My husband and I will be moving in the relatively near future. He will probably go out in the next few months and I will follow after my son finishes Kindergarten. I would like to prepare now as much as I can for my fish. I figure that Fishy can travel in her cup as she did when I bought her and traveled about the same distance and then when we arrive, I can temporarily set up her 1/2 gallon until the 5 gallon is ready.
But my main question is, how do you move a planted aquarium? It's this tank: http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...AvailInUS%2FNo
Currently it has one long thin plant (I can't remember what it's called) and a Lilly bulb, which I imagine will be much bigger by the time we move.
Thanks for any suggestions, it won't be moving for a while, but like I said, I want to be as prepared as possible for when it does.
But how do I keep the plants alive? It's going to be about a 4 or 5 hour drive? And it will probably be a lot longer than that before I get the tank up and running again, maybe not until the next day depending on how late it is when I arrive and we get things unpacked.
When I was younger, me and my dad moved a 90g Reef tank in this manner and I would assume it would work the same for live freshwater plants. Essentially we got new (clean) 55 gallon garbage bins and filled them 1/4 of the way and placed the live rock/sand and coral. We then took a powerhead and heater and stuck them in the bin while we set everything up so there was no circulation/heat loss.
I would think you could apply this same idea to freshwater by getting a 5 gallon bucket from a home depot, they're pretty cheap, and filling it with some gravel, temporarily "plant" the plants in the bucket, and you should be good. If you have some kind of powerhead you can use it to circulate the water, or you could just turn the water over with clean hands every few hours to get a little gas exchange going.
When I was younger, me and my dad moved a 90g Reef tank in this manner and I would assume it would work the same for live freshwater plants. Essentially we got new (clean) 55 gallon garbage bins and filled them 1/4 of the way and placed the live rock/sand and coral. We then took a powerhead and heater and stuck them in the bin while we set everything up so there was no circulation/heat loss.
I would think you could apply this same idea to freshwater by getting a 5 gallon bucket from a home depot, they're pretty cheap, and filling it with some gravel, temporarily "plant" the plants in the bucket, and you should be good. If you have some kind of powerhead you can use it to circulate the water, or you could just turn the water over with clean hands every few hours to get a little gas exchange going.
Thank you so much. This is very helpful Like I said, I won't be moving for a while yet, but this gives me plenty of time to prepare. My Plants aren't very big, and the Lilly is just starting to sprout. I don't know how big it will be by the time I move though. Do you think I could just drain out some of the water in the tank and leave the plants in there to travel?
If the tank is acrylic I wouldn't think that would be a problem to leave a little water in the tank while you move and even if it is glass it shouldn't be a problem. Just be a little more cautious about keeping the tank stable if it's glass. Either way I seriously doubt a 5 gallon tank, emptied to half or less, is going to have the force or pressure required to do structural damage to the seals on the tank.
ex. If you empty the tank to the halfway mark in a 5 gallon tank, the water weight, not including gravel, plants, etc., will come out to 20.75 lbs. 1 gallon of water weighs about 8.3 lbs so if you take more water out you can calculate as necessary. Just remember to keep the tank stable if you move it with water in it to prevent too much sloshing.
For peace of mind I prefer the bucket method, but I know plenty of people who have successfully moved tanks with minimal water in them, it just requires a little more planning to ensure the tank is secure for the move.
Thank you, if I keep water in the tank, I will probably keep it secured in the front or backseat with plenty of padding around it. I don't really know how much packing and moving we will already have done by the time I get there. I'm hoping that we will have done most of it by then, because the current plan is to get him down there, get set up, and then have me and our son move in with my parents temporarily which will mean most of our big stuff will have to be at our new home. Of course Fishy is going to stay with me until we are fully moved. I know my husband would try to take good care of her, but I don't think he would put as much effort into her as I would and he wouldn't know what to do if she got sick.
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Like I said, I won't be moving for a while yet, but this gives me plenty of time to prepare. My Plants aren't very big, and the Lilly is just starting to sprout. I don't know how big it will be by the time I move though. Do you think I could just drain out some of the water in the tank and leave the plants in there to travel?
