How do I move a 20 gallon aquarium?

[lilyandchris08]

Any advice:
We're going to be moving in a couple months and I was just wondering if anyone knew how to go about moving an aquarium? It is a 20 gallon tank.
We have:
(2) Red Banded HiFin Gobies
(1) Picasso Clown
(1) Six Line Wrasse
(1) Firefish
(1) Clam (He's attached)
Any advice would be helpful!
Thank you!

 

[lsu]

I've moved a few tanks, it's not as scary as it sounds. Take out LR and put in icechest, take out fish inverts and place in ziplock bags, I drained the water(all of it) into gasoline containers(I bought a lot of them). Move tank, add rock, add water slowly, I placed a colander/strainer(sp) in the tank and poured the water onto that slowly, in order not to stir up the sand, add LR, float fish and your done. I left the lights off for a day to reduce stress. The only thing I've lost in a move were crabs that were smashed in the rocks. It takes a while but it's not that bad.

 

[big]

A 20 should not be too bad. Just plan ahead.
I moved mine in May (72 bow) and with all the tubs etc. I still had an issue with the substrate. It most likely will cause somewhat of a spike a few days after setup. If I had to do it again the critters would be housed in a second container till the spike from moving the substrate passed. A good idea is having a second tank(big container of some kind) at the new site ready before the move to hold everyone till the spike passes. I also removed a large amount of my substrate just because of stressing the tank during the move. It was about four days till mine "settled down". It may be several days till you can safely reintroduce you critters.. Another issue for me was losing the coralline on the back glass, it is hard not to. Watch the nitrate levels....... Good luck it in not a fun thing to do.......... But a 20 is not going to be too hard.....
Good Luck...... Warren

 

[lilyandchris08]

We've moved quite a few tanks before. I guess our biggest problem was not planning ahead. I'm worried about our clam that is attached and stressing out our fish. Hopefully everything turns out fine. Thanks for the advice.
Lily