Help Needed-moving With Fish!

[Peddles]

Please, could any one give me advice! We are moving from one home to another...its 10 km away. I've got a full and active fish tank....It takes 180 litres, so it's VERY heavy with all the rocks, ect. I'm very worried about the moving, I'm worried about the temp dropping, the shaking af the water, bumping and PLENTY of stress that it's going to cause my fish, aspecially my silver dollar. I thought of taking the rocks and stuff out, that might hurt them, and taking out halve the water. But please can you advice me how to do this the less stressfull way.

Thanx

 

[drain_bamaged]

10 km is what? 30-50 min drive in traffic? you can safely bag the fish up and they will be fine to transport. If you dont feel comfortable doing that, or if they are too big, you can still bag them up, and then put them in a box which will hold the temperature (say, a picnic box), and fill this up with water at the right temp as well.

I would advise that this is one of the last things you move, and make sure you have a space for your tank, and fresh water etc...ready so you can put them straight into the tank.

Move the tank, rocks etc... seperatly, you will not be able to move this as a whole unit, can you imagine if the tank falls, youve lost all your fish! transport the fish seperate from the tank!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Put the fish in a bag with 1/3 water and 2/3 air and they should be fine for a couple of hours in there. Then put all of the bags of fish in a box and cover it. This will keep the inside of the box dark to reduce tress and maintain temp.

DO NOT transport the tank with ANYTHING in it! Take out EVERYTHING; all rocks, water, decor, substrate, take out everything!

Tanks are designed to hold a lot of weight in a stable non-moving (static) position. When you start moving tanks with stuff in them, especially a tank your size, that puts tremendous amounts of stress on the tank which could cause catastrophic failure to the tank!

-FHM

 

[Peddles]

Sorry to sound stupid, but how do I get air into the bag? And how do I fill the tank up with new water, because I know I'm not suppose to put more than 30-40 % of new water in when cleaning it?...It's 20 min drive away....Will catching the fish not cause terrible stress? How many fish can I put in one bag together? Can't I just put them in a big container, eg a bucket and cover it with plastic? Is it save to move the rocks and stuff and just put it back, without contaminating it....Wow, I'm very worried about this!!!

 

[drain_bamaged]

if you must use your old tank water, you will need to buy those massive containers more LFS sell so you can take home RO water, but you can do a 100 % water change straight from the tap, just make sure to dechlorinate and to heat the water first (if the place you are moving into has a combi boiler and heats the water direct from teh mains, you can use that)

 

[fatheadminnow]

LOL, you will be just fine!

You are not sounding stupid. Every question is a good one!

Think if this, the fish that we have at our LFS have to be transported there through truck loads. So these fish can survive a little 10 Km trip, lol.

Just though all your decor in a bag or something that is clean. You will not hurt the rocks or anything. You can if you want, when you get to your new place, just poor hot water over your rocks/decor to clean them off, but this, I think, is unnecessary.

Get some of those bags that your LFS has, I bet they will give you a few if you ask them. Fill the bag with about 1/3 water, put the fish in the bag and then close the top of the bag really fast, which will "catch/trap" the air inside the bag. Just like your LFS does when you buy new fish. Then tie the bad closed or put a rubber bad to around the top to keep it closed.

I would only put one fish in per bag, just to reduce the stress. But, if you know for sure that the fish will be fine together, then go ahead and put more than one fish in per bag.

Yes, you can use a bucket to transport the fish as well. Just make sure it is clean and free of contaminants

If you can save some of the current water that is in your tank right now if you want. Put like half or so of it in a bucket, and then when you are re-filling the tank at you new place, just use some of your old tank water.

^^If you do not want to do this, you can add all new water to your tank, just make sure you use a water conditioner and add it to the water.

Feel free to ask as many questions as you want.

-FHM

 

[coldcazzie]

The only bit of water I'd save is the water that's in with the fish (be that in a bag, or a bucket, or a picnic box, or a polystyrene box, or whatever) and then another bucket with your filter in if it's internal. Otherwise you'll kill your bacteria by having it out in the air for too long. Everything else can safely come out and be put wherever and then put back in again after. And the fish will be fine with an almost 100% water change.

Your local fish place will certainly give you bags (they did for me!), but Id def recommend putting them somewhere sturdy so they dont accidentally get ripped or owt, and if you're using a bucket or something, make sure it has a lid! There's nothing worse than trying to chase an escaped fish around the floor while you're already stressed enough by the move!

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with the above good suggestions from FHM and CC. Using drink/picnic coolers to support the plastic fish bags is ideal because that also provides a lot of temperature insulaton. You are definately over-worried about the water. Most of us do very large water changes with no problem to our fish (the only problem coming with tanks that have received -no- water changes for a long time, but that doesn't sound like your situation at all.) Just be sure to condition the water and go ahead and adjust its temperature to help the heater have the new water at a reasonable tropical fish temperature when you begin acclimating the bags. Use drip acclimation if you have certain fish that are particularly valuable or delicate. Definately keep your filter media wet. Agree with FHM, definately get everything out of the tank and protect it carefully for the trip.

If you do searches here on TFF, there are plenty of threads of advice on moving, going back through the years.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Peddles]

Thanx for all your adivice, I feel a bit better now!

 

[Rediahs]

At 180 litres, even if you TRIED to move it when it was half-full, you wouldn't be able to, not with a few strong people I don't think either. Water is heavier than it looks!

Not that you should try at all. As fatheadminnow said, NEVER move a tank with things in it!!!!!!!!