im moving my tank on sunday to my new house......any tips?

y2blade

im moving my tropical freshwater tank on sunday (about 8 miles).....any tips on moving the fish?

thanks all in advance

hamdogg08

How big is it?? What I did with my 75 gallon was bought a hose and a bunch of 18 gallon rubbermaid totes. Pull your car/truck up to the closest window. Put the rubbermaids in the trunk/bed of the truck, and then siphon the water into the totes from the tank. Once you're at your new place, you'll have to use 5 gallon buckets to empty the totes, but you won't have to cycle your tank and if you're only moving 8 miles, the fish should be able to just be tossed back in with the water.

-Try to get totes with tops
-Unplug your heater B-E-F-O-R-E you start draining the tank!!(trust me)

hamdogg08

-Oh, and I just fill a 5 gallon bucket and put my fish in there. Take a trash bag with a bungee or big rubber band to minimize the splashing while you're in the car.

jsm11482

When we moved in March I bought a bunch of 5gal buckets with lids, filled 'em up and that's it. They are heavy but it is very easy to transport them. I put the fish in large plastic bags and then in styrofoam boxes (the cheap coolers work, too). The styrofoam keep the water much warmer than a bucket would. Probably wouldn't hurt to add some stress coat stuff, too. Keep as much water as you can; keep the filter(s) or at least the media wet. Good luck!

y2blade

thanks for the advice guys :)

caferacermike

If I've said it a thousand times....

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to save old tank water. Period. Cycling occurs in the substrate and on the surface areas of filters and decorations. The trick is to clean your filter about a week before moving so that it is clean at the time of the move but full of bacteria. Use the old tank water to rinse your substrate as clean as you can get it to remove trapped waste. Rinsing it with the tank water will keep the bacteria alive. When you get to the new place, if you can, use RO/DI water as it is so clean the fish won't even notice it. Of course the tank will mini cycle, as will any tank from that much disturbance.

Old tank water is just that, old tank water. You will have so much trapped waste released even after setting up at the new place, why mix that with old nasty water? Think of it as doing the biggest water change ever. You probably needed a water change anyways.

jsm11482

So by this logic, there is nothing wrong with doing a 100% water change. What about kh, gh and ph changes? Also, how long should you run a tank after moving it before putting fish in it? I waited over night last time.

Amphitrite

When moving fish into a new tank, I have always taken half of the water from the old tank. My reason for having done this was to prevent a large change in pH.

I suppose it could be argued that when introducing fish from the LFS into a tank at home, we don't bring half of the water from the tank at the LFS and put it into our own tank. I've just always felt uncomfortable with a 100 percent water change.

fish_4_all

IF the pH and GH are too much different, adjust them before adding the fish to the tank.

To add a good reason to CRM's post, I have read in a couple different places that water that has no circulation and airation can change drastically in both pH and GH due to loss of oxygenation. Also, if the move is going take more than 2 hours the temperature can change a lot and if not checked the fish could be shocked by that.

Many times we will do large water changes, I do 50% at least every week, when I remember, and I have never seen any stress from the fish. I have even gone as far as doing 2-3 50% water changes in one day when I get really nasty green water without any negative effects. GH swings can have much more profound effect on fish. If you are worried about chaging parameters, trickle feed the buckets with the fish in it for 6 hours to acclimate them to the new water.

As far as saving water, the only water you need is just enough to make sure the substrate stays wet if you use UGF because the gravel will have a majority of the bacteria in it. I would also add an airstone to the tank if you can if the gravel will be without circulation for more than a couple hours.

caferacermike

I drain my 125g tank down to about 4" of water, just enough for all my plecos to remain underwater when doing water changes. I'd say it's about a 90% water change every other week.

It's easy enough to quickly replicate natural water conditions when needed using buffers. RO water makes all of that super easy. And how exactly do you keep your PH where you do? Most folks do nothing to control the PH. It naturally goes up or down in the tank over a period of time. Fish can handle changes for short periods of time in regards to PH, KH etc.. They will stabilize in a day or 2. It's keeping it pegged for a long period that causes the most harm. The 2 fears in moving tanks is CO2 build up and temp swings.