Moving an aquarium

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JamesTasker

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Hertfordshire, England
I have a 30 gallon tank, with fish which is on a stand (designed) for holding it. The room the tank is in is being redecorated - does it need moving? I assumed so and how much water do I need to remove before moving the aquarium - all of it for certain? because I don't know where I'd store it. Finally, what shall I do with the fish? Thanx a lot :) :)
 
Hi fellow Herts person! ;)

I thin konly you can decide whether it needs moving or not. I've just repainted our front room where our tank is and managed to paint pretty well behind it with a long-handled roller designed for behind radiators. I've probably missed the odd bit though, but I'm not bthered as I don't intend moving the tank any time soon!

But our reason for decorating now was to get it done before our new tank arrives...

Only experience of moving tanks that I've had was when we moved house, and I ended up removing about 75% of the water in a 15gl tank just so that we could carry it. Water is so damn heavy! Left the fish in there, and added water in stages when we got to our new house, ie up to 50%, then 2 days later up to 75%, then up to 100%, just to try and minimise the shock of such a big water change. It seemed to work well as no fish seemed to be in stress or were lost.

HTH

Ade
 
If you and a buddy could move it half full with the fish still in there --- are they big fish?? -- then maybe that would work the best.

When I moved across town -- GOD DID I HATE THAT DAY -- I had my 55 gallon stuck in the back of my Explorer all the way drained except for about 1 inch (couldn't really get it out). I had boughten totes, taller than wide, that had secure lids that sort of had these locking tabs that flipped up over the top of the totes to keep the lids on. I think they were Rubbermaid :rolleyes: . Anyhow, I bought 2 of them and put half of my fish in one and half in the other. They could be good for up to and hour and a half in something like that. I had one on the floor of my car, passenger side, and one up on the passenger seat covered with towels so to not frighten the fish. I was driving at night with all of this and the totes were splashing water ALL over my car. Every bump I hit the fish went a sloshin'. It was HORRIBLE. I believe there was an entire gallon of fish water splashed all over in my car, and that is no exaggeration. I also took 10 empty water gallons and filled them all up with the tank water before draining it. This way I had a little bit of the same water in there when I set it back up.

Man it was a chore that I don't wish on anyone. Everything turned out fine.

Just to add a little funny story:

I have 3 cats and moving cats is NO fun. Cats HATE to be put into boxes or cages. Anyhow, I put my youngest cat into the car and she freaked out so bad (thinking that the windows were open mind you) that she started thrashing around the car and smacked head first into the drivers window :rofl: :rofl: :-( :shifty: .......I know I shouldn't laugh, but you would have had to have been there............................good luck moving your tank!!


Silver
:*
 
Thanx. The reason I was wondering whether to move it or not was because I don't know whether fish would react badly to the paint fumes? They are only small fish so they can probably stay in while we move it. If I leave it half full could it break? Its only going to the next room thank heavens. Would like to have a similar experience to you silver :crazy: . btw its a 30 gallon (1m long)
 
Hmm Sounds risky not moving them. Lots of paints are soluble and fumes could get into your tank water very easily. I would just cover up the tank real good and make sure all the windows are open untill the fumes have gone. then I would do a water change when the paint had dried and the fumes subsided.
 
We moved our 55-gallon into another room about 2 weeks ago. We bought one of those big Rubbermaid storage containers (40 gallons) and emptied as much water as we could into it along with the fish and carried the tank and stand into the other room. Then we put the water in the container along with the fish back in the tank and added some treated fresh water which was like a water change. All the fish seemed fine after the move except for one of my silver dollars which got pretty stressed but it's fine now.

Silver, I know what you mean about moving cats. I traveled about 350 miles with 2 cats in my car when I moved (many years ago). I didn't have a pet taxi to put them in. Talk about an experience. I'll NEVER do that again!

Good luck! :)
 

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