Hey guys,
I will be moving this weekend, only about 5 miles though.
I was wondering if I needed to do anything special to keep the bacteria alive between the power off and power on... I know that my canister cannot be down for long or it will die. What can I do? Do I need to get a power inverter in the truck and keep things going on the truck ride up there? It will be down for 20 min at the most but still....
Or am I over thinking this whole thing? Should I just get the fish into a 5 gallon bucket, drain 90% of the tank and run it up there? I do have a back up 10 gallon tank but its sitting empty in the basement right now.... I could in theory get it up there and start water... I doubt that will help being as I only have like 3-4 days before the fish have to go...
Thanks for all of your help guys!
Nick

When i moved i just kept water in my cannister to keep the bacteria fairly alive. I also only drained the tank 70% and transported the rest of the aquarium water. Fish seemed fine on the other side. I might of just been lucky though.

I just know that if your canister dies and you start it back up, it will dump ammonia into the tank and kill your fish fast... Maybe I should do this in two stages... Take a five gallon bucket up to the new house with tank water in it. then get the canister up there stat and start it in the bucket so that its running. Then go get the fish and tank. They will be ok with the power-head for about 30 min and lots of bubbles...IDK...

20 minutes drive is not a problem. here are thing i would do if i were you:
1) get a cooler box, fill with tank water, and put the fish in there.
2) put in there any power head if you have to aerate the cooler;
or run any filter if you can to buy some minutes while draining
3) for canister type filter system, do not drain the system.
4) for HOB type, put some water in bucket and put the unit in.
5) drain the tank to avoid breakage, and load it in a truck or pick up
6) drive away.
7) upon reaching your destination, set up immediately.
8) put up new water in the tank equivalent to the water in a cooler
9) add the water in the cooler and the fish
10) run the system to keep the cycle alive.
11) bingo, you have running tank again...

gradually increase the water until the ideal level was reach...
it may take two days to full the tank but that won't change the logic.
it works like changing the water and keeping the bacteria alive.

Thanks Paul! Only thing is (yes I have a HOB can) but it cannot be submerged because the motor is not waterproof. However, I could remove the whole inside container with the bio-media in it and get that in the water... Will that work the same way?

I read that without oxygen the bactria inside a canister filter is dead in 2 hours tops followed by ammonia spikes and after 24 hours it produces hydrogen sulfide and will kill your fish once turned back on. Best thing to do is take your media out of the cannister and keep it in the aquarium water possibly with a airstone. This should keep it alive long enough.

xe_king wrote:
basically..yes....and it will not die in 20 minutes.
when driving, there would be some vibration in the process and that would
serve as aeration....

i have a hob filter on my aquarium. i moved it twice both an hour drive. i just put the fish in a bucket of tank water, clip an bait bucket aerator to it, and start it bubbling, then just strip the tankdown, put all the substrate into buckets with some tank water, and then in another bucket of tank water i put my filter media, added another aerator, and carried it out. was an hour trip and another 20 mins or so setting the tank back up. had zero problems.

Sweet! Ill go look for a bait bucket aerator... Bait fish are not as common up here but I think I can find those somewhere...

ive bought fish before at the LFS and had them die in the bag on the way home before. anymore i take a cooler an a bait aerator. since starting that practice i have yet to lose a fish on the journey.

Good luck!
With all this advice you'll be well prepared.

I think you are all making this more complex than it needs to be. Empty the tank and break everything down. Keep the filter media in water. Keep the fish in large containers and dont put too many in one container. Move the lot and re-set up the tank. The distance is only 20 mins after all.

Then come back and move all your unimportant stuff like beds, tv's etc