Moving House - Advice Needed

[enoble50]

Hi Folks,

I'm a relative beginner at keeping tropical fish. I purchased a 180 litre Juwel aquarium a few months back and I now need to move out of my flat and into a house. At present I have platys, Noen tetras and some catfish.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to move the aquarium to my new place and get it setup so I don't harm any of the fish. Obvously I need to remove the fish and existing water whilst moving the aquarium. How much water do I need to take with me and how much treated tap water can I use at the new location.

What do I do with the fish whilst moving the aquarium. Will they be happy to sit in a bucket of the existing water, do I need to put the heater in? I reckon I can move the aquarium and have the fish ready to go back into the tank within a couple of hours. Will this work or is there a better solution.

Any suggestions on how to transport the water?

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks in advance.

Euan

 

[Esfa]

They'll be happy to stay in a bucket with the heater on, if it is large enough.

I would put the filter media in a sealed bag of TANK water, so you dont lose the good bacteria.

 

[garuf]

Over at practical fish keeping george (our moderator) has an article on moving house, your unlucky that hes on holiday other wise he could have given you some advise, I personally would search the threads and see what you get, i sem to remember some very good threads recently.

The best advice is to move the fish in breather bags kept in polystyrene travelling boxes and make sure the journey is as swift as possible and you don't have the car hotter than you keep your tank a couple of hours should be fine.
also worth note is to not feed for a couple of days and when you do to feed very lightly this gives your filter better chance to recover.

 

[enoble50]

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[fishbone]

I recently moved my fish across the country and they were without tanks for 4/5 days! Not one death.
I siphoned off tank water into 25 ltr brewing buckets with sealable lids. While still in the house i kept heater and small filter running in the bucket. Unplugged everything for the drive, sealed the bucket until I got to the new house. Then plugged in the heater and filter to run in the bucket until I had the tank set back up.

As the fish were in the buckets for a number of days, I gradually added local, conditioned tap water so there wouldn't be too much of a shock once back in the tank. Refilled the tanks, added the fish, and 2 months on all is well.
K

 

[lisa_perry75]

AHHH,
I did a massive big post about how to move and its disappeared!