Moving help

[Bethany92]

Hey there! I’m about to move in July about 3 hours away from where we currently are. I have 4 tanks to move and I never moved tanks from one house to another. This is a long post, I’m sorry. I just want to be sure I do this correctly and not lose my fishy friends. I already know to keep the filter media submerged in some of the old tank water using a bucket with a good sealing lid, and I’m assuming to keep each tank’s filter media separate in the corresponding tanks’ water. However, to move the tank, substrate, and all the livestock, I’m not sure what I’m doing. I wasn’t going to do this until we were ready to move the tanks and I would be a same day tear down and set back up, if possible. 

 

Basic questions: Do I keep the substrate? Can I put all the live plants from all tanks into the same bucket of dechlorinated water?

Tank 1 is a 40gal with an axolotl and sand substrate. I’m planning on putting the axolotl into a plastic tub (6qt) with an air stone and ice packs in a cooler. I also have the tank chiller to move, which I was just going to empty the water out, run a few cycles of vinegar through it, let it dry out, ditch the existing hoses, and then hook it up with new hoses. 

Tank 2 is a 40gal with 6 pea puffers and 6 cory cats with sand substrate and live plants. How much water do I need to transport the pea puffers and Cory cats? And I was planning on separating them into species only containers for the move. Would 6qt containers work for this? Battery powered air stone, or will they be okay for a three hour drive?

Tank 3 is a 20gal with 6 neon tetras, 4 Gertrude blue eyed rainbow fish, 6 cherry shrimp, and 2 mystery snails, live plants and a lava rock type substrate. I was honestly planning on getting a new 40gal tank for them and moving my betta into this 20gal after we move. I was going to just do mystery snails in one small container, cherry shrimp in another small container, then the fish all together in a 6qt container.

Tank 4 is a 5gal with my betta and live plants. I was just going to get a small cup to transport him in, kinda like the fish stores use to keep them in.

Then I was going to tightly pack the containers in a box to limit jostling in the car, but if they need an air stone running in every container, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do

[Biotope Biologist]

For the fish and plants on a 3 hour drive I would buy fish bags from your LFS to transport them. Heavy decor should be removed and ideally kept moist, but if you can’t do that it’s fine. I use 5 gallon buckets for this job with a little bit of water at the bottom. Leave the substrate in the tank with a small pool of water if possible. If you need to remove substrate use a bucket and keep it wet.

 

For the plants I will wrap the roots in a wet paper towel. The humidity in the bag is usually enough for the leaves.

 

For the chiller why ditch the hoses? Hoses should last the life of the chiller. If they are fading or cracking is the only time I would replace. I don’t even clean hoses. The algae and bacteria will just come right back and it’s not doing any harm unless it starts restricting flow.

 

same day tear down and set up is good less stressful for everyone.

[anewbie]

I always use those cheap 5 gallon pails (walmart/home-depot/lowes ) sell them for 2.50 to 4.00 depending where you live et all. I would be careful with ice as it can cool them - when imoved cross country (2 day drive); i just turned on the ac in the car and made sure the light didn't hit the pails; i also used the pails for the substrate. I put the plants in with the fish; you do want to cover the top to keep jumpers from well jumping but also make sure it is ventilated (air stone and small holes - you can use cardboard or the lids they sell). The larger water volume offered temp stability so if it changed it didn't change too fast.

 

[Bethany92]

On 3/18/2023 at 12:20 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

For the fish and plants on a 3 hour drive I would buy fish bags from your LFS to transport them. Heavy decor should be removed and ideally kept moist, but if you can’t do that it’s fine. I use 5 gallon buckets for this job with a little bit of water at the bottom. Leave the substrate in the tank with a small pool of water if possible. If you need to remove substrate use a bucket and keep it wet.

 

For the plants I will wrap the roots in a wet paper towel. The humidity in the bag is usually enough for the leaves.

 

For the chiller why ditch the hoses? Hoses should last the life of the chiller. If they are fading or cracking is the only time I would replace. I don’t even clean hoses. The algae and bacteria will just come right back and it’s not doing any harm unless it starts restricting flow.

 

same day tear down and set up is good less stressful for everyone.

I was ditching tubing because they’ve got stuff in them but I’ll keep now, I thought it was meant to be cleaned every month so it wouldn’t get obstructed and I haven’t gotten a brush long enough to clean them out. Is the cleaning every month meant to just be the inside of the chiller? This is my first time having a chiller and it was from Amazon so instruction manual wasn’t as helpful for someone that barely knows anything about chillers haha

On 3/18/2023 at 12:35 PM, anewbie said:

I always use those cheap 5 gallon pails (walmart/home-depot/lowes ) sell them for 2.50 to 4.00 depending where you live et all. I would be careful with ice as it can cool them - when imoved cross country (2 day drive); i just turned on the ac in the car and made sure the light didn't hit the pails; i also used the pails for the substrate. I put the plants in with the fish; you do want to cover the top to keep jumpers from well jumping but also make sure it is ventilated (air stone and small holes - you can use cardboard or the lids they sell). The larger water volume offered temp stability so if it changed it didn't change too fast.

 

I was just using ice packs with the axolotl, it needs temps to stay around 65F. The other fish would definitely be fine without.

 

would they be fine without air holes? I assume so since I’ve had fish mailed to me in bags before 

[anewbie]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:55 AM, Bethany92 said:

 

 

would they be fine without air holes? I assume so since I’ve had fish mailed to me in bags before 

Probably but depends how high you fell the containers. One mistake people frequently make is to add too much water (this includes the bags).

[lefty o]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:35 AM, anewbie said:

I always use those cheap 5 gallon pails (walmart/home-depot/lowes ) sell them for 2.50 to 4.00 depending where you live et all. I would be careful with ice as it can cool them - when imoved cross country (2 day drive); i just turned on the ac in the car and made sure the light didn't hit the pails; i also used the pails for the substrate. I put the plants in with the fish; you do want to cover the top to keep jumpers from well jumping but also make sure it is ventilated (air stone and small holes - you can use cardboard or the lids they sell). The larger water volume offered temp stability so if it changed it didn't change too fast.

 

5 gallon buckets are the way to go imo. hold a lot, have a nice handle so they are easy to move, and you can use them for a multitude of things in the future. 

[Biotope Biologist]

The chiller mostly gets buildup from really hard water or saltwater. Cleaning the condenser and internal reservoir is the most important to keep buildup off. But otherwise check the hoses to make sure the flow is unobstructed. You can get bottle brushes for really cheap on online retailers if you ever worry about it in the future.