Best Way To Move Tank?

[JasonMichael]

Hey everyone,

I need to move my aquarium to the other side of my room as I'm changing it around, it's 350 litres, I thought of a few options of what to do...

1) empty the water down to 1/4 full then move (there will be 3 of us helping move the tank).

2) empty the water into my old tank along with fish (60 litres), drain the rest of the water from the 350l, move, refill, then place fish back into 350l tank after it has been dechlorinated and temp is okay (this may take overnight I'm thinking, want to try to avoid keeping the fish in the smaller tank overnight as they have grown).

Anyone done a move like this before? Any advice or other suggestions would be great. Thanks!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I wouldn't move a tank that size with water in, every litre weighs roughly a kilo plus the tank weight, not worth the risk, do it empty.

 

[ian_m]

When I had to move my 180l tank across the other side of the room, as having a wooden floor fitted, I emptied as much water as I could into a storage bin (along with most of the fish) and a couple of these @ £3 each http/direct.asda.com/Strata-Flexi-Tub-Red---40L/001232536,default,pd.html. Drained tank to only inch or two of water, as some fish still remained and tank and stand was quite easily moved by two people.

Moved to new location, put saved water back and topped up.

Repeated the whole move again, a couple of days later, moving tank back to original position now with new wooden floor underneath.

 

[fish+peace]

I too have wooden floor and i just drained 3/4 of the water and lifted/slid my old 100l across to the other side of the room. I didn't take fish or anything out though - i think as long as you can move the cabinet without pulling it so there's no friction ie against the carpet then no problem assuming your stand is in good nick - obviously if it's a battered old creaky thing then i wouldn't chance it.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

With help I moved my 120x30x37cm tank on its stand with ~20l of water in the bottom to cover the fish from the front to the back room, all went fine. I would normally have removed the fish, but my Bushfish get very stressed by netting these days and their gill plate spines get horribly caught in my nets. IF i had fish bags to hand, I could have tried catching them in bags like I used to do with my ~18cm Synodontis decora, but furniture and stuff are still all over the place after the kitchen refurb. 

 

[JasonMichael]

When I had to move my 180l tank across the other side of the room, as having a wooden floor fitted, I emptied as much water as I could into a storage bin (along with most of the fish) and a couple of these @ £3 each http/direct.asda.com/Strata-Flexi-Tub-Red---40L/001232536,default,pd.html. Drained tank to only inch or two of water, as some fish still remained and tank and stand was quite easily moved by two people.

Moved to new location, put saved water back and topped up.

Repeated the whole move again, a couple of days later, moving tank back to original position now with new wooden floor underneath.

 
 

I too have wooden floor and i just drained 3/4 of the water and lifted/slid my old 100l across to the other side of the room. I didn't take fish or anything out though - i think as long as you can move the cabinet without pulling it so there's no friction ie against the carpet then no problem assuming your stand is in good nick - obviously if it's a battered old creaky thing then i wouldn't chance it.

 
 

With help I moved my 120x30x37cm tank on its stand with ~20l of water in the bottom to cover the fish from the front to the back room, all went fine. I would normally have removed the fish, but my Bushfish get very stressed by netting these days and their gill plate spines get horribly caught in my nets. IF i had fish bags to hand, I could have tried catching them in bags like I used to do with my ~18cm Synodontis decora, but furniture and stuff are still all over the place after the kitchen refurb. 

 
Thanks for the tips guys, doing this in about 2 weeks time

I wouldn't move a tank that size with water in, every litre weighs roughly a kilo plus the tank weight, not worth the risk, do it empty.

 
Would 1/4 of water left down the bottom be okay you think?

 

[DreamertK]

I did this with my 20g tank. I put my filter media, plants, heater, bubbler, tank water, and fish into a 3.5 gallon bucket temporarily. Then I emptied the tank and put the sand into a pot so that I could rewash all the grime out of it, and then lifted up the empty tank and moved it. Then I refilled the tank and put the heater back in so that the temp could get situated for a little while. Then I put all the plants and decorations back in. And then very quickly I moved the bubbler over and then as soon as possible the fish too. Fish survived, though one of my gourami tore his fin somehow in the bucket.
 
When you have water in the tank when you move it, you also risk cracking the glass and/or spilling water all over the place.
 
Good luck!

 

[JasonMichael]

I did this with my 20g tank. I put my filter media, plants, heater, bubbler, tank water, and fish into a 3.5 gallon bucket temporarily. Then I emptied the tank and put the sand into a pot so that I could rewash all the grime out of it, and then lifted up the empty tank and moved it. Then I refilled the tank and put the heater back in so that the temp could get situated for a little while. Then I put all the plants and decorations back in. And then very quickly I moved the bubbler over and then as soon as possible the fish too. Fish survived, though one of my gourami tore his fin somehow in the bucket.
 
When you have water in the tank when you move it, you also risk cracking the glass and/or spilling water all over the place.
 
Good luck!

 
Hmm intersting, I was going to move all the fish out and water into a huge storage container and leave not even an inch of water down the bottom, just ontop of the sand... do you think that would be okay ?

 

[lalo99]

I personally like to get as much water out of a tank as possible. An inch or so left wont hurt. You dont need to keep all the water in a container. I usually keep half of the old water and then add fresh water to fill tank completely. You might as well get a water change out of it also.

 

[JasonMichael]

Just thought id update, I did this a few nights ago and was quite successful. I drained the water into 2 massive storage containers, tried to get out as many fish as possible which was quite a challenge, could only get 1 or 2 out. Slowly slowly, with the help of 2 other people we moved it (dragged it mainly) across to the other side of the room. I dont know how we managed but we did it haha