Looking for some advice

[graves]

Well the time has come that my lease is up and we are moving. So now I have to move our five tanks within the next few weeks. What are some ideas on relocating them? I thought about emptying my 55 gallon and saving some of the water, I have three 5 gallon jugs. Keep those fish in my 10 gallon temporary tank till 8 am happy with the new tank. Then add my dividers to seperate the other fish in the 55 and setup the others. It is just me and my fiance moving them. I would hate to have to go through cycling the big tanks again.

Tanks:
55- 3 koi pleco and my one eyed ebjd
30- jack dempsey and texas ciclid
30- two baby oscars
10- feeder fish tank
10- quarentine tank

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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[kallmond]

How far are you moving? I recently moved very similar setups about 45 minutes.

I took all of the rock and decor out of the 55 and split it into 4 rubbermaid tubs (about $4 each @ walmart). I added as much water as I could carry to each tub to keep the rocks and decor wet.

I put all of my fish from the 55 into a 5th rubbermaid tub, and filled it with as much water as I could carry. That one I fed an air line through the hole in the handle, and plugged my air pump into my truck's inverter. I drained the rest of the tank out into the flower bed.

I use a cannister filter, I turned it off at the very last minute. Loaded it into the truck and drove to the new house.

As soon as I got to the new house I plugged the filter in and let it run in one of the tubs with the rock (but no fish) so water was circulating. (Not sure that was necessary, but seemed like it might help to get fresh oxygenated water in the cannister).

Set up the 55, filled it with all the water I carried, (about half of it) and topped it off with new water, added fish. 0 casualties, no mini-cycle. The water at the new place was virtually identical to the water at my old house, in terms of what we can test for at least. 0 nitrate, 0 ammonia, hard as hell, and ph 7.2 in both places, almost ideal cichlid water.

My smaller tanks I drained down to an inch or two of water, left the fish in them, and carried them that way. Again, no casualties and no mini-cycle. Just be sure you keep your filters wet with tank water.

 

[graves]

Moving across town so its not that far. We would have to move just when all my tanks are about perfect. The least time running tank has been up for 4 monhs so hopefully all works out. I would throw my oscars in with the other 30 but my JD hates them. They spent the night in the same tank when I broke my filter, seperated from the other two and the jack kept going after them.

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[graves]

Just an update.

I bought dividers for both my 30 gallon tanks to seperate the fish for a short period and took down my 55. I emptied all but about 2 inches of water and left water in the HOB filters. Filled two 5 gallon containers with the water from the tank, the good nasty stuff from the bottom lol.

Moved the tank to the new place and set it up where it needed to be. Added old water and fresh treated water. Let it sit over night and tested the next day after work. All was good. Transported the fish over in the 10 gallon and all is well. Seems to be a bit clearer than normal.

Repeat for the last two tanks.

Only injury was my texas decided to become acrobatic and took a chunk out of his head but it is healing just fine.

Now to build the Koi pond.

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