# Moving Tank (from state to state) need help.



## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

So in exactly 1 month (well, june first) im moving to my grandmas house while my parents settle in their new house... 
I have my 40b w/stand and its obviously high tech, dirted, with most places having a 1" sand cap, some even less maybe due to settling.. 

How the hell am i going to move this? We are probably going to rent a small Uhaul truck... But my main concern is:
How do i keep plants alive
what do i do with the fish i have
what do i do with the substrate
what else do i do? 

Ive moved tanks from state to state before, and well... didn't go to great.


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## FromReefs2Plants (Aug 14, 2017)

i moved a 20g long reef tank 7 hours several times. Same as my little 5.5g natural planted tank.

For the planted tank, i simply drained the water down to where there was only 2" of water in it. Picked it up and placed it in my car. There was only a betta fish in it though. It did fine nothing died at all. 

For your 40B i would suggest draining water all the way to the substrate and placing your fish in a 5g bucket. This is what I did with my live rock, corals, and fish and i didn't lose any.

The plants should be just fine as the substrate will still be very wet. you could also mist them if you were worried. It really depends on how long the move will take. 

Break the tank down last and set it when you arrive. Not all the way set up, but get water in it and get the water moving.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

FromReefs2Plants said:


> i moved a 20g long reef tank 7 hours several times. Same as my little 5.5g natural planted tank.
> 
> For the planted tank, i simply drained the water down to where there was only 2" of water in it. Picked it up and placed it in my car. There was only a betta fish in it though. It did fine nothing died at all.
> 
> ...


thanks very much for the reply,
Would the plants dry out if i lowered it below 1" of water? i would of course wrap the top with plastic wrap no questions asked to keep as much humidity as possible in it. 
I definitely do not wanna uproot the plants though. But i also dont want them to dry out... i could mist.

Drive is 10-12 hours to new house.

Fish in bucket is a can do. Suggest 5 gallon bucket? w/lid?


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

Good reason to pull all plants, have a huge plant sale and re-arrange.

Phish in a bucket I've done for several days with an air stone. Cover in case of jumpers.

Lesswater for capped soil the better, a good slosh may mix things up.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Maryland Guppy said:


> Good reason to pull all plants, have a huge plant sale and re-arrange.
> 
> Phish in a bucket I've done for several days with an air stone. Cover in case of jumpers.
> 
> Lesswater for capped soil the better, a good slosh may mix things up.


Thank you for your reply! 
"Good reason to pull all plants, have a huge plant sale and re-arrange."
Noooo can do... not doing that again *facepalm* took me like 1 year to get it how it is now!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I have had success using a styrofoam box to hold the fish, so the water temperature wouldn't fluctuate so much. I got the box at a big grocery store, sold as a cooler. I always restart the tank from bare tank on up when I do this. There should be no cycling problem if you have kept the plants wet, so the bacteria on them remains alive. And, reusing the filter uncleaned is also a good idea.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

hoppycalif said:


> I have had success using a styrofoam box to hold the fish, so the water temperature wouldn't fluctuate so much. I got the box at a big grocery store, sold as a cooler. I always restart the tank from bare tank on up when I do this. There should be no cycling problem if you have kept the plants wet, so the bacteria on them remains alive. And, reusing the filter uncleaned is also a good idea.


Thank you hoppy for the reply, id but most filter media in the bucket w/fish i believe... just so they have some personal space. or something to lean on cause i know the road that we are going to travel on and sometimes its flat as all get out, sometimes its gravel. 
As for the plants, now that i have your .02$ on that, i think my plan for them as far as now is to:

1- Drop the tank water to under 1" or 1" exactly.
2- Put plastic wrap on the tanks top to keep in humidity
3- mist well every hour

does this plan sound... full proof? surely 1" of water couldn't undo the soil cap.
one thing im sure of is im not tearing the tank down, IE taking plants out, etc.


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## clownaroundclown (Nov 4, 2017)

DutchMuch said:


> Thank you hoppy for the reply, id but most filter media in the bucket w/fish i believe... just so they have some personal space. or something to lean on cause i know the road that we are going to travel on and sometimes its flat as all get out, sometimes its gravel.
> 
> As for the plants, now that i have your .02$ on that, i think my plan for them as far as now is to:
> 
> ...


