Changing Tanks

[phillippa42]

I'm thinking of getting a bigger tank, but the only place I could put a new tank is where the current one is. Obviously the tank is too heavy to lift off the cupboard when full of fish and water.

So do I empty most of the water out of the old tank, put some in the new tank so both tanks only have a bit of water in. Then quickly swop tanks and get fish from one to the other. How much depth of water in a 3ft tank can I have in and still expect to be able to shift it (2 people). I'm hoping that whatever the depth is it will be enough for the fish even if only for 10mins. I don't have any big fish - loaches, neon tetras, betta, zebra danios, bn plecs.

thanks

 

[tnhowery]

Hey there whenever im moving tanks i just have an extra tank lying around that i fill and run my filters on with the fish in it, and i would put some of the old water in the new tank. What will you be doing to cycle the new tank?

 

[Fishkrazy1]

I'd say empty the tank like 90% into BIG plastic containers and put the fish in them, then move the tank and the stand mabye like 10ft or even less away, refill it with the water from the containers and the fish (of course!) then set up the new tank and begin the cycle... also if you have 2 filters on your old tank, use one of them because of the mature media and it will help to cycle the tank pretty quickly... I just restarted my 55gallon tank 2 days ago and because of the filters that I used on the tank before ( for like 6 months) I was able to restart the bacteria quickly, it's almost ready for fish 2-3 more days I'll wait 1 pleco in their just because he's too big for my 29gallon tank

 

[Tolak]

Aquariums are designed to be moved empty, moving them with water, substrate, etc. stresses the seams, risking leaks in the future.

Best bet is to get some 5 gallon buckets to hold the fish, some water, and to keep your filter media wet. After removing everything from the old tank, move the old tank and place then level the new tank in the desired spot. Add your substrate, some water from the old tank, & the fish. Fill the rest of the way with fresh water, then set uo you heater & filter with cycled media.

The filter media is what is cycled, the tank is just a box that holds water. You could take a normally stocked & cycled 10 gallon tank, remove the cycled filter & fish and add them to a 100 gallon tank, and the filter will support that bio load.

 

[noodles]

I just carried out exactly the same manouver all be it on a smaller start and finish tank, I went from a 10G tank to a 25G tank. I emptied the 10G into a couple of buckets, caught the fish, put them in one of the buckets (try catching shrimp in a net to move and watch them run over the floor - but thats another story!) put the heater in the bucket to keep them warm.

This left the tank about a 3rd full of water which was now light enough to move - your tank will still probably be too heavy so bin the water left if you dont have any more buckets or containers.

I then put the new tank on the stand filled it to half full with treated tap water, set up the new heater get it to the right temp, add the old filters and get them working (as Tolak said as long as the filters dont get dry they will keep on working). Re-caught the fish and floated them in a bag of their original water, topped up the new tank with the old water, and released the fish.

This was done a couple of weeks ago and everyone and the water is fine and happy!

I would say though that it took me about 4 hours in total so set aside a lot of time! good luck!