Want To Move Tank And Reaquascape Too - Need Advice

[kristins1877]

Currently my tank is in our semi finished basement and we will be remodeling down there in a few months and I am planning on putting my 40 gallon in our office upstairs. While the tank will be drained, I wanted to switch from gravel to sand and upgrade my filter. My question is, how can I do this? I am assuming the sand will need some time to settle and I don't have another tank for my fish. I was thinking about getting 3 or 4 10 gallon buckets to house the fish and original tank water and run airstores and heaters in them for a day or so while i move the tank, add the sand, and slowly add the old tank water... Any suggestions?

 

[Jazzzz]

make sure the sand is well washed and do it all in a cuple of hours just make sure the filter stays wet

 

[pammy172]

If you get good sand and wash it well any cloudiness will disappear within a very short time - ie less than half an hour so you'll be fine.

 

[tom_os]

the fish will be ok in a tank with sand in the water. i wouldnt keep them in a bucket more then you have to. i changed to sand whilst the fish were still in the tank and they were fine. then again they are pretty hardy community fish. depends on what if you are moving.

 

[Truck]

sand can irritate the fish's gills'.

 

[saltynay]

I popped my fish in within an hour of sanding it up and they are happy no visible red patches of irritation on any of them just checked, fortunately they were accomodating enough to come upto the glass and let me look at them up close. I also put them in plastic bowl which I then floated on the surface of the aquarium so that the water temperature didn't dramatically drop for them.

 

[Repeat]

I got some pool filter sand when i did mine and it wasnt cloudy a bit. How are you planning on doing the inside? I decided to experiment with some dead coral, big conch shells, and large barnacles and i love the way it looks

 

[kristins1877]

I have no idea what I want to do with it yet. I started the tank with some cheesy asian style ornaments from ebay and blue gravel and the more I got into fishkeeping again, well, you know, we all become obsessed! lol I want to go for a more natural look - some rocky formations and caves for my synos and rams, maybe a tall piece of wood to break up the territories alittle - its a 40 gal tall so I have less surface room than Id like to work with. Im pretty well planted but barely getting by with my gravel and liquid ferts. The coral sounds like a cool idea! I wanted to check out the garden centers for rock but its th dead of winter here in New York so theres not many open this time of year... This is my trial and error tank - next year hubby said I could have my 55 gal that Id like to go with Cichlids so im researching as much as I can!!

 

[OldMan47]

Don't wait to upgrade the filter. Put the new filter on the tank now and, by the time you are ready to move it, the new filter should be ready to take over. The plan looks OK as far as maintaining the fish for a day or two. Run the filters on the water container with the fish in it. You really don't need to move any of the water except the water needed to maintain the fish. You can treat the rest of the water as a big partial water change and not worry much about it.