Transportation / Moving of Aquarium

[Grant R]

Right, simple one here.
Soon, maybe even this evening, I need to move my room around so a few more things fit in / sit flush & so on. Mainly because I want to move aquarium away from the door. People storming in and out are gettin' on my nerves.

Lifting with another person will be too scary for the fish I'm guessing. The maximum, furthest distance the tank will be moved is about 6 - 7 ft I'd say, so not much really. I will temporarily, very quickly, have to disconnect heater & filter too, but this shouldn't cause any problems.

Anyone been in this boat before ?
What do you recommend

Cheers.
G

 

[Guest]

I think we've all been there when we first start, putting the tank in a not so good spot!
Yes, you will have to disconnect heater, lights, filter, that's not really a problem at all, that can all stay off for a while.

Biggest problem is weight/water sloshing. Even an 11 gallon tank is pretty heavy to move, and the water will slosh around a lot even if moved very carefully. Remove at least 3-4 gallons before moving it. Have towels handy as you may well still spill some! Be really careful and take your time, we don't want to hear of any disasters!

Question, Are you moving it with the table it's on or is it going to be put on another table/stand? (it looked to be on a table from the pic you posted).

Another question, is your tank measured in U.S. or Imperial gallons? Just curious, a U.S. gallon weighs 8.3 pounds, I believe an Imperial gallon weighs 10?

 

[jasonit]

Grant,
I would drain itto the substrate, saving the fish and water in a bucket or cooler to put back in after it was moved. I moved a 20 gallon after draining half of the water and the strain actually made the tank begin to leak at 2 of the bottom seams. I learned that lesson the hard way.

 

[Grant R]

The official, factory capacity is ' 11.1 Imperial US Gallons '
I think I will take out a fair bit of the water, then shift very carefully.
It will be moving away from the door, onto a different, more secure stand.

I guess most of this is common sense.
Wish me luck and I'll report back ASAP !!!

Grant.

 

[Katfish]

Moving

Been there,

Two months ago i had to move to a new house, so i disconnected everything and put my fish in a cooler. What got me nervous was when we took them over to my new house. I borrowed a van so we could take lots of stuff over but the suspension on that thing was really tight, every bump was felt pretty much, i could hear the water moving from side to side in the cooler.

When we finally got home i left my fish in the cooler overnight figuring that they had way too much excitement for one day. They looked pretty happy when i put them back in there tank, and glad to say didn't loose any.

Good luck,
Katfish

 

[Grant R]

I ended up taking out about 1 / 4 of the water and surprised myself by actually managing to lift it across the room. Water sloshed about a fair bit, but no tragedys and fish are all OK !
Added a bit of StressCoat too, so now it's just about them settling down for good, as they won't be moved again.

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

Drain the tank a fair amount before moving it and you should be fine, possibly have another aquarium so the fish are not stressed by being moved?

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

haha a little late on the reply, I'm glad it worked.