Moving Home

[New Boy]

I’m moving home next week and my main plan is this;
1) Sunday - move fish and enough gravel and water (and familiar things) to spare heated 25 gallon tank at my parents night before (should be ok as most are juvenilles and my 50 gallon tank is way understocked at the mo anyway) - move internal filter from main tank to this small tank. Probably use a big black dustbin for moving everything 5 minutes down the road.
2) Monday - Move tank on day of move - keep fluval 304 filter and gravel wet, keep 10 gallons or so of the rest of the water (although take out of tank for the actual move. Once moved get internal filter and heater going again
3) Tuesday - Next day add water, fish and remainder of gravel as well as fluval 304 and heater back to main tank.

So fish will be in a smaller tank for two nights.

Will the bacteria in my Fluval 304 be ok if I keep water in it but it is turned off for two nights (so there will be no water circulating through)???

One of my friends has suggested that I don’t even need to set a filter up as they’ll only be in the tank two nights. Anyone agree/disagree??

Thanks

 

[pebbles]

hi there, welcome , in my understanding , the fish may well be ok just for two nights but if you dont set the filter up the bacteria will begin to die and you will get a mini cycle when you reset up your tank.so my advice is set up your filter in the smaller tank as soon as you can ,for the fishes sake and to protect the filter bacteria colony ,hope all goes well with the move , pebbles

 

[wetwetwet]

Hi NB,

I've got all this to come very soon but unfortunately don't have spare tank handy to move the fish to

Filter bacteria will slowly start to die of after about an hour with no flow - basically there isn't enough to feed them - but this is a slow process - (I think as some die this feeds others ) (make sense? )

If its gona be two nights I'd put it on the 25g

When you're finally set up again monitor the water closely and feed sparingly.

Good luck with it m8

I'm sure others will have some suggestions

 

[Jamnog]

if im not much mistake the fluval 404 is an external filter what you could do is to hooke up the outflow pipe to the inflow and leave it running.

 

[wetwetwet]

i suppose that would work - but would there be enough for the bacteria to feed off?

 

[Tanked]

you definatly don't want water flow to stop for more that an hour on your fluval or it will need to go through a mini cycle. like hgas been said above keep it going, maybe even put both filter on the one tank, it will be over kill but the water will stay fresh

 

[Mollymomma]

Sounds like a plan people

Thank your lucky stars you are only doing a small move. I had to move all my babies for a 9 hour move.. My tank had to recycle because I couldn't trans port any of the water, the filter bacteria died. Luckily it was just a few fishy friend's at the time (10 gal) We new about the move and bought the 55 gal after we got to the new home..cycled both tanks at the same time..What a pain!

Lots of luck to you

 

[Jamnog]

i suppose that would work - but would there be enough for the bacteria to feed off?

well its more about the gas thats absorbed in the water i think. its only an idea but i think it would mean the bacteria would last a good deal longer than just left. i find that the bacteria start up again soon after they die in the right cercumstances. tho you may indeed be in for a mini cycle. perhasp a large bucket with tank water installed at the new place would keep the bacteria in the filter happy if you dont like the idea of pumping the water internally.

 

[dolphin]

Hi New Boy

The thing that will kill the bacteria is a lack of oxygen. They will not starve to death in a two day period, but the will ALL die from a lack of oxygen in about four hours.

Move both filters to the 25 gall tank, as has all ready been stated.

 

[impur]

Well i thought i might throw in my suggestion. This is what i do when i move. I have a 55 gallon as well. I usually leave the tank for the last thing to be moved. Then its on the back of the truck/trailer. I put the fish in 1 or 2 5 gallon buckets with aquarium water. I leave a small amount of water to cover the gravel in the tank. I also float the filter media in the buckets. Then when i get to my new place, the tank is the first thing to be set up. Fill it with water, add the filter with media. And finally the fish. I have never lost a fish this way. I have moved probably 5 times with this tank, once a 4 hour drive. So it would have been almost 5 hours before i got it set up again. I haven't experienced a mini cycle either. If in doubt you can always buy a packet of bio spira to add, then all your fish. This stuff works wonders.

 

[dolphin]

Hi Impur

Good idea of putting the media in the bucket. This will allow the bacteria to have a source of oxygen, all that slopping about when been driven to the new home.

 

[wetwetwet]

B)

...good chance to give the filter itself a good clean

 

[Jamnog]

impur has the right idea if its practical that would be the best way to go about it.2 nights is a long time is there any other way?