Need Advice about Moving Tanks

[Shrimp Voyeur]

Hi I will be moving in about 2 weeks to a new house 30 minutes away. I have 4 tanks that I need to move:

30 gal/ 113 liter OEBTs laterite and sand substrate

55 gal/ 208 liter Red Cherry Shrimp gravel and laterite substrate

20 gal/75 liters Crystal Red Shrimp ADA substrate

10 gal/ 38 liters Crystal Red Shrimp ADA substrate

Bagging the shrimp and triming and packing the plants should not be a problem. I have a lot of plastic containers to collect the water and buckets for packing the foam filtration systems. I plan to set up each aquarium with the same water and filters. My concern is the ADA substrate. I am sure that the ride is going to agitate it. Should I be concerned about this? I am going to completely redo the 55 using old water and new substrate. It has been established for 3 years and needs new substrate. Any concerns there? All recommendations are welcome. thanks!

 

[jcardona1]

If you're taking out all the plants and shrimp, why not just tear the whole tank down, rinse out the substrate when you get there, and set them up again? No need to transport all the water. Just make sure any filter media is kept old aquarium water. When the tanks are set up again, acclimate the livestock and dump them in.

 

[tjfish]

I would recommend emptying the tanks completely as well.
It will greatly reduce the chances of stress creating leaks in the tanks. when i move a tank, i remove everything from it, due to bad experience in the past when i did not due so which resulted in having to re seal 2 tanks.
Just my opinion lol

 

[tjfish]

One more thing lol.
As Jose said, if you do empty everything, just keep your filter media in a bucket of water from its respective aquarium and that should preserve your microbe friends so you wont have to start over on the bioligical level.