Moving With Fish - Is It Worth It?

So me and the gf moved 2 months ago now. We have crappy neighbours upstairs and they happen to be our landlords. So we plan on moving when the lease is up in 10 months.

I've had a 20 gallon set up for a month. Just finished cycling! My gf was talking about pulling out her 10 gallon aswell. And I got a burst of MTS when she said that pretty bad lol! We even went and looked at rocks. She didn't buy any and then she talked about how it wouldn't be worth it if we are moving in 10 months.

But I'm not sure if I agree because I've never moved fish before. And she made a good point about having to recycle the tanks but I told her that if you have the pre existing filter your already cycled.

So anyways does anyone have experience with moving out with their fish and how hard it really is? Gonna have to do it anyway with this tank I have now.

Do you empty all the water out of the tank and uproot the plants? Or do you leave it 25% full and strap it in to your backseat lol. And for the fish I feel like I could just fill a 5gal bucket half way up and they could be in there for a few hours without harm?

 

Depending on how far you are going really. I've moved a 100 gallon by myself more than once so I have to drain completely, toss all the plants and fish in a 5 gal with a lid and more buckets for rocks and substrate. I put my filter media in with the fish or split it between a few buckets if I don't have room.

 

Depending on how far you are going really. I've moved a 100 gallon by myself more than once so I have to drain completely, toss all the plants and fish in a 5 gal with a lid and more buckets for rocks and substrate. I put my filter media in with the fish or split it between a few buckets if I don't have room.

Just staying in the city so no more than like 30 minutes away haha. And yea you wanna keep everything wet right? So you don't wreck the cycle?

 

Yeah basically. The substrate usually stays pretty moist as it is, so just the filters and fish really. Driftwood too depending on how long it will be out of water. Hate having to re sink it.

Really tho, with a 20 gallon tank, you could just kinda leave everything together and drain it about half way and move it like that. Should be less than 100 lbs that way. Obviously you would want a good seal of sorts on top, something like a good plastic wrap.

 

Yeah basically. The substrate usually stays pretty moist as it is, so just the filters and fish really. Driftwood too depending on how long it will be out of water. Hate having to re sink it.

Really tho, with a 20 gallon tank, you could just kinda leave everything together and drain it about half way and move it like that. Should be less than 100 lbs that way. Obviously you would want a good seal of sorts on top, something like a good plastic wrap.

yea thanks man! I'm gonna have live plants so that way I could keep the plants in place right?

and I guess I would want to take the fish out still right? probably keep them in a bucket.

 

Mostly yes, and yes. Just fill a bucket up with some tank water for the fish. Depending on what kind of plants; you might have some leaves die off if they are exposed to air for too long but nothing they can't recover from. Obviously the shorter the plants the less likely it will happen. But sword plants and the like will likely poke up above the surface.

 

Depending on the distance your going ide drop the level to about 10% put the fish in buckets of tank water along with your filter media and just leave the plants and substrate that way it’ll only weigh 40-50# less of a chance of stressing the tank. And if you wanted you could always fill a spray bottle with some tank water and spray down the plants while their still in your substrate. Good luck!

 

Depending on the distance your going ide drop the level to about 10% put the fish in buckets of tank water along with your filter media and just leave the plants and substrate that way it’ll only weigh 40-50# less of a chance of stressing the tank. And if you wanted you could always fill a spray bottle with some tank water and spray down the plants while their still in your substrate. Good luck!

you put the sponge and stuff right in with the fish? same bucket?

 

You can put anything that is in a mesh bag in with the fish like ceramic media and such but I would put the sponge in a Tupperware with tank water as to not foul up the water too bad with the fish seeing the sponge catches a lot of the big funk... I’ve never moved fish or tanks I was just picturing how I would go about it don’t want to sound misleading