House flooded. Totes for fish storage?

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jeaninel

jeaninel

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Oct 15, 2014
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california
Hi guys. We had a flood in our house due to a plumbing issue. I have 5 fish tanks ( 150, 135, 75, 55 and 20 gallon) in my house which will need to be moved out while repairs are being done (new flooring, drywall, paint, etc). I need to find somewhere to house all my fish temporarily. I've tried contacting numerous fish stores in my area and even a fish tank maintenance company asking about temporary housing but have had no luck. Everyone is worried about liability ?. I'm thinking I might have to resort to using totes and putting them out in the garage. Not sure if there's enough room tho. What is the largest tote that can safely hold water? 50 gallon? 100 gallon? Can I use heaters in Rubbermaid totes? The other dilemma is filling and draining the totes. My Python won't reach. I would have to buy more tubing to add onto it. My kitchen is right next to the garage but the faucet is s pull out and won't accept the adapter. The only other working faucet is at the back end of the house in the master bathroom. It's been very cold and the garage is not insulated. I'm worried I may lose some of my fish. Also not looking forward to catching over 50 fish and breaking down all those tanks.

Anyway, just wondering if any of you have been thru similar experiences and what did you do? Please share your thoughts and advise. Thank you!
 
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jeaninel said:
Hi guys. We had a flood in our house due to a plumbing issue. I have 5 fish tanks ( 150, 135, 75, 55 and 20 gallon) in my house which will need to be moved out while repairs are being done (new flooring, drywall, paint, etc). I need to find somewhere to house all my fish temporarily. I've tried contacting numerous fish stores in my area and even a fish tank maintenance company asking about temporary housing but have had no luck. Everyone is worried about liability ?. I'm thinking I might have to resort to using totes and putting them out in the garage. Not sure if there's enough room tho. What is the largest tote that can safely hold water? 50 gallon? 100 gallon? Can I use heaters in Rubbermaid totes? The other dilemma is filling and draining the totes. My Python won't reach. I would have to buy more tubing to add onto it. My kitchen is right next to the garage but the faucet is s pull out and won't accept the adapter. The only other working faucet is at the back end of the house in the master bathroom. It's been very cold and the garage is not insulated. I'm worried I may lose some of my fish. Also not looking forward to catching over 50 fish and breaking down all those tanks.

Anyway, just wondering if any of you have been thru similar experiences and what did you do? Please share your thoughts and advise. Thank you!
Click to expand...


I have a rubbermaid tote I have been using for over 10 yrs they are very durable. 50 gallon tote will work but probably can't fill too high due to bowing. Tbh don't know about the heater. Sorry to hear about the plumbing issue.
 
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Yeah I was wondering about the bowing. I have 2 large Vieja (12-14") and 4 large Bala sharks (10-12") in the 150. Would probably have to split them up between a couple totes. And then my 135 has a ton of little and medium sized fish, probably about 30 fish total in that tank. I think my 55 I can set up in my kitchen. My 20 gallon is already moved onto the kitchen table. And lastly the 75 gallon will also need a tote for them.
 
Kno4te are those totes deep enough to put a AC110 on them? I can maybe shorten up the intake tube. But not sure if the wall of the tote is thick enough to hold the filter.
 
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jeaninel said:
Hi guys. We had a flood in our house due to a plumbing issue. I have 5 fish tanks ( 150, 135, 75, 55 and 20 gallon) in my house which will need to be moved out while repairs are being done (new flooring, drywall, paint, etc). I need to find somewhere to house all my fish temporarily. I've tried contacting numerous fish stores in my area and even a fish tank maintenance company asking about temporary housing but have had no luck. Everyone is worried about liability ?. I'm thinking I might have to resort to using totes and putting them out in the garage. Not sure if there's enough room tho. What is the largest tote that can safely hold water? 50 gallon? 100 gallon? Can I use heaters in Rubbermaid totes? The other dilemma is filling and draining the totes. My Python won't reach. I would have to buy more tubing to add onto it. My kitchen is right next to the garage but the faucet is s pull out and won't accept the adapter. The only other working faucet is at the back end of the house in the master bathroom. It's been very cold and the garage is not insulated. I'm worried I may lose some of my fish. Also not looking forward to catching over 50 fish and breaking down all those tanks.

