In 2 weeks time ish I will be moving my 150L tank to a new home. I did some research, spoke to the owner of my local fish shop and checked a fair few YT videos.
My plan:
I have 5 orange buckets from B&Q - those are for gravel, plants, decorations, filter and all the other stuff that needs to stay moist but not necessarily fully covered in water. The move is roughly 40 min drive one way at most and with all prep time included I doubt it will take too long to deal with that part of my tank.
I ordered fish bags on eBay (same kind as my fish shop uses), I have a black net and since I have a tropical tank I had a nifty idea of using a big flat hot bottle wrapped in a towel under the fish to retain some of the temperature. Fish will travel in separate bags to minimalise stress and aggression. No drama here as I don't have too many fish so the process of catching and bagging them will go fast. To make it even better I will want to drain a huge chunk of water before I start catching anything.
I intend to drain at least 75L of water into sealable plexi boxes (new ones, so no risk of dirt, chemicals or cracks) and save it for the tank in the new place. Would love to save more but it is all depending on the space in the car, really. Before I remove the gravel I want to give it a good stir and vacuum it to remove all nasty stuff lying around. I have no snails and other little animals so shouldn't really kill anything that way.
In the new house I plan to add the gravel, decor, plants and equipment, add the saved water, turn on the heater, filter and all the stuff and once the water reaches the 25 degrees (my usual temp) I was going to just place the bags with fish on top, let them chill like that until the water in those bags also reaches the desired temp and slowly start releasing them. Also was thinking about adding fresh water slowly over the course of 2-3 days and reduce feeding until the tank is stable. I have water test kit (the drops one, not strips) and I won't clean the filter right before the move to make sure I don't kill the beneficial bacteria (at least not all of it).
Is there anything that I am missing here or planning to do incorrectly? The tank is too big and too heavy to move it as is so I sadly have to dismantle it all but I really don't want to kill any of my fish dudes in the process.
My plan:
I have 5 orange buckets from B&Q - those are for gravel, plants, decorations, filter and all the other stuff that needs to stay moist but not necessarily fully covered in water. The move is roughly 40 min drive one way at most and with all prep time included I doubt it will take too long to deal with that part of my tank.
I ordered fish bags on eBay (same kind as my fish shop uses), I have a black net and since I have a tropical tank I had a nifty idea of using a big flat hot bottle wrapped in a towel under the fish to retain some of the temperature. Fish will travel in separate bags to minimalise stress and aggression. No drama here as I don't have too many fish so the process of catching and bagging them will go fast. To make it even better I will want to drain a huge chunk of water before I start catching anything.
I intend to drain at least 75L of water into sealable plexi boxes (new ones, so no risk of dirt, chemicals or cracks) and save it for the tank in the new place. Would love to save more but it is all depending on the space in the car, really. Before I remove the gravel I want to give it a good stir and vacuum it to remove all nasty stuff lying around. I have no snails and other little animals so shouldn't really kill anything that way.
In the new house I plan to add the gravel, decor, plants and equipment, add the saved water, turn on the heater, filter and all the stuff and once the water reaches the 25 degrees (my usual temp) I was going to just place the bags with fish on top, let them chill like that until the water in those bags also reaches the desired temp and slowly start releasing them. Also was thinking about adding fresh water slowly over the course of 2-3 days and reduce feeding until the tank is stable. I have water test kit (the drops one, not strips) and I won't clean the filter right before the move to make sure I don't kill the beneficial bacteria (at least not all of it).
Is there anything that I am missing here or planning to do incorrectly? The tank is too big and too heavy to move it as is so I sadly have to dismantle it all but I really don't want to kill any of my fish dudes in the process.
