How To Move My Whole Aquarium And Fish?

[tonytiger]

I'd really appreciate any advice here.

I've got a 180 litre tank with small cichlids. However, I have just split with my fiancée and moved elsewhere, she doesn't want the fish, but thankfully is looking after them til I figure out how to move them.

So the question is, HOW do people move fish, rocks and about 160L of water?

Thanks

 

[Freedom]

When I moved from my apartment to my house, I went to the local fish store and they had styrofoam containers they get their fish in.  I used a few of those.  I think they get me some huge plastic bags as well.  And you need to put in some stress coat or some such.
 
You can also use any sort of bucket, container, to move as much of the water as you can from one location to the other.
 
By using as much of the 'old' water as you can, and shifting the filter media, you won't need to do much before putting the fish back in.
 
My tank was smaller than what you have.  If you have a buddy who is also in to fish, get help!
 
Sorry to learn of the split up.  Hard for all of you.

 

[Alasse]

I fully pull down the tanks
 
Bag the fish, put the decor into containers (dont need water), plants in containers of water. Substrate & Filter media keep wet/damp.
 
You dont need the old water, chuck it. It holds very little if any good bacteria (this is no different to doing a 100% water change)
 
Set back up at new house, bring it upto temp and acclimatize the fish in the bag before reintroducing them

 

[ShinySideUp]

I would prefer to keep some of the old water but if that's not possible then do what Alasse says. Bring new water to temp quickly by adding hot water from cistern or whatever you have. I would add a double dose of Prime or some such to condition the water quickly as you won't have much time as the bags of fish will run out of oxygen and accumulate toxins quite quickly.
 
I think if I was doing it I might move half the water to the new house and put it in large buckets, keeping the house warm. Go back, get the fish in bags and then transfer them to their old water in the buckets. Bring over the now empty tank and set up on stand, add new water to a suitable level, add Prime, add hot water to temp, add fish with old water, put in a few decorations so the fish can hide, leave the lights off and then sit back and hope for the best before rescaping.
 
Sorry everything has gone tits-up; at least you have your fish.

 

[Alasse]

I move just last year, 19 tanks. I can assure you the old water is useless (and carting 1000+litres in my case, a pain in the butt). All you are doing is adding water that has nitrates and nasties in it, better to start with fresh and acclimatize fish like you were just bring them home from a LFS. I also do not add water from the hot water tap to my tanks, i have shrimp and copper is too big of a risk, i boil the kettle and add warm buckets of water and them let the heater do the rest (it doesnt tank that long)
 
Do not feed the fish for a few days before you bag them, this cleans them out and adds time to how long they can stay in bags. With 19 tanks, some of my fish were bagged for in excess of 24hours. I set up a holding tank with a heater and some water in the bottom, all bags where added to this tank (to keep them warm as i moved in winter) and the top of the bags opened. No losses.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Alasse and I slightly disagree on the new/old water side (my concern is pH variation with competely new water, and copper from a well-used cistern would be negligible) , but on the whole we think it is not too great a problem if you can plan ahead. Having said that, I must bow to Allasse's greater knowledge since the very thought of moving nineteen tanks fills me with no small amount of dread.

 

[Alasse]

If you acclimatize properly, the PH variation is no issue, also its not just PH that you must be aware of, as stated no different than when you first buy fish and bring home ( guaranteed your water and the stores water do not match). No one should be adding new fish to a tank by just dumping them in, moved water or not, that is a fact. By the time you have moved your fish the water in the bags and the water in the tank will not be the same!
 
As for the copper issue, the one and only time i tried using hot water from my taps to heat the water, is the one time i lost a tank of both shrimp and fish, so yeah, take that as you will. It wasnt the cistern that was the issue, the house had copper piping to all the hot water taps in the house. All i say on that is be careful, sometimes no issues, for me it was a big issue.

 

[ZoFox]

I have a 90 litre tank with mainly guppies, a couple of shrimps and a few other fish in and I am moving in March.
 
I have a smaller, 20 litre tank and I was wondering if a few days before I move I could set up the smaller tank in the new house , then on the day I need to move the tank, put them in the smaller tank. I will then totally clean out and re-set up my 90 litre tank (been waiting to move so I can swap the gravel for something nicer!) and leave it a day or two to ensure everything is running smoothly.
 
Hopefully this won't stress the fish out too much?
 
Thanks

 

[star4]

Get a cooler/picnic box fill with water and put the fish in. remove the water from the tank and put the rocks in buckets. Keep the substrate damp and if you have an external filter turn the shut off valves off and leave it filled with water. Move everything and re-set it up. The fish will be better in a cooler box as the water will stay warmer than if they were in bags. Dont feed the fish for a couple of days before the move keeping waste to a minimum. With a cooler box you can add an airline so no oxygen depletion. Once the tank is set up you can either bag the fish from the cooler box and aclimatise them or drip aclimatise them by adding water from the tank to the cooler box.

 

[tonytiger]

Thanks very much everyone . I will get some pictures up once I've managed to make the move

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

I got a second hand tank yesterday with 2 fish in and I gotta say I did a bit of both. I took maybe 10% of the water from the tank first before disturbing the bottom and all the crap. It's allways difficult moving tanks but like they both say, acclimatisation is key. Defo keep the filter moist. I personally kept the decorations and plants in water too as I was told good bacteria settles on them in an existing healthy tank.

Dunno if that last bit is true or not, just something somebody told me to do. Hope all goes well mate