advice on moving my tank

[ichiromariners]

i am gonna be moving my 55 gallon long tank down stairs from up stairs and was wondering if its ok to put the water (gonna be in buckets) and fish (gonna be in plastic bags) back into the tank right away. i was gonna put the live rock and water back in and let water settle a little then put fish back in. i have a another tank up and running but it has a small clown in it that i am afraid my puffer may try to eat if i put my fish from 55 into that tank temperarily. thanks

 

[jumpfrog]

I would think the less time the fish spend in plastic bags the better. I'm migrating a tank soon. Plan to put as much water as possible in buckets. Leave a couple of inches of water on top of the substrate. Put all live rock in buckets of water.
I would think that if you don't have too many fish. You could just leave a couple of inches of water in the tank with the fish still in the tank and move it. Then just add back water and rock.
At any rate, if you're just moving down stairs it should be fine. I would just try to minimize disturbing the substrate so as to not create a mini cycle.
Good luck and let us know how it works out!

 

[melbournefl]

please don't try moving a tank with water in it, odds are that the flexing during the move down the stairs will break the seals or worse.
Just my .02,
Paul

 

[jumpfrog]

Melbourne has a good point. I did move a 46 bow 20 miles using the few inches of water technique and it went just fine.
But of course, I might have been lucky

 

[stacyt]

1st I would mix up a fresh batch of water. I would drain all the water into buckets. Place your fish into the buckets. Place LR/LS into buckets. Move the tank downstairs. Then place LS, LR, and most of the water back into the tank. Add some of the freshly mixed water, and let thinks settle. Then add fish back into the tank. If you have extra powerheads or heaters I would also use these in the buckets with the fish.

 

[iechy]

if you do have ANY water left in the tank when you move it I would use a piece of wood under it to carry it like a stretcher. That will prevent the tank from twisting and minimize the risk of new leaks. Just be sure it doesn't slide off
I agree that if you don't disturb everything too much you should be able to add everything right back in. Just leave the lights off till the next day and hopefully everything will have settled back down. Good luck.

 

[newreefers]

agree with above, if you use a piece of plywood, be very careful the tank does not slide on the wood, you can nail a couple pieces of 1 x 1 on 3 sides of the plywood and slide the tank onto the open end. just a safety measure as the thought of having to buy a new tank on the fly and clean up a huge mess does not sound very good.

 

[ichiromariners]

thanks to all for your help i will post new thread once move is done to let everyone know how it went and maybe some ideas to help if anything happens.