Abalisa

Help! We are getting ready to paint the whole inside of our house. Will have to move my tanks away from the walls. I know I'll need to cover the tanks, but to move them they will have to be mostly drained right? So I don't suppose there will be any way to do it w/out having to move fish from tank to tank? I guess my question would be if it's safe to move the tanks w/the fish in them. I have a 20 gallon & a 10 gallon. None of the fish are over 3 inches long. We are wanting to move soon, so this will come for me again.

clinton1621

No, you CANNOT move tanks with ANYTHING in them, they need to be 100% empty (no water or gravel)... this will cause uneven pressure on the tank and will either cause the seals to fail or outright break the glass (especially the bottom!)

Also keep in mind that a 10g weighs about 100 pounds when it is full, and a 20g weighs about 200 pounds.... not exactly easy to move even if it wouldnt damage the tank.

peacemaker92

I agree with Clinton. It's not good to move the tanks with water and fish in them. I'd be concerned of stressing the fish out. It's very heavy too!

Abalisa

OK, thanks. I wasn't sure which way would stress them more. And I didn't realize I would have to take the gravel out too.

Dojella

I think with a 10 and 20 gallon, you should be able to drain your tanks to 4 or 5 inches of water and leave everything in them while you move them to where they have to be during the painting. I did that with a 10 gallon tank and even drove it 10 miles to my new apartment with fish in it! I wouldn't recommend doing that though, a little to risky. But for moving tanks within your house, I think you'll be fine.

LeenBeth

I am also going to be painting the wall behind my 29g tank....

its a small wall and will only have to move the tank maybe 12 inches...enough spcae to do a quick roll over....
was hoping to be able to "slide" it a bit and get in there....with no fish in it though...maybe during a water change?

The tank was just cycled so would be nice if I didnt have to empty the whole thing...painitng wont be done for a few weeks

Abalisa

I was thinking that might be ok because the stands are a bigger circumference than the tanks. I would just move the stands with the mostly drained tanks on them. I was hoping if I didn't have to transfer any fish it would be less stressful on them. I'm pretty attached to them and just want to do whats best for the fish. (I even have names for all the tetras...lol).

LeenBeth

we actually dont have any fish in the tank yet...was hoping maybe today but we are in the process of trying to get the pH higher.....everything else seems to going well...measuring all the parameters again right now...0 nitrites, 0 amonia and niytrates are betiween 5-10...hard to match colors when the scale is so subjective

we dont even have the paint picked out....let alone have everything prepare otherwise i would just wait to put fish in

could be some toime before we paint

Alasse

I've moved my 18 gal with just enough water to cover fish and all decor in it. Not recommended, but it can be done. The just under 10gal tanks i have, i've moved numerous times with, again. just enough water to cover fish in it.

When placed in new position, i just put the held water (in buckets) back into the tank

Warning moving a partly loaded tank is VERY heavy, anything over 10gal will need more than one person. I wouldn't attempt to move anything over 20gal with anything in it, the longer the tank the more chance a stress fracture will happen, either in your tank or your back *L*

jdhef

Unless your ph is really low, you should leave it alone rather than chemically alter it. Most fish adapt to the ph and adding chemicals to alter the ph leads to ph swings which is more harmful to the fish than a steady ph that is not in their ideal range.

You should paint the walls the same color as your test kit's color for zero ammonia, that way you won't have to worry about losing the test card.

welshalien

we've moved 10 and 20 gallon tanks with the water lowered down to 3 inches deep or so. After lowering the water level, we slid them VERY carefully onto pieces of plywood that were cut larger than the tanks and carried the plywood (2 people, obviously!). It's not fun and not really recommended but it can be done. I would think the stands would act the same way as the plywood did for us.

Kelly

edited: just realized this thread was a couple of days old! sorry!

Devon

I just moved 3 10 gallon and 1 30 gallon tank over the weekend, and two of the 10 gallons are going to have to be pulled out this week for painting. I just lower the water level a bit in the 10's and slide the stands out from the wall, tanks and all, but they are on hardwood... not sure what your flooring situation is.