How to move a fish tank ????

I will be moving my Fluval Roma 125 some time this week and was wondering what peoples opinions were on the best way to move it, it will only be moving into the other room. I havent added many fish to the tank so it is lightly stocked so my plan was to move them to an old 30l temporarily using tank water and then strip the tank down drain it and move it. Do I need to keep any of the water or because its same house will tap water not be too much different so long as I dechlorinate it and stuff. I am using a external filter would it be best to try and connect it to the 30l and turn the flow down to perserve the bacteria. Any opinions on what would be the best way to approach this would be really appreciated.

For the amount of time it will take to move the tank to another room, there is no need to connect the filter to the 30L tank, but there is no harm in doing this anyway. The best option would be to keep as much water as you can from the tank. If you have water containers or a clean bin, you can use these. The main reason for this is that the water temp will not drop too much if it’s a quick move. Using new water could lower the temp too much. Would recommend removing all substrate from the tank too for the move, may sound like overkill but there is no point in putting undue stress on the silicone seals.

Thanks i completely agree with you, i dont want to damage the tank in any way or put it under any stress so the gravel will be taken out, as far as water temp i should be fine as the tank is unheated the room temperature is fine as at the momment i only have a school of white cloud mountain minnows. In exams at the moment so once I have them done I will have time to do this just taught I would make sure of everything before I decided to move the tank

I recently moved my 175L tank to the other side of my sitting room to make way for a 5' tank.
Here is the sequence of steps that worked for me.
1) I bought a large bin container to hold approx 125L. I also have 3 x 25L water containers. So I could most of the water for the tank.
2) I caught and bagged the fish from the tank and put them in bags with newspaper to keep them warm.
3) I turned off the tank heater and left the external pump running.
4) I use a small power head and tubing to pump the water from the tank into the containers. Using the power head made the move of the water very easy.
5) I did not turn off the external filter until near the point where it would have stopped pumping water. This was to achieve the shortest time for the filter to be off during the move.
6) I left the substrate and about 2 inches of water in the tank and started the move. The tank and cabinet were much lighter at this stage so I but a strong towel under both ends of the cabinet. With assistance of my wife I used the towels to drag the tank to the other side of the room and manovered in into place.
7) I removed the towels from under the cabinet. The tank was then in it's new place without disturbing the substrate.
8) I then used the small power head to pump the water back into the tank from the containers. I had some bucket water work to complete the final water transfer.
9) I plugged back in the tank heater and reattached the external filter and switched it on. The tank was now running as before the move I just had to wait until the Tank temperature was back to the settings I wanted.
10) I then put the fish back into the tank and the move was completed.

You may have to decide if the towel mnthod will work for you depending on what to have get over to put your tank in the other room. The towels prevented the tank from scratching the wooden floor. I've used this towel method to draging other heavy items around a room.

I would recommend getting a small power head , or you may have one already, for the water moves as it make it much simpler.
The full move took apporx 3 hours and no stock was lost as a result.

I am now waiting delivery of my 5' tank to but in the old position of my 3' one.

Hope this helps.

Greg

Thanks Ghart, that was a great help , the power head is a brilliant idea as i was dreading refilling it with buckets was thinking of buying one anyway to make water changes easier if i can get a cheap one. really appreciate the advice from everyone, will be moving it later in the week and probably putting in few extra plants aswell when im done. Thanks again

Just one thing . Get a strong power head as the one I bought did not have enough power to pump the water from the floor back up to my Tank. The alternative is to keep the larger container holding the water near to level with the tank so the return is not too steep for the power head to handle.

Best of luck.

Greg

how much do they cost chris??

Draco wrote:

100 e

think i will stick to the syphon!!

you can also use your external filter for pumping the water out,just move the outlet hose to whatever container/bucket your transferring your water to, i have done this before when moving tanks..
(thats my top tip for today!! )

one other tip for when your pumping water back into the tank cable tie a plastic bag around the end of the hose and cut a corner out of the bag,this will help stop your substrate getting disturbed and your tank wont be as cloudy
john

Draco wrote:

ghart wrote:

Just one thing . Get a strong power head as the one I bought did not have enough power to pump the water from the floor back up to my Tank. The alternative is to keep the larger container holding the water near to level with the tank so the return is not too steep for the power head to handle.

Best of luck.

Greg

This little treasure raises water to a height of 3 meters, in a few minutes emptying my 500l tank, toy very useful when you have a larger tank.

Not to take any business away from the sponsors (would always try them first for anything I am buying) but you can get different brands of this on Amazon for a lot cheaper. Now as far as I can tell they are manufactured in the far east but sold by companies in the UK. I bought one there recently and it has made my water changes a doddle. Haven't had them for too long but at the price I got it, not too bothered if it only lasts a couple of years or so.

PS Mods if you don't think this is appropriate due to it being a non-sponsor thing please remove

Very good thread. Lots of useful tips and hints here. Thanks

Patrick