Wow. Moving A Tank Is Not Fun!

[tibby25731]

Today I mved my tank from my living room to my bedroom. 2 reasons - 1 being I want to put a bigger tank in the living room, and 2 being that the table it was on wasn't quite big enough and I was scared the tank would crack. Finally got WAY paranoid today and did the move!

The tank is now sat on a big old dressing table, more than enough space all the way round for it! Hooray! But catching the fish and popping them in a bucket took ages, they really didn't want to be caught! And one of my frogs did a runner AGAIN, this time I caught him within about 30 seconds though. I put the filter in a bucket of its own and then kept it running, hopefully this means my bacterias are alive still! (still fish-in cycling ) I hope I didn;t do too wrong though - after stressing the fish by catching them i didn't want to put them through that again so I slowly poured their bucket of water back in the tank when it was over halfway full, most fish swam out in the flow. The pleco and forgs came out last, I tipped the bucket right up partly in the water so they weren't left out of water. Feel bad though. I had thought the bucket fitted in the tank and was gonna lower it in and let them all swim out - but it was a little bit too big. Should have checked first

Anyway, all fish seem OK. Kribs a little subdued, but then i changed the decor round slightly cos the filter had to move sides for the electrical supply, so they are sussing out new territories I guess! And the pleco has paled a little. Left the light off and they are in a dark room so hopefully they will calm quickly. Should I feed them tonight???

Hated doing that, will not move them again, only the larger fish who will eventually move to a bigger tank...

 

[Chaz]

I wouldent feed them tonight just to give them a chance to settle dowm.... I feel for you, moving a tank is such a pain....but it's done now!

 

[Faythee]

Ohhhhh.....Hope I never need to do that.

 

[simonas]

i did it with a 60x30x24 tank last weekend with thick flass tha weighed a ton. its set up now but in temprary space whilst I slowly move everything from smaller tank in there and I knw I got to move it two metres in future which I'm dreading!!!

 

[kj23502]

I hear ya! When we bought my 125gallon tank we had to drive about 7 hrs total pick it up. And it didn't even have fish! The stand came with it also. I had won it on ebay. We have a mini-van and had to take out the 2nd row seats and fold down the bench in the back to get it to fit! One good thing did come of it, though! Grandparents watched the kids for the day. And there wouldn't have been any room to take them anyway. Only enough room for my hubby and I. I'm hoping I don't have to move anything for a long time!!!

Good Luck with your ! Hope all goes well in the end.

 

[Behold]

I replaced my old 3 foot with a 5 ft but the 3ft was where my 5 needed to go. was a fun afternoon.

 

[tibby25731]

Well my fish seem happy again this morning. Last night they were skulking round throwing dirty looks in my direction (honest!) and my neon tetras lost most of their colouring! Poor things. But they all look back to normal today and were most pleased to see me when i fed them!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The key to sucessfully moving fish tanks is just in preparation.

failing to plan is planning to fail

take some time before hand to make sure you have all the equipment you need, double check measurements and so on.

when catching fish get two nets, drain the tank so it has just a couple of inches of water in, remove all decor, then put a big net at one end of the tank, use the second net to chase the fish into the big net, you'll get them dead easily and the quicker you do it the less stress to the fish.

done it loads of times now, got it off pat. just need to make sure you set yourself up properly before you start.

 

[tibby25731]

Thanks for the advice! I will remember that for next time..... I did use 2 nets but wasn't quite as logical in my approach... lol. What I find strange is the number of fish that, once in the net, seem to play dead.... then I put them in the new water and they just sit in the net unless I move it!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks for the advice! I will remember that for next time..... I did use 2 nets but wasn't quite as logical in my approach... lol. What I find strange is the number of fish that, once in the net, seem to play dead.... then I put them in the new water and they just sit in the net unless I move it!

yeah i think it's just shock from the trauma of being caught

this is why it's important to approach catching fish in a logical and sensible way, if you'r chasing them round the tank for ages it'll really stress them out and this can cause problems. do it swiftly and decisivley and get them on the first go and they'll be much less traumatised by it.

 

[Davo86]

I'll be having some fun on tuesday then by the looks of it, I need to move my 65G out of the living room so the new floor can be fitted, then i have to put everything back again

 

[rossyt99]

I'll be having some fun on tuesday then by the looks of it, I need to move my 65G out of the living room so the new floor can be fitted, then i have to put everything back again

Hi,
Any hiccups?? or was it a smoothly run success? >I helped a mate move his 230L tank from garage to living room, whilst trying not to get any water or mess on brand new carpets! (Thankfully it went o.k)

 

[Davo86]

I'll be having some fun on tuesday then by the looks of it, I need to move my 65G out of the living room so the new floor can be fitted, then i have to put everything back again

Well i certainly didn't have fun today,

Firstly when i cheked my tank when i got up i noticed that the heater wasn't working, (it was supposedly brand new, brought off ebay and had been put in the tank 2 days prior). the temp was 18C and my L017 and male L088 had both not survived. As you would guess i wasn't too happy.

Due to this i decided to let the tank warm back up before putting the fish through more stress of moving them,

I have spent the whole afternoon up till now moving the tank into its temporary place in the kitchen, A new wooden flooring is being fitted in the morning then the tank will need putting back into place tomorrow afternoon. wonderful

 

[tibby25731]

Aw poor you. what a bad day! I hope things go a little better tomorrow.

 

[Davo86]

Aw poor you. what a bad day! I hope things go a little better tomorrow.

Thanks, another long day but not too bad,

I did however find a 9inch catfish that i didn't know i had?
it must have been living in my empty juwel filter and obviously had grown too large to get back out.
I really should have checked the casing before as i thought it had died as i hadn't seen it in around 18 months, not too mention i know have changed to smaller fish?