Moving a Tank

[Mark Webb]

I will be moving house soon and intend to move my 240 litre tank. Is it possible to move the tank and leave the substrate with water to cover, or will the weight stress the tank?

How long will the bacteria be ok for in the filters if they are not running?

 

[tim]

Hi mark, I got my 3ft tank second hand with substrate, moved up to a first floor flat bloody heavy but doable, if you drain all the water from your filters then seal em back up the bacteria will survive for a while IMO, I left an external empty for a couple of months and no smell when I re used it no ammonia nitrite etc detectable on restarting the tank either.

 

[James O]

It will alway stress the tank to move it with any contents. They are only designed to hold a static load. A 240l tank will have a LOT of substrate with even just a thin covering. That and water at 1kg per litre and I wouldn't risk it.

 

[geoffbark]

I moved house 12 mths ago, I have 3 tanks the largest is my 90H on this tank i stripped it to move it. I removed all hard scape, all fish etc cought and put in buckets, i then scraped a corner of the substrate away until i could see the glass bottom and emptied all the water into buckets. Left substrate in tank and moved it. ( 40 miles away ). The other two tanks are nano's 30 ltr approx. i dropped the water level to 25% left everything in place including shrimp and moved.

 

[harryH]

It can be done, I've done it on numerous occasions but you do have to be careful. Ideally you would need something like a polystyrene bed to sit the tank on in your car or van. If you can do it within a few hours from stripping to setting up again and saving as much tank water as poss it does work.

The last time I just broke up some old fish transport boxes to form a flat polystyrene base and sat the tank on those for the journey and then set it up in it's new spot asap. It was as though it hadn't been moved by the next day

 

[Mick.Dk]

Tropica moves planted tanks around Europe all the time. The actual tank is the "weakest link", in terms of being capable of the stress - tbis is correct. The hardscape ( if any ) and soil/gravel buildup must be in such an arrangement, that they don't fall apart "on the road". Removing a small corner of gravel to empty more water is my trick, too. This stabilise all.
Plants will survive fine for at least 24 hours (probaply longer, but no promises) if carefully covered by thin plastic relatively tight around the plants. Even Amano and cherry shrimp survive happily on this environment.
The "flexible but firm" plate, to ride on (polystyrene is nice) is essential.
If possible, bring some of the "old" water along, since this is ofcourse quite a heavy waterchange 😉
Good luck - it's indeed do-able.........
Mick.