Transporting established tanks

[JBL]

I'll be picking up a 30 gallon tank with fish Wednesday. It contains two large plecos, a large shark and other assorted fish. I'll be giving away some of these fish to my LFS as the tank is way too crowded. Any ideas on how to transport? Should I remove 2/3 of water and transport that way. I think it would still slosh in the car.

Any ideas welcome.

 

[endparenthesis]

Put the fish in bags and empty the tank as much as possible (completely if you aren't trying to keep bacteria in the gravel alive... the majority will live in the filter anyway). Don't even bother trying to keep the fish in there. Even down to 10 gallons that thing would be heavy and sloshy enough to be unmanagable. I transported a 30 gallon once where I had to keep some water in it, and for it to work it had to be taken down to 5 gallons or so.

 

[JBL]

Thanks for the advice } !

I thought 10 gallons would be too much. Those plecos are gonna fight when I try to get them out! Maybe I'll bring my fishing gear...j/k.

 

[jimscott]

Yeah, the biggest concern, should be having a system with established Nitrogen Cycle. Having worked for a wholesaler, we did a lot of "wholesale" moving fish around. All other things being equal, having seasoned filter media saved a lot of "New Tank Syndrome".

 

[Clint]

You could try bio-spira. I've heard it's the real deal unlike those crappy "cycle" liquids.

auctually, if your bioload is low compared to the previous fish, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[JBL]

I'm taking the whole set up, fish included. So, I'll have the old filter and the old gravel and a portion of the water. Hard to believe but this guy added water straight from his tap with every water change, no conditioner added! Ugh! I'll be finding new homes for some of the fish. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[endparenthesis]

Does he have well water? That'd be kosher.

 

[JBL]

He may have well water. I'll ask. I hesitate to use mine at all. We have hard water and I'm always adding water softner pellets to my water system. I've use a mix of RO and spring water (4:1) for my tank with angels and tetras with success for six months now. But I now have a 15 gallon high and soon to add this 30 gal. I don't have an RO system and buying this water is getter expensive. Maybe I should use my tapwater and add some Stress Coat I have on hand?

 

[Clint]

What are your well water's parematers?

My well water is almost perfect as far as parems. go (Kh is a little low), but it's cloudy from minerals or something so I use RO and reconstitute the minerals. It was a nightmate getting the formula right but now I know I add this much of this this and this, heat and aerate and it's cool.

 

[JBL]

I'm sorry--wasn't clear. My water is tap, city water and I haven't tested. The guy I'm getting the fish from has well water.

 

[jrod]

I'd say put the fish in bags. No need to keep much water in the tank, just make sure to keep the gravel and filter medium wet. It'll be heavy enough just with that. If possible, keep as much of the seasoned tank water as you can (but transporting that will be tough). With an active biological filter maintained, and the reduced bio-load from the removed fish, the tank should be fine. To be on the safe side, you could add a lot of fast-growing stem plants to the tank once you get it refilled in its new location. They'll really help to keep ammonia spikes down by sucking up the un-bio-filtered fish wastes. The bio-filter should come back quickly with this method. And, if you don't want the tank planted in the long-term, just slowly remove the stem plants over the next few weeks. The filter should keep up. Just add any fish as slowly as you can. That's my .02

 

[JBL]

Transport is complete. I used three five gallon plastic buckets with lids. This guy had two plecos and one pink tail chalceus, each a foot long, in a thirty gallon long tank. He also had three clown loaches (about 5 inches) and several pink corys (2-3"). All of this in a thirty gallon tank! I donated all to my LFS.

 

[Clint]

That's cruel.. You did the right thing

 

[JBL]

Yeah...they had the space. The chalceus is one cool looking fish but very predatory from what I understand. I'll set up the tank with a couple of small schools of rainbows eventually. First I'll do some repairs. One of the heads on the underground filter is not working.