29 gallon move

I have to move my 29 gal peaceful community tank upstairs in my room I have 4 black neon tetras 4 zebra danios 2 black mollies 6 glass fish 2 cobra guppies 1 oplaine gourami a hightail loach a baby bristly nose pleco 1 blue ram and 2 emerald Cory cats I unfortunately don't have any other fish tanks to put them in so what's the easiest less stressful way to remove the fish and put them in while I move the tank up stairs and how much water should I save for when it goes upstairs ?

 

when is there 50% water change due, if its close enough to the time that you would do a water change, save 50% of the water, taking the water from the top of the tank, not syphoning it, move fish to buckets that can hold them in Syphon out the remaining 50% and move tank, replace the old 50%, put fish back in and then slowly add the new water in, that's what I would do anyway

 

Some kind of containers or baggies with them in their own water. not new water of course. It is always less stressful and better for them to sit/be transported in their own water. I always just used gallon size ziploc baggies. and since you're not doing a completely new set up. I would say save as much of the water as you can. would be great if you had clean 5 gallon buckets to put the water in to save it. Then whatever water you lose and have to replace, you would treat it as if it were a water change.

 

I would take most of your plants and decorations out and drain the water by at least 50% then feed the fish lightly. While the fish are eating this will give you an opportunity to catch them and put them in a safe food plastic container. Sterilite is a good brand that Walmart sells seeing that you said you don't have another tank to put them in. (this plastic container can now be used for a hospital or qt tank when needed) After you get all your fish out drain the tank water down more.

You might be able to just drain the tank low enough for the fish to swim around in and with another person possibly bring the tank upstairs. I'm not sure if this will weaken the sides of your silicone tank and crack or break it. ??? Hopefully others will chime in.

I recently had a similar problem with a 34g tank. I was wanting to move it to a lower stand. I ended up taking most of my plants out and lowering my tank only inches to my fish. I kept all my fish in. Two people moved it down to a lower stand. They did not carry my tank far however. My situation worked for me.

 

the only tanks I move with water still in it is my 5 gallons and even then its drained pretty good and it was just moving it to a better location, with it going upstairs I would drain it till the water is just above the gravel, but keep as much water as possible no less than 50% should be removed at one time unless its to get rid of an ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate spike that could harm the fish, I keep icecream buckets if I have to move fish they have been boiled clean (no soap) but its the biggest bucket I have to hold fish in, and I only suggested the removing the water from the top of the tank as it is less likely to bring along the debree that will be in the water syphoned out with the gravel vac.

 

ok thanks for the info I have a top fin 29 gal tank from petsmart I might do the ziploc baggie thing and get 3 5 gallon buckets and save that would that be enough water to put back in the tank?

 

yes that should be more than enough, remember with substrate and decorations and everything else that goes in that tank, your not truly getting 29 gallons of water

 

oh ok I didnt even think of that. now with all the fish I named off am I pretty much limited out or can I put more fish in?

 

check out it will give you an idea of were you stand

 

I had no idea about AQAdvisor until I found FishLore. lol. I love it. You can play around with it and get a really good idea of what you can do. And I have heard though that it is best not to go over 90% though. Is that correct?

 

ya something like that, it tells you stocking advise in the question mark were all your tank information is so when it says your tank is 65% at capacity click on the ? it will have more information there

 

None the less I'd be careful using that and believing everything 100%. I've only messed with it a couple of times and out of curiosity was checking out my goldfish tank and seeing how much water should be taken out for water changes. It was a crazy low amount that I wouldn't even consider. I did like the stocking for my tropical tank when I first was playing around with it. I'd just be careful and see if it would look overstocked to you by looking at your tank when all your fish are fully grown.