Moving aquarium

[Country joe]

I'm thinking of buying a 200 litre aquarium, and put it in the same position as my current 125 litre tank,, I'm planning on moving my tank with fish in, I know this is always supposed to be a no no, but I would only be moving the tank 8 feet, in the same room, and then build up the new tank cabinet etc and place in old tanks position. I plan to take out 50% Water as its on a carpet floor I've seen some sliders on amazon that are good on carpets, place them under the tank cabinet, and me and a friend move the cabinet the 8 feet, then I will fill tank back up with the water i took out, plug the equipment back in and I can move fish out at a later date when I have the new tank prepared would this be okay

 

[Colin_T]

I would remove big ornaments and 90% of the water. Leave the fish in the bit of remaining water and then try to lift and move the tank on its stand. I wouldn't bother with using sliders to drag it, just one person on each end and lift and move slow and careful so it doesn't crack the base.

 

[Country joe]

I was thinking of removing more water, I have plenty of plastic bins so I can more or less pump in to near where it was , the reason I was wary about taking more water was, I follow Kaveman Aquatics on face book and in a video he did, removing water because he does 80 % water changes his fish are used to it and if you change less, I just do 25% that my fish are not used to big changes, only go 50%, if he is right I don't know, but your advice to me Colin is spot on.

 

[Colin_T]

If you are keeping the water in holding containers while you move the tank you can drain the entire thing and put the fish in the containers of water. The less water in the tank, the safer it is to move it with gravel in.

If you weren't able to keep at least half the water you might get a little concerned by 25% water changes, but if they are done once a week it's fine to do bigger water changes.

The problem with big water changes comes from not doing any water changes, or not doing them regularly (maybe doing them once a month). Then the pH can drop due to acids in the water and if you do a big water change then, you can cause a massive pH change and stress or kill the fish. Because you do 25% water changes regularly (I assume weekly), the fish should be fine with a bigger water change if you need to do one.

 

[Country joe]

If I put the fish into a large plastic square bin for a few hours, using old tank water, would it be worthwhile to add an airstone and heater?

 

[Colin_T]

If I put the fish into a large plastic square bin for a few hours, using old tank water, would it be worthwhile to add an airstone and heater?

If it's a cold house then add the heater.

An airstone is always worth using in any container with fish, regardless of how long they are going to be in there.

Have a cover on the containers too, fish jump.

 

[Essjay]

The cover doesn't need to be one made for the container; even an old towel draped over will stop fish jumping out - and make it darker inside the container so the fish will be that bit calmer.