Move tank for carpet!

[WRB]

Hey Gang,
I have a 120 Fish only tank that I need to move from the living room to my kitchen while the house gets new carpet. How long can i have my fish in a 35-40 gal barrel of tank water with a power-head and heater.
8 fish, 2'-6" and several years old each. No community issues. I was gonna buy a new large HD plastic thrash can. Besides a through rinse is there anything else I should do before adding the tank water,some decorations (hiding places) Power-head and the fish?
I think the entire process will take less than 24 hrs. it's a glass tank 30 yrs new. I don't think I have any chance of it failing since the tank is staying on the display cabinet for the entire process.
Am I missing anything?
TIA.

 

[Doctorgori]

gets some prime or equivalent...
put a airline on that powerhead if so equipped..
the trash can will work, so modified with some type of emergency ammonia remedy on hand
Aerate and keep dark and covered, I’d skip the heater and uses ambient room temps even 70F is ok, even preferred IME
I wouldn’t feed and perhaps add a plastic coffee or some cover/structure inside the garbage can... 24hrs is doable IMO, have extra water on hand also
Psst. If hooked up to a lie detector, I’ll admit to using
a $12 32g can, material unknown :mad:

 

[Brett S]

I think the fish should be OK for 24 hours like that, but I would be inclined to heat it. While the fish can survive in a lower temp I don’t think there’s any reason to subject them to some big temp swings on top of everything else they’re going to have to endure.

I would take tank water and put it in the barrel, but don’t reuse that water when you go to set the tank up again. Make up some fresh water to refill the tank with.

Finally, consider your filtration and bacteria colony as well. If you have live rock or even porous rock in the tank it’s likely that you have a large bacteria colony in the rock, so you’ll want to keep the rock wet at a minimum and ideally keep it in some circulating water. Same with any filter media you have. You don’t want it to dry out or sit stagnant for too much time or the bacteria will die off and you will go through another cycle.

Even after you set everything up again I would check the ammonia at least once or twice a day for the first week or two and maybe a little less frequently for the next week or two. It’s possible that you could see an ammonia spike, so if that happens you’ll want to catch it quickly.

Finally, if you had ever considered upgrading your tank or getting a new tank, now is the time to do it. And frankly, with a 30 year old glass tank you might want to take this opportunity to replace the tank proactively. 30 years is a long time for a tank.

 

[WRB]

Sounds like I'm on the right track. Like I mentioned it will have a powerhead w/air, heater and some decore. No live rock or corals and my crushed coral bed will stay wet the entire time, then treat it like a major water change and test accordingly.
My concern was contamination from using a new plastic trash can but doubt that'll be an issue.
I'd go with a new tank but the budget doesn't allow it with the home renovations that are being done on orders from the other half. I'd skip the carpet/flooring and get a 180 gal Tank instead but...
Tks.

 

[Doctorgori]

if you are gonna use a heater in a plastic garbage can then immerse the heater in its own gallon jar, and thence into the can. Put some sorta fish guard in there also. Also remember as temps go up O2 goes down. Play it safe and set the temp to 77F if you must

its sorta choose your own risk: heater issue or low temp stress. Just my experience

 

[SeaJay]

Might sound cheesy, but I would carpet around the tank, keep an extra piece of carpet and have that patched if I ever move the tank. They can match it up just fine if you ever move it.

 

[mermaid_life]

Might sound cheesy, but I would carpet around the tank, keep an extra piece of carpet and have that patched if I ever move the tank. They can match it up just fine if you ever move it.

I agree with this!! If you're not going to upgrade the tank for a while, it might last another round of new carpet time.... OR the next tank you buy, make sure it's the same size or bigger to cover it up anyway =)

 

[Doctorgori]

Might sound cheesy, but I would carpet around the tank, keep an extra piece of carpet and have that patched if I ever move the tank. They can match it up just fine if you ever move it.

I agree with this!! If you're not going to upgrade the tank for a while, it might last another round of new carpet time.... OR the next tank you buy, make sure it's the same size or bigger to cover it up anyway =)

New floors have meant none of my reef tanks made it past 4yrs, I’ll spare the stories...
You can mitigate the setback but I wonder what my tanks would look like 8yrs old... might be worth considering... maybe save enough flooring for that spot
Oh, forgot, might be tricky moving a tank even with just the sand...all depends on weight, et

 

[WRB]

I have suggested that option and if looks could kill
This is the second and last time for any flooring as far as I'm concerned.
If the tank starts to leak, guess who's getting a new larger one.
I think I'll skip the heater since it's staying indoors and it's for 24 hrs or less.
SoCal has it's weather advantages!

 

[Vette67]

I did this with my 180, back in 2012. It was not fun. I moved my fish into my basement, into a 50ish gallon plastic tub. Mine stayed there for a couple weeks. But I had an old Venturi skimmer that I ran on that tub while the fish were on vacation. Everything survived fine. But since mine was longer, I had to have more life support for it.

Bringing back the good memories for me! But like others said, for a day, you’ll be fine. Just aerate well.

 

[Vette67]

Oh and I put my tank right on the new carpet. It will no doubt be crushed beyond usable when we go to sell the house.. But that’s the next owners problem.... A 1.5 ton tank will find its level, even on carpet

 

[SeaJay]

Oh and I put my tank right on the new carpet. It will no doubt be crushed beyond usable when we go to sell the house.. But that’s the next owners problem.... A 1.5 ton tank will find its level, even on carpet

This is what I was coming back to post. Putting that tank on the new carpet for a few years is going to ruin it anyway. It’ll never come back from that. I would definitely carpet around it and keep enough on hand to fix it later. Even if I didn’t carpet around it, I’d still keep enough on hand to replace that if/when you move the tank or sell the house.

 

[Flux Capacitor]

This is what I was coming back to post. Putting that tank on the new carpet for a few years is going to ruin it anyway. It’ll never come back from that. I would definitely carpet around it and keep enough on hand to fix it later. Even if I didn’t carpet around it, I’d still keep enough on hand to replace that if/when you move the tank or sell the house.

Agreed. I carpeted around a 90 gallon a few years ago. You would have never known that’s what we did. Since it’s gonna ruin the carpet anyway, I don’t think it’s worth the stress of moving a tank. Unless of course you use this opportunity to upgrade tanks that would be the only reason I would move it.

 

[WRB]

Gonna have the installer come out now that the carpet has been picked and see if they can get a tac-strip close enough to the base of the tank and tuck the new carpet in nice and neat. Wouldn't be an issue but the tank is not a flat face based retangle. It has 6 1x6 legs that are protruding out on each side and corners.
We're never leaving this place so If I want a larger tank I'll have to go vertical, no room at the Inn.