters etc). Put caught fish into the buckets with the siphoned out water.

#3: Siphoned out remaining water except for 2" worth above gravel level. Attempted to remove plants, but they were all rooted so well that removing them would have damaged them so left them in.

#4: Carried tank, on stand (!), downstairs very very slowly (with loach inhabitants lol). Maintained the level of the tank (i.e. kept it level so water wouldn't slosh and weaken glass and also for the sake of the loaches!).

#5: Placed tank in new location. Poured in most water from the buckets leaving only a few inches worth with fish. Then poured remaining water in with fish.

#6: Topped up as required with new water.

All inhabitants accounted for (and still very much so!).

Depending on the inhabitants you may have to be careful about the order of reintroducing them (i.e. if some are territorial, put them in last).

Ideally remove all the water if you can: we took a risk but only because there were still occupants we couldnt get out. They hid inside a piece of driftwood which had plants attached to it. If I removed the wood I'd have lost a lot of plants (and also botias are difficult to net at the best of times).

If your tank is acrylic you've less to worry about.

ps. Nice looking tanks btw

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You'll have no problem with the water change. I do at least 50% change once a week. Sometimes it's more like 75%, depending on how much time I have.

 

[Satsumas]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm not so keen on catching the fish to be honest, i have actually caught all of my fish and put them into my brother's tank (before he started using it) one of my yo-yo's refused to be caught and wedged himself under a juwel built in filter. It took us ages to catch!

I will bucket as much water as i can to put back in the tank but that will probably be 3 buckets full.

Oh right, i didn't know that my fish would actually appriciate a big PWC!
It would also be a good time to sort all the cables, position of my filter and all the little things like that which annoyed me this time around.
I would think i'd be looking at something like 60-70% water change but with 2 buckets of tank water to top up with.

Thanks coldmachine, i prefer my brothers and he prefer's mine!

 

[Zagz]

60-70% pwc will not be a problem for your fish. I have done 75% on my tanks many times with no ill effects.

 

[clubsuperduty]

I would say your best bet would be to remove as much water as you can into rubermaid containers or buckets and move away you should be fine as long as its not to heavy.

 

[Satsumas]

Yeah i think that is probably the method we will take clubsuperduty.
Maybe this weekend we will have moved them both! Then i will have 3 tanks in my room!

 

[Musket]

Those shelves are wicked! I love the cat statues looking down into the tanks!
Do you have, or can you get those slider things you put under furniture to move heavy objects? Then you can drain just enough to lift the corners... Of course this only works if you don't have any steps to go over or down.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[shayfish]

This all sounds like good advice, but I would just caution you about moving the tank with too much water in it. Keep in mind that the bottom of the tank is meant to take the stress of the water's weight while sitting on a flat surface and also that glass is well suited to dealing with even amounts of pressure over the entire surface of it, but not so much to take pressure in varying ways. Lifting the tank with a great deal of weight inside it may compromise the integrity of the seals. I have been told before never to move a tank with any water or gravel in it. Obviously your tank most likely won't spontaniously explode if you do this but I would take every precaution available to keep stress on your seals as minimal as possible.

 

[Satsumas]

Right the first tank (mine) has been moved.

I took about 70% of water out and then me and my brother just carried it accross.
I didn't take any decor out and it was still pretty heavy, we are going to move his tank today i think so we could take some decor out before doing so.
The fish seem fine and my pleco was out and about and didn't seem to notice anything, the light was off so out she came!
My loaches hid for a while until the tank was in place for the first 10 minutes though.

Thanks Musket, my mum will be pleased.



EDIT: (A story that's worth a read i think...)
Both tanks have been moved and now we are making adjustments and putting the wires, cables, DIY CO2 in places that we should've done before (having a sort out basically)

Anyway, my brother took the water level right down by taking 70-80% of the water out of the tank. Then we started the slow, dodgy process of waddling through the house with a heavy tank full of fish! When we got the tank in my room, i went to get the stand. After the tank was on the stand my brother noticed that one of his zebra or (botia striata) loach was wedged in the piece of driftwood which stands upright completely un-submerged! The wood was about 5 inches above the water level and the poor little guy was out of the water!
He was out of the water from the time that he took the 2nd bucket of water out of the tank! So in total he was out of the water for most of the emptying, the moving and then the positioning of the tank!

He quickly pushed the wood down until it was submerged then he went to get a chisel to break or split the wood to set the loach free. The loach was in a very dangerous position and i personally thought he would loose his right eye (we could just see his mouth and then a piece of wood looked like it was pushing down on his eye.) My brother carefully but precisely broke the wood around the loach to loosen it from the tiny gap it was in. He is still in the wood but is more than likely too scared or stressed to come out, he has been released from the wood but is now in quite a good hiding spot and i think he know's it!