?? about moving my tank

[rosie]

Hi all,
I have a 20gal tank w/ 10 barbs and 1 little albino rainbow shark. I'm moving only 20 blocks down the street. When I set up at the new place, I wanna use this 18gal tank I have. I thought that would make the move easier, if I don't have to break down and set up the same tank.

I'm wondering if saving only about 5 gallons of the original tank water is too little.

I'm asking this cuz there's this other twist in my moving situation. I actually need to move my setup once within my current home before I move it to my new place, cuz I need to get rid of the dresser the tank is currently set up on. I was thinking for this first move, I would put everything into this little 6gal tank, which could be filled completely with water from the current tank. The community would be in there about 1 1/2 weeks and then moved to the new place, into the 18gal. But, so, if the fish move from a 6gal to an 18gal, I can save only so much original tank water.
What do you think (assuming that all made sense :? )? I thought of this plan just cuz it would make moving the community as easy as possible. Should I come up with a different plan, just for the sake of saving more of their original water?
Sorry to be longwinded. Hope some of you can help.

 

[Guest]

The original water is far less important than the gravel, where all of your good bacteria live. keep the same grave through both moves, feed the fish very little during this time, and your plan should work fine. % gallons original water should be plenty. keep all your old gravel, filter, and decorations wet, and your good bacteria will be ready when you reach the final destination with everything.

 

[rosie]

Hey thanks for replying. But you know what, I didn't know that about the gravel. I actually had planned on using a new color at the final destination. Do you think if I use my siphon thing to move the water from tank to tank, that would preserve some of the good bacteria? You know, since it stirs up the gravel, like when you use it for cleaning. And just to clarify, when you say to keep the decorations, filter, etc wet, you don't mean submerged in water right, but just wet?
Thanks for you help, corvuscorvax.

 

[andra]

when you set up a new tank you should let it run for at least 1 week before moving your fish into it so it can set up a biological filter. If you use the same filter from your 20 gallon tank it should be ok. Also a six gallon tank might be too small to house all your fish even for just a week and a half. barbs eat eachother when they are in cramped quarters ( saddly i found this out the hard way when i moved last summer) I found the best way to move fish is to put them in a cooler with their original water and transport them that way.

 

[deli_conker]

This article should help clarify some things about what corvuscorax was telling you...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=21

It's about the nitrogen cycle and the bacteria that make it happen. It's probably the most important thing to know about concerning keeping fish in an aquarium. It should explain why you need to hold on to your gravel, filter media and keep your plants and decorations etc. submerged.

Basically, the bacteria grow on all the surfaces of your tank including the gravel and decorations. If they sit out in the air, they will die. If you handle them a lot, they will die. When you have a new tank it won't have any bacteria in it. You'll have to start from scratch. By keeping the old gravel and deco's intact, you won't have to worry about cycling again, the bacteria will already be there ready to colonize the new tank...

I wouldn't worry about keeping your old water unless the water at the new place has radically different parameters as far as gh, kh, and ph are concerned.

When you set up the new tank, you can use the new gravel (make sure you rinse it well), just make sure that you use the same filter media (lots of bacteria there) and put some of the old gravel into a mesh bag in your tank or in your filter if it has room for such things. Go ahead and add the fish. The bacteria will starve if they don't have any waste to eat.

As far as the temporary holding tank, I think it really depends on how long they are going to be in there. I put eight african cichlids into a 10 gal tank for about 3 hours with no problems. They were too shook up about being moved to mess with each other. The 10 gal was also already cycled, so I didn't have to worry about waste build up either.

Let us know how it goes...

 

[malkore]

very little bacteria lives in the water column...it's all on the tank walls, filter, filter media and gravel (plus any decorations)