buying a 2nd hand tank

confusedeire

hey looking for advice. Im buying my first tank and i decided to buy 2nd hand. Mainly because of cost of setting up new one. Was thinking of one around the 500liter tank. Sum people are selling with fish and all and i was wondering then about transporting a large tank while trying to keep as much tank water as possible and keeping fish alive. Has anybody managed this successfully?

dclifford

confusedeire wrote: »

hey looking for advice. Im buying my first tank and i decided to buy 2nd hand. Mainly because of cost of setting up new one. Was thinking of one around the 500liter tank. Sum people are selling with fish and all and i was wondering then about transporting a large tank while trying to keep as much tank water as possible and keeping fish alive. Has anybody managed this successfully?

The tank should be completely empty when you move it. Buy or borrow some water drums to take as much water as you want. Put the filter media into some of the tank water and try to keep it submerged. Get some plastic bags for the fish to transport them. Use the bags the shops use. I put the bags in a bucket with a towel.

confusedeire

How much of the tank water would i need? To safley put the the fish back in. And is it one fish per bag? Would all sand and gravel need to be removed from the tank aswell. Sorry bout all the questions but just wondering how many containers i need to bring with me.

dclifford

confusedeire wrote: »

How much of the tank water would i need? To safley put the the fish back in. And is it one fish per bag? Would all sand and gravel need to be removed from the tank aswell. Sorry bout all the questions but just wondering how many containers i need to bring with me.

For a 500 litre tank, 100 litres would be fine. Keeping the filter good will be more benificial than extra water.
For transporting the fish, it depends on the size of the fish. If they are small fish you might get 3 or 4 into a bag.
You will need to remove everything from the tank to transport it, so that includes sand and gravel. I recommend cleaning the gravel if you plan to reuse it. To clean it all you would need to do is stir it around in a bucket of water and drain the water until it becomes clear. Rinse about a third the size of the bucket at a time.

7ofBrian

Some good info here:

http://www.aquaone.co.uk/moving_fish.php

bear in mind that without good oxygenation, the bacteria in the filter media will die quickly so think about distance/time when purchasing a 2nd hand tank.

godtabh

A thank that big you'll need a van and a couple of lads. Absolute minimum of 2. Also plan your route. I was helping a lad deliver a 600l tank. He had steps into his duplex. THere was a bout 2 foot of snow and icy!

As it happens I'm selling my 2x2x3 ft clearseal aquarium (400l) if you are interested! Going to be treading up so looking to move this one.

Full stocked with thropeus bemba. Looking for about €375 all in. Will be putting them up on adverts later

pdstck

I have bough a 240litre tank second hand, it will take about 3 hours to move it from plug out to plug in. I had been told to keep filters in tank water and put fish into bags, but what i want to know is how soon should i put fish back in to tank (i'm getting fish with tank) should i get them in asap or should i let water tempature build up in tank again before i put fish back in. I plan to bring all of the tank water with me, any help please !

m4r10

If you can get all the water with you, that's a big plus. Just fill the tank with half or less water, put in the heater to bring it up to temp (less water, less time it will take the heater to heat it up) and then add the fish. Once the fish are in the heated water, then you can add the rest of the water gradually to allow the heaters to catch up and not stress to fish more than necessary. Remember to float the bags with fish in the tank for a while so the temp will be the same in bags and tank as well. Also, I'd plug the the filter asap as the bacteria inside the filter needs flowing water to survive.

pdstck

m4r10 wrote: »

If you can get all the water with you, that's a big plus. Just fill the tank with half or less water, put in the heater to bring it up to temp (less water, less time it will take the heater to heat it up) and then add the fish. Once the fish are in the heated water, then you can add the rest of the water gradually to allow the heaters to catch up and not stress to fish more than necessary. Remember to float the bags with fish in the tank for a while so the temp will be the same in bags and tank as well. Also, I'd plug the the filter asap as the bacteria inside the filter needs flowing water to survive.

Whats the longest i could leave fish in bags floating in tank

Also its an external filter (fluvel 305) do i need to keep adjusting the height of the in tube so its skimming top top of the water the whole time or is ok to let the water drop in from a height ?

m4r10

I wouldn't worry about the fish being in the bag for a few hours, after all nowadays you can buy fish off net and being shipped to you over the course of a day or so.
As for the filter, if you want you could point the spray bar toward to back glass as not to stress the fish any more than is necessary with the splashing and will help you as well by keeping the noise to a minimum.

pdstck

Thank for all the info m4r10, big move is tomorrow will let you know how i get on !

m4r10

Good luck with the move. Also, post a few pics of the tank once it's set up, we all love them!

pdstck

Tank is moved, big job but it looks well, bagged all the fish for the move and put then in cardboard box for journey home they were fine. The only problem i had was with the water, when i put it back in tank when i got home it was all murky, i guess i brought too much off original water with me. If i was doing it again i would only bring 70-80 % of original water and dump all of the water at bottom of tank. So i had to refill tank with new water and will have to give it a couple of weeks before i transfer fish to the big tank, i have put them in a 60 liter tank for the time being with the murky water, they are still alive anyway ! thank for all the help. I have pictures but don't know how to attach them to this message if anyone know how ?

Sleepy

The water would have cleared itself as the particles in it settled into the substrate or caught by the filter.

pdstck

Sleepy wrote: »

The water would have cleared itself as the particles in it settled into the substrate or caught by the filter.

I had let it for 48 hours and it had not changed even it the small tank it has been there about 54 hour and no change, so i decided to change it !