Moving a fully stocked Juwel Vision 450

7ofBrian

Right guys, Im looking for some advice here.
Im hopefully picking up a 5ft Juwel Vision 450 complete with about 50 Tetras (cardinal and rummy nose) and a few other fish and plants and stuff on Thursday down in Wexford and transporting up to Dublin.
Now i have a heap of fish bags and a couple of styrofoam boxes for the fishies and plants but i have no way of taking as much tank water as possible.
When i get home, obviously i have to get the fish out of the bags asap but whats the story with putting them into non cycled water???
Ill be filling the tank from a garden hose and bringing up the temp with a kettle / buckets of hot water from the kitchen and adding API Stress Zyme+ and API Stress Coat+ but they wont have time to do their thing!

What can i do / buy in my LFS tomorrow to help?
Any and all help appreciated!

fred funk }{

I'd really try get as much tank water as possible and the gravel too. Put the filter sponges in fish bags and keep them wet and warm just like the fish.

I wouldn't worry to much about decorations or how it looks in its new location, most important thing is keeping the fish alive.

I would get a large plastic container, tesco sell 25 litre bins for about €10. Before you put them back into the tank, put them from the bags into the bin and slowly equalise the water in the bin with the tank water. A small pot is handy for this. Scoop a pot full from the bin into the tank and then a pot full from the tank into the bin.

Do that every few minutes and after about an hour both containers should have water that is equal in parameters so the fish can go into the tank without going into shock.

7ofBrian

Ideally id love to take as much of the water as possible but unfortunately the tank, fish and dismantled stand will take up pretty much all of the back of my jeep (Pathfinder)
Im going to try and source a couple of 5 gallon water containers (the ones that look like gerry cans) and take as much as i can that way but im afraid that when i top it up, the fresh water will just cancel it out

keithb93

I did the same thing as you I bought a 450 in Monasterevin and moved it to Ballinasloe. I just dumped all the water, put the gravel in a bucket and then put it into the tank when I got back. I filled it up a few days later, added dechlorinater and added the massive pleco that came with it but it was still cycled, probably from the bacteria in the filter.
Id say you will be alright I would be shocked if any of them died.

Degsy

You really dont need huge amounts of water..there's plenty of bacteria on teh gravel and in the filter so just add your water-conditioner to get rid of the chlorine and let the filter cycle the tank..the fish will be fine,i've done the same thing before with a bunch of barbs and tetras.

donal2000

I have to move a tank myself in the coming weeks.

Just to let you know Seahorse, etc will let you have 25 litre containers to hold the water for €5 each as a deposit.

vasch_ro

good to know as I am moving house in the next two months and have two tanks to move , a 70 and 96 litre and was wondering what to do about water .
Is styrofoam boxes the best way to keep the fish in bags warm during transport ?

7ofBrian

donal2000 wrote: »

I have to move a tank myself in the coming weeks.

Just to let you know Seahorse, etc will let you have 25 litre containers to hold the water for €5 each as a deposit.

Thanks for this. I just rang seahorse and they confirmed that you can rent the containers from them for 5 euro (non refundable)
Its only refundable if you are buying water from them as far as i know.

This is my solution so.

donal2000

7ofBrian wrote: »

Thanks for this. I just rang seahorse and they confirmed that you can rent the containers from them for 5 euro (non refundable)
Its only refundable if you are buying water from them as far as i know.

This is my solution so.

No probs. Sorry - I picked that info up wrong on the phone.