The water will slosh from side to side front to back and the substrate will be rearranged for you with a possibility of plants coming out or being uprooted 
The least amount of water the better

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

DutchMuch said:


> Noooo can do... not doing that again *facepalm* took me like 1 year to get it how it is now!





DutchMuch said:


> Did a trim. First trim.


1 year? Really?
Hard to fathom that took 1 year to grow.
I've tossed more than what's in that whole tankin a week. :biggrin:
Thinning out them big clumps of hair grass might even help it's distribution.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Maryland Guppy said:


> 1 year? Really?
> Hard to fathom that took 1 year to grow.
> I've tossed more than what's in that whole tankin a week. :biggrin:
> Thinning out them big clumps of hair grass might even help it's distribution.


no not a year to grow *that pic is after 43 weeks or so of growth i think* 
a year to Make, ive been wanting to do this dutch tank for so long but my family keeps moving due to personal reasons  So tearing it down would be like tearing my heart out of my chest :wave: lol


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Ok so here is a problem i have encountered:

We will have the tank in a trailer *covered trailer obviously* and I'm keeping the fish in between my legs the entire 12/hr trip.
So how the curse word am i going to mist the plants every 30 minutes-1 hour? Well I'm not.
And i cant leave 1" of water or else I'm curse word.....

Well what now?...


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## mysiak (Jan 17, 2018)

From my experience, as long as the air is humid enough, plants will be fine for 12 hours. I often keep plants cuttings closed in ordinary plastic bag with just few drops of water for several days with no visible ill effects (exception are floaters which lose their roots very quickly, but they recover). When I'm buying plants from online shops or other hobbyists, they often send them wrapped in plastic foil without water as well and they travel for at least 24 hours..

I would just wrap the tank with foil and let wet substrate to take care of humidity.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

mysiak said:


> From my experience, as long as the air is humid enough, plants will be fine for 12 hours. I often keep plants cuttings closed in ordinary plastic bag with just few drops of water for several days with no visible ill effects (exception are floaters which lose their roots very quickly, but they recover). When I'm buying plants from online shops or other hobbyists, they often send them wrapped in plastic foil without water as well and they travel for at least 24 hours..
> 
> I would just wrap the tank with foil and let wet substrate to take care of humidity.


This is a very good point. We mail plants from hobbyist to hobbyist many times, using Priority Mail, which takes 3 days. Add 2 more days for the pre-shipping and post-arrival activity, and we have 5 days out of the water. That works very well. Years ago I wrapped a bunch of identical plants for mailing, using different packaging methods (damp plants in plastic sandwitch bag, the same, but with plants inside wet paper towel, and the same, with a little water in the bag) then I put them in the back seat of my car for 3 days, and did my usual driving around, parking, etc. Another day later I opened the boxes of plants, and all of them survived equally well. That convinced me that it isn't at all critical how you handle plants that are damp if you want them to survive.


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Thanks guys! ill update this when we begin to move should be may 4th around there.


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## smatos69 (May 18, 2018)

Hi, all.

About moving plants: some can be a little fragile; swords and crypts tend to break the leaves at the base - normally stemplants are more flexible. Carpets are best taken out of substrate, cleaned and replanted on arrival.
Can you get a couple of 2Gal jugs of spring water with screw-on caps? Fill them with tank water drop all your larger plants into one and screw on cap. In the other put in a heater, and an airstone then (this takes time and patience) drop in each fish.
Airstone connects to 12V though Auto/Car AC/DC inverter.
I did this earlier this year - out of some 30 fish I only lost two.
About the tanks, it's by far the easiestway (and remember: water is VERY heavy...) to drain the water as much as possible, also avoids 'rearranging' your substrate while taking curves on the road.

Good luck!


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Ok well we moved,
i drained ALL the tank water (except 1/6th of an inch) and laid 3 layers of paper towels on top of all the plants (trimmed). Everything made it!


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