moving the tank...:(

[Giovanna Galvani]

Hello Friends,
well, I lately was a lurker, but I'm planning to move to another house between the 1st of december and (before!) the 25th! I will have a nice garden for my dogs! So I'm just trying to plan everything I will have to do....and especially about the aquarium. I'm very worried about it.....the house is not far from here so I thought that maybe we can take off the big discus and the pleco in a couple of bags, letting in the tank just 8 " of water and all plants and also the 5 very little epalzeorhynchus siamensis that I added lately to better control algae....a couple of strong boys will come from the Aquarium shop to make the move.

I'd like to know your expert opinion about my idea

Thanks everyone for helping and thanks to Yann...I know what Javel is now!

Have a great week-end,

[Caol_ila]

Hi!

I wouldnt try move a tank that still has gravel and water in it (if its over 40 cm long, and you say you have discus so it should be aroun 150 cm anyway) Imo you have to clean out the whole tank and move it along quickly. Most important thing is that the filter doesnt get dry and is running again after under 1 hour. in any case youll have to closely watch the nitrite in the next couple of weeks after the move.

[magnum4]

As Caol_ila said it would be a unwise to carry the glass tank with 8" of water in. main thing is you keep the filter alive and save as much water as possible and monitor
water parameters closely for a week after.

[biomechmonster]

Put the fish in a rubbermaid tub with water from the old tank. If you put your filter's biowheel in there too it will stay moist longer. But yeah, don't transport a glass tank with water in it--that's looking for trouble!

[S. Allen]

I bought a house about 6 months ago and had to move 2, 90 gallon tanks about 3 miles. ;) the stingray tank was easy(except the one getting his stinger caught and ruining my biggest most expensive net), I just emptied it completely of water then scraped and washed out all the sand and it was light enough, but I didn't remove the gravel from the discus tank... not all of it anyway. But yeah, all fish were removed and then put in a 14 gallon rubbermaid tote lined with a plastic bag, I threw in a powerhead for the times that I was by an outlet and kept a battery operated pump running when I was not. worked great, out of more fish than I'll admit to, I didn't lose a single one. Total setup time for the discus tank was 4 hours, both because of plants, gravel, decorations, and more, smaller fish to move, and that it was the first time so it was naturally less streamlined. The stingray tank took 2.5 hours. that's from starting the draining process to flipping the lights back on and having everything set like you'd like it.

[Giovanna Galvani]

Well,
After reading all the answers I feel a bit naive about my previous idea....I called the man that normally comes for maintenance and he told me the same! He said also that everything will be done in less time than a couple of hour and the filters will be put on a tank with the aquarium water running till the last minute!!!! WOW! I'm so excited for this move! I was dreaming the whole life with living a house with a garden and now (a bit late cause I'm 65) my dreams come true. So the whole gang, dogs, fishes, parrots and various birds, all together, will move there! Everything will star the first of december.

Thanks for suggestions and support....your old (but still strong )friend Giovanna