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Transporting a planted tank

mattyc

Member
Joined
17 Oct 2008
Messages
518
Location
Thelwall, Warrington
I am moveing house and i need to transport my planted tank to my new house which is about a mile away 2 mins drive, the tank has fish which hide when toy go near the tank and shrimp which are a pain to catch/ find is there a good way to transport the tank with the inhabitents and plants still in the tank, i was thinking drop the water to about half a tank and drive at 5 mph to the new house!!

Any ideas are gratley receved!!

Regards Matt
 
When I moved, I removed all of the fish, water and rocks.
However, this was still stupidly heavy as the gravel was wet and next time I move, I'm going to take everything out. Plus it was a 180ltr tank.
If it was a smaller tank 60ltrs, I would leave more in, but with larger tanks I would recommend to take everything out.
 
is a 60L i dont want to have to re scape the tank when i move it i just dont want the substrate to get washed around when i move the tank!!

Lazy i know but i like the look of the tank as it is!!

Matt
 
take out fish and shrimps, drain and cover with clingfilm, thats what id do anyway!

re the taking out of shimps theres a thread on here that details using a pop bottle. cut the pop bottle in half, put some shrimp food in the bottom then turn the top upside down and jam it back in the bottle. leave overnight and the shrimp will swim in to get the food and be trapped ready for you to take them out the next morning
 
draining it and transporting it empty i can do but can anyone help with the shrimp catching i like the idea of a trap thing but some more information (picks) would be verry helpfull, my harlequins wont be easy to catch they shoal well but hide if you go near the tank the ottos are easily fooled with food and a net but is the shrimp that i am most worried about!!!


Thanks for all the replys

Matt
 
I just moved my tanks home luckily 2 were dry but my "pheonix" scape has all gone to pot. I drained it as much as I could right down to tilting the tank to suck out the last water with an airline pipe. I'll post a picture of the resulting mess. Lets just say it's not pretty, substrate mounded from left to right everything moved.
 
mattyc said:
draining it and transporting it empty i can do but can anyone help with the shrimp catching i like the idea of a trap thing but some more information (picks) would be verry helpfull, my harlequins wont be easy to catch they shoal well but hide if you go near the tank the ottos are easily fooled with food and a net but is the shrimp that i am most worried about!!!


Thanks for all the replys

Matt


here you go

 
Again thank you for replying i was realey worried about moveing my tank but am not so now the biggest problem is catching all the animals living in my tank, i can produce 50L of water in storage barrels so as soon as the tank lands in my new house.

Matt :D
 
What size tank is it?
If not huge then you could drain the water down sufficient to make it light enough for 1/2 people to pick up/move. Leave the fish in there and forget about catching them. Done right you could partially drain and set the tank back up again within less than 20 minutes, so I don't think you need to remove the fish.
 
the tank is only a 60L i just dont want to wash too much of the substrate around and have crypt problems again!!!

Thanks for the replys Matt
 
The only problem with not emptying the tank as much as possible is that when driving etc and even carrying the water will get swished around so much and you'll be left with a mess. I would try to retain as much of the water as possible though (e.g. in a bucket) but I'm not sure if that's practical. Remember to keep the filter submerged etc.
 
When I move house (I have moved twice since March 2007.) I take the plants out first, then remove the water to as far as I can emptying it out of the filter. then I remove the equipment with water still in the filter.

Next thing is to get the fish out and put them in sealed container buckets wrapped in blankets.

Then finally I remove as much of the residing water as I can. The more water left in the more the substrate moves.

The tank goes in the car boot as its nice and flat in there and off we go.

I've never had a problem though, always just planted it up again at the new house got the equipment in then filled up with fresh water then go to bed leaving it overnight to get up to temperature.

Wake up in the morning, check the temp, replant anything that 'released' itself and then acclimitise the fish as if they were new from the shop.

Pretty much the same method I follow when rescaping just without the drive.

AC
 
Just moved my second tank to my new flat. I found it difficult to catch the cardinal tetras and shrimp so in the end I pretty much had to strip to down to remove hiding places. I caught all the tetra's and most of the shrimp. Tank was then drained to about an inch and any shrimp left had to fend for themselves!

I recommend a few buckets, 2 nets, patience, a strong friend and avoid carrying tank down two flights of stairs with 2-4 inches of substrate and an inch of water....
 
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