125l Tank Move

[Pang]

I've been looking to upgrade my tank for a while, currently stuck with a tiny 20L tank. The new tank is 125L with a Fluval 205 and about 17 fish. If anyone has had any experience moving a tank of this size could you give me some advice please.

Here are the potential challenges:

-Seller doesn't know what the fish are, but from description its a community tank of several small tetra schools, a few cories and plecs.
- The journey back is an hour, not including setting back up time and dismantling time.
-I can only take a limited amount of the existing water.
-As the seller said he buys whatever fish he likes the look of, I'm not entirely confident its cycled properly although he says it has been running for 4 years.

So heres what I've prepared so far:

- I visited Chiswick pets the other day to get some advise, they suggested I take as much of the water as possible and dose Melafix to re introduce the fish. I bought some large fish bags from them but we couldn't really decide between transporting the fish in a large tub with most of the fish in to prevent them from running out of oxygen. The alternative was to open up the bags half way through the journey and allow them to airate abit. What would you suggest?

- I think realistically I'll be able to take 40litres max as I don't want it spilling into the car. I suggested taking some water inside the tank, but I think I'd end up with an expensive cracked tank. Also I'm no weightlifter, this would almost certainly be infeasable.

-Also suggested was to fill one of the bags with warm water as a heat pack for the fish.

-Seeing as I wasn't sure if it was cycled, the guys at Chiswick said they'd be happy to take some off me if I had to go through the cycling process from scratch. Fish in cycle is't an option and I can steal limited mature media from my smaller tank.

- As I'll be transfering alot of new water into the tank, i'll be using some nutrafin aquaplus just to dechlorinate it.

Are there any potential pit falls I've missed out on with my move?

-would you recommend a second dosing of melafix after re set up.
- Should I tell the seller not to feed the fish the day before in preparation?
- Anything I can do to take more water with me, I'm planning on taking a bucket and one of those large plastic storage boxes with a lid.
- Fish bags or fish in the box?

Sorry for the bullet points, I'm pretty terrible at rambling if I don't

Thanks in advance guys, really excited to get started on this tank

 

[garyspence84]

Fish in bags is defo the best idea on longer journeys. Just make sure to fill the bag to 1/3 and trap as much air in the bag as possible.

If u take the media out the filter and bag it in the water it was sitting in you won't need to cycle your tank. You say its been running for 4 years? Then its pretty much cycled

As for taking as much existing water from tank.... unless you have some air tight drums you can transport it in, I wouldn't bother. Having water in buckets for an hour is asking for trouble. If by the end of the hour, there's any water left in them, I would be VERY surprised. As long as you treat all new water you put back in at your end, then it should be fine.

Good luck

 

[Aquascaper]

Due to the length of time to transport you will have to re-acclimatise everything for temperature anyway so, unless there's huge differences in pH between the old water and the new water, I wouldn't bother with trying to save old tank water and just start with a fresh tank.

 

[Tizer]

indeedy, keeping any of the water is a rather pointless task and will make your life a load easier if you dont have to worry abotu it. bag up the fish, empty the tank, get home, fill it up, warm it up, use a kettle if you need to. put the bags in the water with the fish in them, let them get used to the temp and add a little tank water to the bag water from time to time. if you think moving a 125L tank is a challenge, i envy you. :>

 

[zain611]

i think theres these oxygen tablets you can put in the bags

 

[Tizer]

pointless, just have a 1:3 ratio of water to air. job done.

 

[Pang]

Fish bags does sound like the best option, mess free and the fish won't have anything to knock into. Will 1/3 water air be okay for the length of the journey, I'll open the bags up when I float them when I'm setting up. I do own some of those oxygen tablets, but honestly I don't think they do that much. Temperature wise, I have a fairly large poly box I'll be putting them in and I'll probably still fill a fish bag with warm water.

You're right the filter should be fully cycled, but I'm just worried he cleans out the entire filter everytime he cleans it. With regards to water quality, I think south and west london should both have similar PH's, which is pretty high in Ealing.

As for keeping some of the water, I guess I just panicked abit haha, thinking about it now, that would've been an absolute nightmare of a task. I'm glad you've talked me out of that one

125L move is a massive challenge now, but I'm sure it won't be long till I want to upgrade and fill my house with tanks! Haha

Thanks for the advice guys, Much appreciated