Moving House

[auntiebuttons]

Has anyone moved with tropical fish? I mean, how? If the pump is off for too long won't they die?

 

[Bloo]

Depends how far you are moving I suppose. This is what I did with my 50Gal about 6 months ago, and lost no fish: Put fish in a couple of large buckets Drain all remaining water. Keep filter and ornaments in seperate bucket of tank water. Remove gravel (rinsed in tankwater to remove gunk). Move tank to new home (in my case it was only a 5 minute drive!). Start putting everything back. The whole procedure took a good 4 hours though
All fine !

 

[smb7676]

I have never moved my tank but I have read that you are not to feed them the day before and the day of the move. This will help keep waste down which in turn keeps ammonia down. Also fill the bag with lots of air just like when you buy fish from your lfs.Wrap in newspaper and put them in a styrofoam cooler. This gives them oxegyn and keeps the fish from getting stuck in the corners of the bags. Depending on how far a move they say you can add a hand warmer or bags of hot water to help keep temp. (Don't let them come in contact with the fish bags ) Keep gravel and dec in a pail of water. Have to see about your bac filter, can't remember what it said. Hope that helps.
s

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would also advise you move the fish and tank/tank gear as the last thing, so all you need to do is transport it without the hassle of other things getting in your way- i would also suggest transport the filter last and just keep it running in a bucket of water from the tank in the mean time so it is turned off for the least amount of time.

 

[ncjharris]

the bac filter will start to die after 4 hours or so.
Not all of it, some of it will feed off the dying ones, if you see what I mean, its an exponential decline, if that makes sense.

However, shouldn't think it would last longer that 12 hours - not too sure how it would survive if you put filter medium in a bag/bucket with either fish food to feed it, or cycling medium/ammonia to start another mini cycle.

may work.

or, speak to an LFS near where you are going and see if they can help you with some cycled media or if you can send them some new media to put in their tanks and get some bacteria for when you arrive at your destination!

 

[Blue Lobster]

I moved my tank about 6 months ago. I filled a rubbermaid tote with water, put the fish in it and brought it over here. I ran the heater and filter in the tote till my tank was set up (3 days) with no problems.

Fish don't need to be in a glass aquarium, they just need their water, normal tem and filters to survive unharmed.

If it's an option, a couple weeks before you move bring some water from the new place and add it during your normal water changes. It will get them ready to transition to a new water source.