Moving Tank

[FishRBeautiful]

Any suggestions on moving a tank? 20 gallon on top, 5 gallons on bottom. Looking to rearrange room for functionality. Just need to move it about 12 feet away, in same room.

[lefty o]

a couple of 5 gallon buckets for the fish and some water. drain the little one down half way and pull it out. drain the bigger one down most of the way, and then you should be able to move it by yourself or with the help of 1 person. get them moved, put back in place, refilled/treated, add fish back in. 

[Scapexghost]

Drain the water to one inch and call your strongest friend

[nabokovfan87]

The 20 is really, really heavy and I don't recommend trying to move it with the water in there. I think the 5G can be moved as mentioned above if you drain it as much as possible.

Essentially....

1. Remove the hard scape or anything that could fall while moving.

2. Consider removing plants, they will likely get a bit beat up either way.

3. Drain the tank to the height of your net and move any fish to a bucket or tub with an air stone. For shrimp, you'd want to use tankwater and reserve as much of that as possible. Hardscape usually stays wet too if need be. Cover that bucket with a lid or heavy towel and set out of the way so the fish don't get scared and jump.

4. Move your filter media to the bottom of the bucket with the fish, clean out your sponges and anything like that you would need to maintenance.

5. Go ahead and make a divot/hole to give the siphon access to drain as much water as possible from the tank. You will have a difficult time getting the siphon going once you hit the substrate so having help, drain water and having something where you can keep draining as long as possible is very helpful. Angle the substrate so water drains down into that hole as it drains.

6. Drain the water as much as you can and then move the tank to the floor/somewhere safe.

7. Move your stand, then level it.

8. Add the 5G back, then the bigger tank, be sure to check level as the tanks fill with water. Weight can make things shift.

9. Add back in your hard scape and get the filtration going.

10. Add the fish back once the filter has had a chance to remove any major debris. Usually an hour.

[FishRBeautiful]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did about 5 substrate changes this summer trying to figure out what I like until I landed on this one. Emptied the whole tank completely but it was SO MUCH WORK. Seems like a similar process to moving a tank then but leave the substrate and water the siphon doesn’t drain out. My house is 75 so don’t worry about temperature of the water for the couple hours it takes to move, right? What if it’s a month from now and my house is 70 degrees?

And I put my fish in a bin I have for substrate changes that is larger than my tank. Just fill it up about 1/3 full because it’s plastic.

Edited September 5, 2023 by FishRBeautiful

[mynameisnobody]

@FishRBeautiful you’re overthinking the whole thing. Lower your waterline to 1”-2” to both aquariums and get someone to help your drag it the 12’. I’ve done this literally 30-40 times. There’s no real issue unless it carpet. At that point just lift and move. There’s really no need to move anything out of the aquarium unless you have large rocks in there. Don’t over complicate it for no reason. 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:51 PM, lefty o said:

a couple of 5 gallon buckets for the fish and some water. drain the little one down half way and pull it out. drain the bigger one down most of the way, and then you should be able to move it by yourself or with the help of 1 person. get them moved, put back in place, refilled/treated, add fish back in. 

I have moved many tanks and stands. This is how it is easiest for me. 

[FishRBeautiful]

Perfect! That’s easy enough! Thank you!

[Tanked]

On 9/5/2023 at 7:25 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I did about 5 substrate changes this summer trying to figure out what I like until I landed on this one. Emptied the whole tank completely but it was SO MUCH WORK. Seems like a similar process to moving a tank then but leave the substrate and water the siphon doesn’t drain out. My house is 75 so don’t worry about temperature of the water for the couple hours it takes to move, right? What if it’s a month from now and my house is 70 degrees?

And I put my fish in a bin I have for substrate changes that is larger than my tank. Just fill it up about 1/3 full because it’s plastic.

Temperature is not a huge consideration in the amount of time it will take you to complete the move.  The water temperature will change slowly.  The temperature in the bucket(s) and later in the aquarium will be the same.

[FishRBeautiful]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:21 AM, Tanked said:

Temperature is not a huge consideration in the amount of time it will take you to complete the move.  The water temperature will change slowly.  The temperature in the bucket(s) and later in the aquarium will be the same.

Great! I didn’t know if fish freeze in temperatures for short times. I know air stones seem to be a bigger deal than temperature when power goes out and I never know why temperature isn’t mentioned. It’s my ram I worry about with the temperature. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/5/2023 at 4:25 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

My house is 75 so don’t worry about temperature of the water for the couple hours it takes to move, right? What if it’s a month from now and my house is 70 degrees?

Correct. it's not that big of a deal if it's a few hours.  (Ref Cory's power outage methods)

Even at 70. The main concern is to just get the fish / livestock to be comfortable and then to let them relax peacefully while you get the work done.

[FishRBeautiful]

On 9/5/2023 at 6:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Correct. it's not that big of a deal if it's a few hours.  (Ref Cory's power outage methods)

Even at 70. The main concern is to just get the fish / livestock to be comfortable and then to let them relax peacefully while you get the work done.

Cool! I never know what fish feel. I didn’t know if 70 or even 65 felt like 30 or 40 with no coat on to a human. I wondered if it was not so much a comfort but a medical issue because for humans at 30 with no coat on at some point would be medical. From what you’re saying, it’s more of a comfort than safety issue, right?

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/5/2023 at 7:00 PM, FishRBeautiful said:

From what you’re saying, it’s more of a comfort than safety issue, right?

noise and vibration being the big concern at that point, yeah.