Need advice on moving fish tank please...

onlinediamond

We currently have a 55 gallon fish tank in our living room. I found a sweet deal on a 110 gallon tank and couldn't pass it up. Here is my problem. The only place in our living room to put the 110 gallon tank is the same place the 55 gallon tank is at. So, how do you recommend switching the tanks? I thought about getting several 5 gallon buckets and draining the 55 gal into those, putting the current fish in them as well. moving that tank to our dining room and putting that water back in with the fist. Is this safe for them or can you suggest another method?

Thanks!

LasColinasCichlids

The way you are suggesting to do it is almost what I would do...here's the difference...

Fill a few buckets with tank water... 1 for the fish, 1 for the decor & heater, 1 for the gravel (if sand I'd leave it if you can), and keep everything wet to keep the beneficial bateria alive (including the inside of the filter. Throw all the extra tank water out.

Move the tank, put back in the still wet substrate, fill tank a bit with fresh clean dechlorinated water, put back in the decor, fill the rest of the way, start the filter, put the fish back in. This way your bacteria shouldnt be killed off and there wont be a mini-cycle. Since bacteria doesnt live in the water, it will just be like a nice healthy big water change.

Big Fate

Ironic, I just did this same exact move today.

From a 29 gallon to a 55.

The night before I did a real good vac cleaning to get as much waste as I could from underneath the gravel..

This is what I did. Put the empty 55 right next to the 29, laced all the new gravel in the 55 first then drained 1/3 the water out with a siphon into the new tank. Filled up about almost 1/3 of the tank, then carefully slid the old tank out the way (I'm on tile so it was pretty simple sliding) Then i started the siphon process again till all gone and it filled up about almost half of the new tank. Then I scooped up all the gravel out of the 29 and laced it on top of the new gravel. While im doing this, i'm using a cup ever 15 mins pouring tank water thru the filter to keep the ben bacteria alive while filters off. Added my declor, turn my filters back on and walah!