I’m moving house soon and i have quite a large tropical tank, how do I go about moving it? I obviously know I need to bag the fish and empty the tank but when I set it up at my new home how do I get the water right before putting the fish back in? -When I first got the aquarium I had to wait a few weeks for the water and temprature and filter to adjust, and with having the fish already and waiting how do i set it back up without waiting 3 weeks and my fish dying? Any info would be so appreciated as Im really worrying about this
Thankyou everybody theres been some fantastic answers here and Im really grateful to you all, you’ve helped me no end. I cant possibly chose a best answer so just wanted to say thanks to all x
There are many acceptable ways to move an aquarium that will yield satisfactory results.
I do have to agree with Jon V in questioning the 3 weeks and temporary tank. I also agree that keeping the fish in the dark will ease stress
My guess is that the cycling took 3 weeks initially and that is to be avoided.
In my large maintenance business I have been asked to move fish many times, so I have tried many different methods over the years, I will give you the method that has worked best for me:
*Purchase some sterile Rubbermaid containers and buckets (I prefer as large as possible such as 32 gallons for tanks over 40 gallons)
*Drain water from the display tank into one of these containers. Do not fill more than you can move or will spill. Then add your fish to this water.
*Add Methylene Blue, this will aid in the oxygen capacity of the blood, ease stress, ease ammonia/nitrite poisoning and help prevent disease. I also added Wonder Shells as these would increase the bio load capacity of the water and add very important electrolytes. Keep this container as dark as possible.
*For trips over 4 hours, a battery air pump or AC air pump plugged into an inverter that runs off the vehicles cigarette lighter.
*Do not over rinse any gravel or bio filter media such as sponges; place these in an open container/bucket
*Place safe (not heavy) decorations in with fish to provide cover. For live plants keep them separately as you will deplete oxygen in the darker moving environment. The same for rocks and heavy decoration as these can injure the fish
*Discard any unused water.
*Once at the destination, I begin to re set up the aquarium.
*Once the tank is set up and running, I start SLOWLY mixing water back and forth between the tank and fish container to prevent osmotic shock, and adjust temperature.
I will usually add Stress Coat or similar to the container holding the fish and Prime to the display tank just before addition of the fish (and other aquatic creatures)
This comes from this article (with some more information):
http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/
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