Best of luck with the move. You'll need a fair few for a 450L

vibe666

i moved my juwel vision 260 last year and managed not to lose anyone.

if you have well cycled filter media and gunky gravel you will be fine without too much original water, just make sure the gravel is agitated when the water is in to kick up the gunk and then give the filter media a good squeeze into the tank before stick it back in the filter pod and start the pump going and start putting the fish in once the water starts to clear a bit.

all i did with mine was to keep all the gunk from the gravel and the gravel itself in a couple of bags inside some buckets and transported the whole lot in one go and they were grand.

if you can keep the fish in something that will keep the temp up during travel, that would help too.

do you have one of those cool bags or boxes that people take on picnics? they'll keep the water temp in the bags from falling too rapidly when you transport them and the fish will be less stressed if they are kept in the dark.

also, i believe (and someone correct me if i'm wrong) the stuff in tap water that is harmful to fish is also harmful to bacteria, so you should only add the filter media and gravel back to the tank after you have added the API stress coat+ and it's done it's thing, or you risk killing all the good bacteria.

this is going to mean either filling the tank clean with the hose, bringing it up to temp and adding the stress coat+ etc. and then adding the gravel etc. afterwards or putting the gravel in first and then adding the stress coat+ to buckets of fresh water before you put them into the tank to detoxify it before it goes in.

having done the same thing as you with the 260L juwel vision, i'd be opting for the clean fill with the hose and sort it all out once the water is in, versus the bucket option as it will take forever and it's a lot of work lifting that much water into the top of the tank.

good luck with it anyway and let us know how it goes (and don't forget pics!).

Riamfada

I have a fully cycled, nearly empty 190L that ill be swapping out for a new tank in a few weeks. I can house fish for you if you want to let your new one cycle. I also have two 25L cans you can borrow.

My mate just moved a 400L from Kildare to Dublin a few days ago. Stressful and messy.

7ofBrian

Cheers man. Appreciate that.
On the advise of Dan in Seahorse Aquariums i bought this organic aqua stuff:
http://www.seahorseaquariums.com/store/product/4495/OA-Start-Up-Kit-1-10-liters/
He said they use it whenever they are doing a big build or move of fish.
you add it to fresh tap water, bring it up to temp and add the fish straight away. 0 to minimal loss. Im picking up the tank in the morning so ill let you know how everything goes.
And of course, there will be pictures :P

buzz

Riamfada wrote: »

I have a fully cycled, nearly empty 190L that ill be swapping out for a new tank in a few weeks. I can house fish for you if you want to let your new one cycle. I also have two 25L cans you can borrow.

My mate just moved a 400L from Kildare to Dublin a few days ago. Stressful and messy.

Yes that was me.

Nightmare.

We moved a Rio400 (450L same as the vision 450) tank 80kms.
Put the fish in large 100L bins and the water in vats.
Moved the tank and stand and fish plus water, set it all up again as quick as we could (keeping water heated) and got fish back into tank. This includes 5 fish over 1 ft in length. 30 fish in total, from small cat fish, to car shark 18" long. All fish survived however I thought I used the correct amount of Zyme and bateria but the 3 hours it took really took at hit on the filter media / ecology system.
Day 2 Amonia was at a worrying high as was nitrites..

25% water change and more filter bacteria and all my old filters from old tank sqashed in for 24 hours brought it back to normal thank god.
But night mare of a job.. Especially with 30 large fish.

However I do have about 5 large containers that you can house fish in if interested?

I also have about 3L spare filter bacteria for a tank that size.. Its 25ml per 40L so I used 300ML day 1 and by day 2 amonia was near normal, then I used 150ML and by day 3 it was back to 0!

7ofBrian

So the move was a complete success. NO LOSSES!!! :D:D
Ive stuck up some pics in the 'Show us yer tank' thread if anyones interested :pac:

vibe666

that's awesome mate, glad it worked out okay in the end.

now i'm off to the other thread to have a look see.:)

buzz

Well done buddy!!

Congrats

Mr Whirly

Keep a very close eye on your tests after using Organic Aqua, the whole tank is liable to crash after using it. Make sure you are using an airstone with it and leave half your hood off the tank.

Don't do any water changes for a few weeks to try let your bacteria build up again. If you do it too quickly you have no bacteria and have water changed out whatever the Organic Aqua was doing to keep the fish alive.

7ofBrian

Cheers lads.
Thats the same advise Dan in Seahorse gave me so its good advise. Iv been following it and all seems well so far