# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Moving Need Advice



## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

Dear Ms Waltastad and the Whole Wet Thumb Community Members, 

I kindly request your good advice since it's time for me to pack and move to a new house. 

I successfully keep a planted tank. Fish and plants are doing great in my 90 Glls. tank with about 1.5 inch of soil and 1 inch of gravel. The tank rests on a wood stand. Tank and stand made by All Aquarium Glass. 

I need advice and suggestions for the most efficient and least disrupting way to move both, the tank and fish.

Many thanks bofore hand for your good advice

Mario


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## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

Dear Ms Waltastad and the Whole Wet Thumb Community Members, 

I kindly request your good advice since it's time for me to pack and move to a new house. 

I successfully keep a planted tank. Fish and plants are doing great in my 90 Glls. tank with about 1.5 inch of soil and 1 inch of gravel. The tank rests on a wood stand. Tank and stand made by All Aquarium Glass. 

I need advice and suggestions for the most efficient and least disrupting way to move both, the tank and fish.

Many thanks bofore hand for your good advice

Mario


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## docjosh (May 12, 2004)

Mario,
Could you detail how long it will take to move...from tank dismantle to set up, and also will there be a change in water source or water properties?


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## Paul Higashikawa (Mar 18, 2004)

Try to reduce the water as much as you can, possibly down to the substrate, in order to decrease the weight you have to carry. Place all the fish in an ice box, preferably one with a small faucet on the outside to rid the water; this is especially handy when your trip lasts more than two days. You can rid of water that way while adding fresh one to replace it. If you trip is short and you don't mind the extra work you could individually bag the fish or according to their size, and then put all these bags floating in the ice chest filled with small amount of water. As for the tank, since it is pretty big at 90-gal, you will want to cover all edges and corners with sturdy styrofoam as well as filling the inside with old newspaper or any type of foam fillings. Lastly, put the whole thing into a strong card board box; U-Haul sells some pretty good ones. In a way, it's kindda the same as boxing your heavy equipments such as TV and computer. Good luck and have a safe trip!

Paul


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## imported_dani (Jul 11, 2004)

Even just a couple of inches of wet substrate will be very heavy in a 90 gal. and, if it is too heavy to lift safely, you may have to consider scooping it out. Hopefully, it won't come to that...
If you can manage to keep your substrate intact and the downtime won't be very long, most of your plants can stay rooted and flopped over on their sides if you keep moist paper towels over them. If you choose not to use paper towels, the leaves may drop, but the roots should be fine for a limited amount of time as long as they don't dry out. In the wild, many of the plants that aquarists use would suffer far worse indignities and come back for more.
If you don't want to bend the stem of a centerpiece plant, you could try pulling it out and laying it on the substrate on its side for the journey. Probably the best proven method for moving plants, however, is pulling them out, sealing them in bags of water, and keeping them insulated from temperature changes just like your fish. (I usually keep the plants and fish in the same icebox sans bags). When you replant them, treat them like new arrivals by trimming the roots and removing damaged or old leaves.
Remember that, if you leave your substrate in the tank, it is a delicate living thing as well and would benefit from careful handling and added insulation.
This has always worked for me, but I can't vouch for anyone else's aquarium. Good luck. I hope your move goes smoothly.
dani


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## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

Dear DocJosh,

I will move a few miles away I guess water conditions will be the same. I will try to minimize the time of moving the aquarium to a 1 day or less. 

Your good advise is very much apprsciated

Regards
Mario


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## Mario Velez (Feb 20, 2004)

Thank you all for the great advice. I am moving only a few miles away (12-15) and I think most of your ideas will work perfectly. I’ll move in about 1 month so I have time to sketch a plan
I’ll share my experiences with you when everything is over.

Thanks again,

Mario


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## Avalon (Mar 7, 2005)

I recently moved 3 aquariums, a 10, 20l, and 100g about 3 miles away. All were/are planted.

The small ones were easy. I drained most of the water and left the fish and plants in. I covered the top with foil to minimize spashing(would have used plastic wrap but it was packed). The 20l was very heavy, requiring 2 people to move it. Some stem plants were uprooted because there was no water to support them. I set them back up like I would during a water change/tank care day. Fish didn't seem to mind at all.

The 100g was a different story. I can tell you now, there's no way you can move a 90g tank with gravel safely. First, all the unnecessary equipment and plants were removed. I left my cannister running, and kept any bio material in a bucket with tank water (and plants). This took me one 5g bucket. Then came the fun part: catching fish in a dimly lit tank. That took me two 5g buckets (overcrowded). After the fish were out, I removed the cannister filter and as much water as possible. I dug a hole in the substrate to the glass so I could siphon out as much as I could. Afterwards, I began to scoop out 3-4" of Flourite with a large dust pan I got at Home Depot. I filled up three 5g buckets, each about 80-100lbs each--I'm not kidding, they were back breakers! I loaded up the tank, stand, and canopy in the truck and away I went. I set the tank up like I would set up any tank, but I had to move quickly to get my fish out of those buckets. I had one fish die, a yo-yo loach that was in excellent health. Not quite sure why he didn't make it. All other fish showed no signs of distress, and all ate well that night. The next day, my Jaguar (managuense) cichlids spawned.

Total time: about 6 hours for the 100g alone, maybe a little more.
Worst work: Catching fish, taking out substrate, clean-up
Easiest work: setting the tank back up

I now despise Flourite. This stuff finds its way everywhere. It's so annoying to step on it barefoot!


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## docjosh (May 12, 2004)

One thing i did last time i was removing substrate from my tank was to use a wet/dry vac. I was able to suck out the gravel quickly and just dump the canister of the vac into 5 gallon buckets. Went very quickly and might allow you to keep your substrates seperate if you are carefull with the vac nozzle.
Just an Idea


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

If you can move the tank without removing ALL of the substrate, that would be good. Maybe just remove say 1/4 on one end of tank.

You could herd fish to one end and then insert a tank divider. Then remove all plants from this end, pack them for transport, etc. It should be easy to catch fish easily in the denuded area. 

After all fish are in bags or containers, you can scoop up substrate from the denuded area. What should happen is that all the substrate water from the main untouched area (3/4 of tank) will drain into the bare 1/4. This will make the tank lighter and you may be able to move it without having to remove ALL the substrate and disrupt ALL the plants, etc.

If you move tank with cover to keep plants from drying out, and quickly refill tank, the plants should be fine.

However, this is just advice without experience. It's good that you're planning ahead so carefully.


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## imported_Zach987 (Aug 12, 2004)

ok so short moves are easy and workable, but who has done a long move. I am moving from georgia to maine soon and am worried about some of my exotics surviving the three day trip and temprature change in the moving van. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Zach987:
> ok so short moves are easy and workable, but who has done a long move. I am moving from georgia to maine soon and am worried about some of my exotics surviving the three day trip and temprature change in the moving van. Any ideas?
> ...


You might be able to move the plants and tank substrate in the van over a three day period. However, if it were me, I would carry the fish in the car and give them lots of personal TLC (I'd bring along fishfood and water jugs for water changes).


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Moving a 90G with substrate and some water in it??

I would never try that. I have moved my 200L (55G) several times and have emptied it completely of everything every time.

I guess you could try to move the 90G with substrate in it and it *could* work but the risk of the tank springing a leak or breaking would be too large for me.

Anyway, several inches of substrate in a 90G just adds lots of weight to the whole thing making it even harder to move around...

Laith


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