Move house, move tank experience

[buddy]

Just sharing details of my 3ft tank move last week. 20 tetras, 4 otos, 3 yamatos, 4 corys, 1 puffer, 5 pencils... plus plants.

Move out...
1. Removed lights and fan from top of tank.
2. Siphoned 2 pails of water from my tank for transport of fish. Started pumping air into the pails.
3. Put my driftwood into the pails for shrimp to hang on to, also some sand.
4. At half tank, removed plants and put into a clean plastic bag with some water.
5. Started catching fish and placing them into the pails (the last few - expecially otos.. hard to catch!)
6. Finished siphoning the water out of the tank and scooped the sand out into a plastic bag (placed in a pail to make it easier to carry, wet sand is super heavy)

The trip...
7. Started by moving tank (very light now) into the car. Next, my tank stand. Lastly, the 2 pails of fish and one of sand, and all the pump, filter, lights, CO2 tank etc.
8. Had to make 2 trips since car cannot store stand and tank together. One word of advice, dont fill the pails too full and use pail covers else water will slosh around!

At destination...
9. Moved the stand first and place in a suitable location in new place.
10. Placed tank on top of the stand and started to add the sand back.
11. Topped up the tank with about 1/5 of water and started adding tank water from the pails being careful not to cloud the water.
12. Replanted my plants and replaced the driftwood.
13. Put the fish etc plus remaining tank water back into the tank (I know this isn't ideal, should probably have done this slower - one cory died on me :)
14. Resetup lights, filter, CO2 etc.
15. At this point, the tank was half filled, I topped up water only after a few days and only then, 1/5 at a time.


In all, the whole process took 3 hours or less for me with just my bro and me. Would have been easier if we had more hands and a trolley

[ongtw]

wow,

sounds like a lot of work to me. i'm gonna move end of this year as well. but luckily my tank is not as big as urs. already thinking how to move them. sigh..

one thing. is it advisable to siphone water out and leave everything inside and move them altogether? my tank is an experimental 1.5ft cube.

[Toshika]

Hi Guys, how about moving a 4ft tank?any ideas how to move it?how about the water inside?

[Simon]

For my 6ft and 4ft, I tear down the 6ft, moved the tank over and rescape. For my other tank, I drain as much water possible, remove some all of the stemmed plants and get my movers to move it over. Luckily, the place I was moving to was only 5mins away :P

[torque6]

Its alot of work..

[Toshika]

how long should the water run (cycle) with the filter on before i put in the plants ann fishes?

[buddy]

When I moved my 5 yrs ago, I got the mover to move my 2 ft tank for. I simply had to put my angel fish and 2 clown loaches into a half-filled pail and drain off 2/3 thirds of water from the tank. The mover just carried the tank under his arms single-handedly, all the while supporting it from underneath at the bottom-center. With a 3 footer, one would have to have the physique of Incredible Hawk to do that!

I contemplated leaving some water in the tank, however, I had too much sand/substrate in the bottom. Plus the place I am moving has no lift!

[buddy]

how long should the water run (cycle) with the filter on before i put in the plants ann fishes?

Hi Toshika, not an expert but for a new tank, at least two weeks. I would cycle with hardy fish and plants. For my setup, not an option since I had no other backup tank. Good luck!