I'm going to be moving to a new house next week. It's not far - maybe 2-3 hours by car - but obviously the tank needs to be broken down.
I presently have a 55 gallon tank with 8 largish sword plants (Echinodorus sp, mostly bleheri) and a healthy fistful of water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes). The substrate is baked clay - Walmart Special Kitty cat litter - which I don't intend to save, but I will use the same when I set up again.
My intention at the destination is to end up with everything in a 75 gallon tank with the 55 as a sump.
The tank as it exists now will need to be broken down and dried out Sunday afternoon at the latest. It will be delivered to the new house Wednesday sometime, but I'll have the rest of the house to set up too. The 75 gallon tank and tiered stand that will house the sump tank won't arrive until Friday.
What's the best way to do this? My plan right now is to put the plants in a 5 gallon bucket of water with no substrate and drive them over to the new place, with the fish in two other buckets with sponge filters. The filters will just have to be off for the actual drive, but it's only a couple hours. They will, however, be without light for five days unless I were to make a bare-bones setup (tank, water and light fixture with no substrate) for a few days. Is that necessary or worth doing? If it matters, the light is a 4x54W reflected T5HO.
I presently have a 55 gallon tank with 8 largish sword plants (Echinodorus sp, mostly bleheri) and a healthy fistful of water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes). The substrate is baked clay - Walmart Special Kitty cat litter - which I don't intend to save, but I will use the same when I set up again.
My intention at the destination is to end up with everything in a 75 gallon tank with the 55 as a sump.
The tank as it exists now will need to be broken down and dried out Sunday afternoon at the latest. It will be delivered to the new house Wednesday sometime, but I'll have the rest of the house to set up too. The 75 gallon tank and tiered stand that will house the sump tank won't arrive until Friday.
What's the best way to do this? My plan right now is to put the plants in a 5 gallon bucket of water with no substrate and drive them over to the new place, with the fish in two other buckets with sponge filters. The filters will just have to be off for the actual drive, but it's only a couple hours. They will, however, be without light for five days unless I were to make a bare-bones setup (tank, water and light fixture with no substrate) for a few days. Is that necessary or worth doing? If it matters, the light is a 4x54W reflected T5HO.
