A Moving Nightmare

[ndkang]

Hey Guys,

I am hoping for some advice how to move my aquarium from one house to another without it being a total nightmare. What is the proper procedure? Also, my old filter has seen the end of its days and I am replacing it with a new canister filter. Is it as simple as out with the old and in with the new or should the old bio-media be kept in consideration?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Tank 150gallons
Fish - 1 Super Red Arrowana, 2 Teacup Stingrays, 1 Alligator Gar, 1 Eel, 2 Discus

Thanks!

Dai

 

[Owain4]

What i would do personally is empty the fish into seperate containers, like 10 gallon (or more be carefull of weight) tupperware containers, make sure they are aerated, then i would empty the tank and put the substrate in a few other buckets. make sure you keep the old bio media and use it to get biomedia in the new filter when you set up the new tank. try to keep as much bacteria in the tank as possible so when you get to your new place you can just fill it up with some same water, fish, and most of the old bio media. i would even just set up your old one with new pads and the new filter your getting with the old pads of your old filter to "seed" the new one.

 

[PostalPenguin]

You can get large tupperware containers(7+ gallons) at Walmart or similar stores that work well for transporting fish. I use a power inverter to run an airpump off the car battery to keep a good flow of water going in each container. I also float some biomedia in each bucket so that the bacteria stay alive and with the water flow from the airstone you can get some filtration.

 

[HarleyK]

Howdy Dai,

Check my thread in our MFK ARTICLES forum for advice on how to move the fish. As for the tank, you'll need a couple of buddies and free pizza.

Old bio-media won't survive stopped flow for much over an hour or to. A sponge filter will! Think about seeding a large sponge, that worked super-well for me.

Best of luck,
HarleyK