Anyway, just wondering if any of you have been thru similar experiences and what did you do? Please share your thoughts and advise. Thank you!
Click to expand...

So sorry to hear about your troubles...in October I had flooding too and got totes. If you get the large ones (30 gallon and up) doubling those up is essential. I did that and the bowing was manageable with no problems. Its amazing how much they deform from water pressure. I got tops to minimize stress and potential jumping. 18 gallons and under you don't need to double. If you have a spare bathtub I'd put the largest fish in there. To drain I used small water pumps and ran tubing to the toilet in a nearby bathroom. And you can use heaters with no problem, be sure to add air stones and old bio media too. I did partial w/cs every two days, fish were fine for six weeks.
 
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Fish are actually pretty resilient. I'm not advocating mistreatment but to put them in a holding area for a short time should be fine. I had to move and had no help and hurt myself pretty badly. During the move I had fish in buckets and totes when I hurt myself so they lived in buckets and totes until I was able to set up tanks about 6 to 8 weeks. They had filtration and it was end of summer so temps in the room they were in were in the low 70s up to say 80 throughout the day and night. I did water changes weekly. I lost 0 fish. One 5 gallon bucket had like 12 small fish in it. 6 denisons barbs, 4 checkerboard barbs, and 2 apistogrammas. The apistogrammas actually spawned in the bucket. Now that bucket had a filter rated for a 40-60g tank and some pothos that had been growing out of my sump from the old system. Once I was healed up mostly I got them to tanks and everyone was fine. I felt bad and again I dont recommend doing that for that long but I didnt have an option.
 
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twentyleagues said:
Fish are actually pretty resilient. I'm not advocating mistreatment but to put them in a holding area for a short time should be fine. I had to move and had no help and hurt myself pretty badly. During the move I had fish in buckets and totes when I hurt myself so they lived in buckets and totes until I was able to set up tanks about 6 to 8 weeks. They had filtration and it was end of summer so temps in the room they were in were in the low 70s up to say 80 throughout the day and night. I did water changes weekly. I lost 0 fish. One 5 gallon bucket had like 12 small fish in it. 6 denisons barbs, 4 checkerboard barbs, and 2 apistogrammas. The apistogrammas actually spawned in the bucket. Now that bucket had a filter rated for a 40-60g tank and some pothos that had been growing out of my sump from the old system. Once I was healed up mostly I got them to tanks and everyone was fine. I felt bad and again I dont recommend doing that for that long but I didnt have an option.
Click to expand...
What kind of filters did you have on the buckets? I will need heaters since it is very cold out and the garage is not insulated. I have some big boys...my Black belt is a good 13" and the synspillum is about the same size. I have 4 large Bala sharks, about 9-10" each, and a severum about 8". Most of the other fish are pretty much 6" or under.
 
You could get some internal filters. They're rated for up to 40 gals each. Substitute your bio media for the filter pads. If you have a tub or even a usable utility sink I'd put your hunkers in there...my O's pretty hefty and I didn't feel like doing mad w/c every day in a tote. Even in a deep tub he made huge poop that nearly clogged the bio media bags I put in. I ended up rinsing them every 2 days.
 
Fortunately I had a 300g Rubbermaid tub that my big fish went in before I hurt myself. I have a ton of biomedia in my sump and a few extra unused filters laying around a couple canisters. But the filter in the bucket was a ziss filter they are pretty cool and really work well. If you have a tractor supply around go pick up a 100g Rubbermaid stock tank they are about $60 usually I think. Your big fish would be more then fine in it.

Poly pond.

Well its still a work in progress. I will possibly back log the last 7 months but honestly I may just continue from this point forward. It should be less sad and traumatic....lol
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com
Thats my thread on the 300g. It always pays to have extra cycled media in your sump or canisters if you can. And contraire to some peoples thinking bacteria will inhabit most of the media you give it it just wont be as densely populated as if you have half the space. Just like people.
www.aquariumcoop.com

Ziss Bubble Bio Moving Bed Filter | Aquarium Filter for Fish Tanks

No need to make a DIY fluidized moving bed filter with K1 media. Increase biological filtration using a pre-built Ziss moving bed filter with an air pump.
www.aquariumcoop.com www.aquariumcoop.com
I had two of these cycled too. Dont ask why I just did and good thing too.
 
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