Hi all I'm about to pickup a used 85 gallon acrylic Tank it's 36"L x 18" W x 30" tall, centered Trapezoidal Internal Overflow on black back, with pine stand, Wet Dry Trickle filter, Rio brand submersible water pump plus Rock, gravel and two silver dollars.

First off do you think this setup is worth $300? It seems like a good deal to me.

Second I have a three hour drive back to my house. Is there anything special I should do to transport the fish? I was thinking about using a large rubbermaid and an air pump. Will this be sufficient?

Third will keeping the filter media and gravel wet keep the beneficial bacteria alive and prevent me from having to cycle the tank?

I think you've got a pretty good deal there for $300, that's around 150 UK pounds, the tank looks nice and clean and well looked after.

Assuming that it is fairly warm, your fish should be okay if you are using some kind of device that will give them oxygen.

Now regarding your filter media, if you are just transferring it wet for three hours without actually being in a functioning filter and I think a lot of the bacteria is going to die of. However, I've read, that four hours is the absolute minimum you can switch filter off before you lose all of your bacteria. Now I can't say whether this information is exactly correct as I've never carried out and the extensive experiments. However, if indeed this is the case, you should have enough bacteria to kickstart the biological filter. What you could try is putting the filter media in with the fish. If possible, try and set things up so the bubbles run through the media, I think this will actually give the bacteria some oxygen and may keep them alive. I can't promise you that it will work, but in theory, if you give the bacteria oxygen, they should survive.

sounds like a pretty good deal to me. just be carefull when transporting the tank because acrylic scratches easier than glass does. also in theory ofl's idea is sound and hopefully will keep enough of the bacteria alive so you can rehome your oscars with minimum fuss. good luck

Thanks for the input.

good luck with the transport and let us know how it goes...

Will do.

A friend of mine who has a community tank had a power cut for 10 hours. He tested the water a day after the power had come back on and he had no ammonia or nitrite so i reckon you will be alright for 3 hours, just keep the filter media wet

When transporting a glass tank you need to put in on something soft(like a blanket) if putting the tank on a flat hard surface (like the back of a van) otherwise any little hard bits on the surface(like a small stone) can crack the bottom of the tank. I dont know if this applies to acrylic tanks tho