Moving House With Fish

[hollanda88]

Hello,
I have had a 90L tropical FW tank set up for about 6 months and soon im going to have to move house. I have looked for a topic on moving house with fish and can't find one. Can someone help me and tell me how I should transport it and how to transport the fish please

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[pammy172]

How far are you moving? Would you be able to move the fish say the day before you moved in?

 

[hollanda88]

How far are you moving? Would you be able to move the fish say the day before you moved in?

I would be able to move the tank way before but I just don't know how to go about it. Sould I dump the water or keep it in a barrel for the new location or will new water be ok. Im not moving far realy only like 20miles

 

[AdAndrews]

if it were me , i would get the nutrafin cycle bacteria stuff, follow instructions, but im not sure how you would move the fish, i spose you would have to bag them all up and put them in a polystrene box with a heater pack, and then quickly set everything up at the other end with the cycled water que the cycle stuff

 

[pammy172]

I'd do a big water change a couple of days before you move. Then on the day, put the fish in big bags wrapped with plenty of towels in one of those thermal picnic boxes to help protect them. Then get as much of the other water as poss into jerry cans. Then take it all as is as much as possible and set it all up again. Don;t feed the fish either for a couple of days. 20 miles isn't far.

 

[8inary]

bags and boxes are needed!

bag up ye fish, put them in boxes/poly boxes, depending on how long they will be out, you might consider heat packs to put in the boxes - i wouldnt bother if its merely xx hours.

your filters should be ok for 4-6 hours, beyond that, your good bacteria will have died, so get things set up once the tanks in place, dont leave it laying around thinking you have a lot of time.

retain as much water as possible for filling up at the new location

introduce the fish as you do when you buy them. im sure others will also advise you also.

however, think on, i have a near 1000ltr tank that weights over 1 ton in total 'footprint of entire tank/unit' - i have 80kg of coral sand alone! - its going to be a back breaker! and ill be moving in one/two months

 

[watkins101]

Its not as bad as you would think, If you go to your LFS they will most likely be able to hire you some 25l water carriers and give you some bags they may even sell you a polly box.

Firstly you should drain 50% of the water into the barrels then net and bag the fish placing them into the polly box, double bagging anything that has barbs or sharp teeth ( this both keeps them warm and dark). Then take the ornaments out and store them if you have an external filter keep it full of the water thats already in it, if you have an internal then putting the filter housing into a plastic bag will be good enough for a couple of hours do not put the plug or flex in the bag with it. I would then fill any part full barrel or dump the rest of the water (after netting and bagging the fish there probably wont be much left). Put as much of the gravel into some buckets or carrier bags and move the tank. leaving any plants in situ.

At the other end put the old water in first then fill with new dechlorinated water turn on the heater and pump when the water is nearly at temp add the fish as you would do if you had just got them from your LFS. Leave the lights off for a day or so and dont feed for 24 hours.

 

[hollanda88]

Some really good advice there people thanks

Its either 20miles or 250 miles i have to move it

I think i'll stick with the 20 lol

Thanks again.

 

[Cris_L]

I moved house about a year ago, I had to move a 260l tank with piranahs, 120l community and a 60l community.

I borrowed some 25l containers from the lfs and kept minimum 50% of the water. completely emptied all tanks including substrate (prob wasnt necessary to take the sand out of the 60l but i wanted to be safe). as for the filters I got a couple of buckets with tank water in and left the filters running so that the bacteria had oxygen right up until the moment they went into the van and then again when we arrived at the new address.

then as ohers have mentioned i reintroduced the fish as if they were new and didnt lose a single fish!

 

[hollanda88]

I moved house about a year ago, I had to move a 260l tank with piranahs, 120l community and a 60l community.

I borrowed some 25l containers from the lfs and kept minimum 50% of the water. completely emptied all tanks including substrate (prob wasnt necessary to take the sand out of the 60l but i wanted to be safe). as for the filters I got a couple of buckets with tank water in and left the filters running so that the bacteria had oxygen right up until the moment they went into the van and then again when we arrived at the new address.

then as ohers have mentioned i reintroduced the fish as if they were new and didnt lose a single fish!

how far did you move?