A Quick Question About Moving Fish

[blfoster]

I'm moving 130 miles away in a few weeks. I've done my research, so I am mostly familiar with the process of transporting an aquarium. The one thing I'm not sure about is the gravel. It's a 55 gallon aquarium, so the gravel amounts to a fair amount of weight. I know I need to drain the aquarium, but do I need to get the gravel out too? Or is the gravel alone not enough weight to stress the seams?

It would sure be a lot less trouble to leave the gravel in, but I don't want to risk having 55 gallons of water leak onto my floor.

 

[Puffdaddy]

You could leave it in, the tank should be just fine. If your unsure just stop by a hardware store and pick up an empty bucket to put the gravel in.

 

[rdd1952]

I wouldn't leave the gravel in. That adds a lot of weight and any jarring or shifting could cause the bottom to crack. You could completey change the gravel if you so desired. There wouldn't be enough bacteria in the gravel to matter. Also, depending on how long you've had the tank set up, it probably wouldn't hurt to remove the gravel and rinse all the trash and waste out of it.

 

[blfoster]

Thanks for the replies. I took it all out and put it in a couple of two gallon ziplock bags. It definitely needed to be rinsed anyway.