Moving cross-country. Worth it to keep gravel?

[frefaln]

Hi folks! First time poster, long-time fish lover. This might be a stupid question, fair warning.

I'm moving from WA to PA as of Monday, so today I had the sad task of donating my fishies to the local pet store. I have a 32ish-gallon tank that I'm taking with me, but I'm wondering if keeping the gravel would speed up the cycling process when I'm settled in PA and start up the aquarium again? Would it actually hurt the process?

 

[Andrewz00]

well... are you driving? or flying?

if you can keep the gravel wet the entire trip you should be able to maintain most of the beneficial bacteria.... if not then no... a complete new cycle will be the way to go... not sure if they will let you on a plane with a bag of wet gravel?


oh yeah! WELCOME!!

 

[frefaln]

Ah, yeah, I forgot to mention I'm driving. So that's about 5 days on the road, then maybe a week or two before I'm settled into an apartment. I didn't know how long the bacteria would survive in a closed container full of the gravel.

 

[RaptorBro]

just loose the gravel PA is cheap on that stuff... go with sand lol

 

[JohnPaul]

What kind of filter do you have? The better thing than gravel would be to keep the bacteria on your filter media alive. That means you'd need to put it in a bucket of some tank water, keep the temps reasonable, and probably add a bit of ammonia to the water every day or every other day just to give the bacteria something to munch on.

I would think that would be much easier (and lighter!) than trying to keep a 32 gallon tank's worth of gravel.

EDIT: If you end up bringing nothing, then once you get your tank set up in PA the best thing to do would be to get some gunk from an established filter so that you can more or less "instantly" cycle your tank. Some pet shops will give you filter gunk out of one of their filters if you ask. Or another option would be to check to see if there is a local fish club nearby and go to their first meeting and ask someone there; anyone active in a fish club would understand exactly why you are asking for filter gunk and I am sure would be more than happy to give you some.

 

[frefaln]

Thanks JohnPaul, that's not a bad idea (asking for the gunk). I think you're right, it's a bit silly for me to lug this gravel 3,000 miles when it'd require quite a bit of babysitting just to keep the bacteria alive. I think I'll just start over in PA w/ some hopefully-donated gunk!

 

[mgamer20o0]

where in pa? might be able to point you in the right direction for a kick start.

 

[BigJim]

+1 for keeping the filter running. Keeping the substrate would help, but keeping it warm and fed could be a real pain.

 

[Bigzmey]

Bacteria in the gravel are not going to die in a week or two. Plants and fish survive in the mail for a few days and bacteria are much simpler and robust organisms. Don't need to add ammonia. It will be a good idea to take one or two 1 gal jars filled with some gravel and aquarium water. This way you will be able to seed your tank.

 

[dkpate]

Whew! That's a long drive! I moved from the extreme NE part of WA to Issaquah, and that was long enough!
Good luck on the move, and the drive.

 

[MarkA123]

Is it a biowheel filter? if so just put the bio wheel in some water and maybe some ammonia, if not you could just use some tetra safe start when you get there. It probably wouldnt be worth it to bring all that gravel and babysit the bacteria all the way there, just my opionan.