Possibly Moving Tanks to Basement, Opinions or Help Anyone?

[Anonfish4]

Hello!
Not really here with a series question, just a hypothetical, "if I did this, how would I do it and if so does anyone have any tips?"

Anyways. I'm 18, I'm starting college in August, and I've deemed the bathroom in the basement my own. I'm going out to purchase some decorations and things for some renovations to it, and my parents also suggested I could turn the guest bedroom (also downstairs) into my bedroom, and mine upstairs could become the guest. It's an intriguing offer, and I'm considering it. My only problem is the fish tanks, as I'd like them to come to the lower levels with me.

my plan for moving them was to drain the tank halfway in a bucket, save the water, net the fish, put them aside, drain more water in another bucket to save as well, move tank to basement, refill, and add fish again. Then repeat for the others (will be very painful with the 29gal ). Would this be a good idea? It seems good to me but I've never done a relocation like this before lol.
I would appreciate the bigger room though, but a good clear out and spider purge would be in order.

 

[briangcc1997]

I do this 2x a year when moving the patio pond to/from the basement. 110 Gallon tote. Here's my process....

1. Move all fish to a clean 5 gallon bucket. By clean I mean I haven't used it for anything other than transporting fish.

2. Drain pond empty.

3. Remove substrate, hanging/potted plants, heaters & filters. Tote has to go up/down the basement stairs and through the garage sideways so it needs to be completely empty. Tis a 2 person job.

4. Move tote to new location.

5. Reinstall all items from Step 3.

6. Dose Seachem Prime and fill.

7. Plug in Filter & Heaters - I have (2) of them to keep the minimum temp around 68F.

8. Add fish.


For tanks of any size...I want them as light as possible so I'm not dealing with an unwieldy/heavy tank.

 

[kansas]

How big are the tanks? It might be a good idea to slide them onto a piece of plywood to avoid creating stress the might cause leaks.

I've never done this, so I don't really know what I'm talking about. Could you lower the water to maybe 2 inches and leave the fish in the tank, to avoid the stress and hassle of catching them?

Then gets more help then you think you need.

 

[jaysurf7]

A while back i had to move my 60-gal tank to get a new carpet, what i did was drain the tank 80% take out some rocks and gravel to lessen the load and with the help of another person very carefully move it to the other room from the metal stand. I didn't take the fish out as not to stress them out more as some fish are very hard to catch and would be quite stressful for them, they were fine in the tank. Now a 29 gal isn't that huge, if possible i would drain the tank to 80% and just move the tank with the help of another person to the basement very carefully as any time you move a tank with water do it very slowly as not to twist the sides. Then just refill with the water you have from the buckets. I would just leave the fish in the tank IMO it would be less stressful for them.

 

[SteelersChris]

I've moved tanks with 10-20% water in them several times with no issues... UNTIL THERE WAS AN ISSUE.

It creates extra stress on the seams and can cause the silicone to crack or separate from the glass. From my experience it seems to be more of a risk with larger tanks as I didn't have trouble with my 5/10/20/29 gallon tanks over the years, but had a 55 I moved this way have a severe leak the 3rd time I moved it.

I'd follow BrianG's advice above, although if you want to keep some of the water to reuse I see no issue with that and would prefer it if you have a vessel you can bring the water downstairs with you in that is safe taking down the stairs (probably don't want to carry a pale of 10 gallons at a time downstairs that weighs a significant amount.

Depending on tank size, I may consider leaving the substrate in (would be more likely to consider the smaller the tank, and would remove it for anything with more substrate than a 20 long/29 gallon as I just feel it's not worth the risk when you could easily put it in a bucket. Lowes and Home Depot have new buckets for relatively cheap and it'd be worth it to buy a few (one for fish, one or two for substrate) and then just move the tank decore a few pieces at a time by hand.

 

[Anonfish4]

How big are the tanks? It might be a good idea to slide them onto a piece of plywood to avoid creating stress the might cause leaks.

A 29gal, 10gal, and a 6gal

 

[Fishfur]

A 29gal, 10gal, and a 6gal

Why save so much of the water? Use tank water for their containers during the move for sure but beyond that, think of the move like a big water change.

There is no point to lugging any more old tank water than you must especially if the water source will remain the same because it’s the same house.

Moving a tank can be an opportunity to do a fairly deep clean and even rescape since it is best to move tanks empty.

There is a wee trick you can use if you have help.

Put the tank on a stretcher - a piece of plywood long and wide enough to support the tank all around with enough length to make grasping it possible at each end.

Then carry the tanks as they sit on the board. Use a couple of bungee cords to secure tank to plywood so it can’t accidentally slide off at just the wrong moment.

It avoids twisting or wracking the joints of the tanks during the transport phase of the operation.

 

[briangcc1997]

Having recently moved my 29 and a 10 up to the 2nd floor...empty them completely. Fish aren't sloshing around. No risk of any hardscape suddenly shifting and cracking glass. Make life easy as they are unwieldy even with minimum water/substrate in them. You will be surprised at just how much the wet substrate and few gallons of water weighs.

Homely Despots recently started selling 3 gallon pails so if a 5 gallon is too big to carry, try one of these instead. I'm mulling buying a few so my boys (12, 10, and 7) can do the water changes as a full 5 gallon bucket is too much for them to lift safely.