Moving 3 tanks- the plan

875 Views 13 Replies 6 Participants Last post by lauraleellbp, Nov 10, 2011

lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · Nov 13, 2010

OK, so within the next few weeks we're planning on moving to the other side of town (about 1 hr drive).

I have 3 tanks at home that need to make this move, my 90gal, 46gal, and 10gal. All are stocked and planted. The 10gal won't be too difficult; I've moved that tank several times. The 46gal and 90gal especially are different stories, however.

So I've been formulating a plan. I think it will take me an entire weekend; a day to break them down to move them, and at least a whole day to get them back together (likely more on the reassembly bit, with all the plants and everything *sigh*)

Here's the plan so far:

First I want to rehome some of the fish from my 90gal. I'm thinking of taking all the Pristella tetras, Cories, and Clown pleco to my LFS. That would leave me with all the Cardinals, P. weitzmani, BN plecos, Otos, Amanos, and snails.

Get at least 6 big rubber tubs with lids (like these: http://www.walmart.com/browse/_/N-9...5&tab_value=All&clicked_tab_value=All&preRef= ). I'll probably use at least 2 of them just for plants and livestock from the 90gal. One more for the plants and livestock from the 46gal. I'll carry everything to the new house inside these totes, and run the filters on them until I get the tanks set back up. Probably at least overnight, I imagine.

Then I'll pull out the substrate. I'll save as much mulm as possible, to go back in the tank underneath the substrate. I think I'm going to use about 1" of Miracle Gro organic potting soil on top of the mulm, all underneath 1-2" of the old substrate when I set both tanks back up.

I'll try to bring over as much water from the house as I can. I'll be going from well to city water, and I haven't tested the parameters yet but I'm sure there will be a difference. Hopefully not too terribly different (I don't think so, as I've moved fish from home to the office without any losses before). Still, I'll try and acclimate them as slowly as I can.

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OoglyBoogly

· #2 · Nov 13, 2010

oo subscribed. I will eventually be moving out of state and can't take anything with me so I might be giving away my tank to a buddy of mine =/

Goodluck with the move!

Ohh check and see if the city has water parameters published. NYC has water stats published every year for our drinking water.

I was looking for a flow restrictor today for an IV bag of sorts. I'm going to check out a medical supply store tomorrow to build something to help acclimate my fish where I just add the water and walk away to come back an hour later with a slow drip acclimation completed. Uhmm unless something else exists already XD haha

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 13, 2010

Yeah, I got drip acclimators from DrsF&S. I think they're like $3-4, and I think I've got about a half dozen of them lying around... I hear dialysis drips work really well, too.

You can also always make your own by tying knots in airline tubing. You just tighten or loosen the knots to control the flow. Trick is getting the end to stay in the tank. Which is why I bought the DrsF&S ones, to get the rigid elbows that hold them in place.

I don't put any stock in published water parameters. I assume that by the time the water has gone through the miles of plumbing from the plant to my house, things have changed. I rely on the actual measurements I get out of my tap.

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OoglyBoogly

· #4 · Nov 13, 2010

ahh I had a feeling someone built and sells one already but it's so much fun for me to hunt down the parts and build something but forget that if it only costs $3 from DrsF&S... I'm so low tech at the moment that I haven't yet accumulated the tools and know how to really know what to look for and interpret the data to know what's up with my water! One day I will hopefully be a tank Jedi like you XD

Thanks for the acclimation tool infos!

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 13, 2010

Eh water parameters aren't that challenging for FW tanks, really. It's SW tanks where things can start getting more complicated... which is part of why I stick with fresh.

roud:

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VadimShevchuk

· #6 · Nov 13, 2010

What about your pond? Did you start that at your new house already?

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ReefkprZ

· #7 · Nov 13, 2010

if you save as much water as possible it will be like doing a large waterchange. anytime i move a tank I try to save about 50% of the water. movign so many that may be a problem, but if you do the fill up slowly, say you only save 30 gallons for the 90, only fill it to 60 gallons then wait a couple days to fill it the rest of the way, or basicly just double whatever water volume you get into the tank 50/50 old/new.... if you can do it that way it wont looks as pretty right away, but it'll make the transition 20X easier on your fish/inverts.

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #8 · Nov 13, 2010

VadimShevchuk said:
What about your pond? Did you start that at your new house already?

Nope. My pond plans have gone kaput, unfortunately. I was going to build this at the house we own, but we will be renting our house out. I'm not going to install a pond that I won't be around to enjoy and maintain. I'll probably put in a little water garden feature at the rental (likely just a small container water garden) but definitely not a 1000gal pond. Even if our landlords would allow it (which I strongly doubt), I wouldn't want to.

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 13, 2010

ReefkprZ said:
if you save as much water as possible it will be like doing a large waterchange. anytime i move a tank I try to save about 50% of the water. movign so many that may be a problem, but if you do the fill up slowly, say you only save 30 gallons for the 90, only fill it to 60 gallons then wait a couple days to fill it the rest of the way, or basicly just double whatever water volume you get into the tank 50/50 old/new.... if you can do it that way it wont looks as pretty right away, but it'll make the transition 20X easier on your fish/inverts.

I agree that would make things easier on them, but running the tank that low really isn't an option. Not only would my plants not be covered with water, but it would be a really big strain on my filters. So I'll need to get the new tanks filled back up and planted ASAP so I don't loose all my plants.

I'm hoping to take at least 50 gallons of "old" water with me, though, and I may leave the fish in the tubs for a few days and acclimate them to the new water there.

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msnikkistar

· #10 · Nov 13, 2010

Lord, I am glad I am not you laurel. lol

Good luck on the moving of the tanks. And once you are all settled in...I will send you some waffles as a house warming gift ^_^

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #11 · Nov 13, 2010

msnikkistar said:
And once you are all settled in...I will send you some waffles as a house warming gift ^_^

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

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OoglyBoogly

· #12 · Nov 13, 2010

lauraleellbp said:
I agree that would make things easier on them, but running the tank that low really isn't an option. Not only would my plants not be covered with water, but it would be a really big strain on my filters. So I'll need to get the new tanks filled back up and planted ASAP so I don't loose all my plants.

I'm hoping to take at least 50 gallons of "old" water with me, though, and I may leave the fish in the tubs for a few days and acclimate them to the new water there.

Is the option of buying some rubbermaid garbage pails available to you? Buy 2 or 3 of those suckers and fill them up with water! LOL I've had problems filling up the rubbermaid totes with too much soil for a vermicompost bin and it's not anywhere as dense/heavy as water. The rim around the tote breaks. Probably has something to do with the squarish design and it not being built for that much force pushing against the walls. I've filled up round garbage cans to the top with water and they didn't crack at the rims which probably has something to do with the circular design.

Also home depot sells those orange buckets for around $5 and the lid is an extra $1 or so... those might come in handy if you decide to buy a few of them and then just get creative with moving and don't move all your tanks at once unless the move requires everything to be moved at the same time

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Hilde

· #13 · Nov 7, 2011

I just came across this thread and was wondering how the move went? For I dream in the future to move with tank and fish to Florida from GA.

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lauraleellbp

Discussion Starter · #14 · Nov 10, 2011

The move went really well, actually!

I only lost 2 or three fish, and the majority of those was my own fault (had a Betta jumper, and a pleco stuck in some driftwood I didn't find in time

) I ended up breaking down the 10gal all together shortly after the move, but the 90 and 46gal are both doing quite well and you can see some fairly recent pics of both in my signature right now.

I used big rubbermaid totes from Home Depot.

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