Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tanks and Equipment => Topic started by: Johno2009 on September 13, 2020, 08:53:24 PM
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Hi
I have purchased a second hand Fluval Flex 123.
The tank is a established tank and I am picking up tomz. It will be about a 4 hour process from getting there emptying to getting home.
I want to try keep the media bacterior alive during this process.
Any advice on moving tank and everything would be apreciated.
I take it it will need to be completely emptied including Substrate to avoid any risk of damaging tank.
Thanks
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The filter media should be fine for a duration of a few hours like that. If you're really concerned, take a zip-lock freezer bag and keep the filter in there with some tank water for the journey.
Are there fish in the tank, or is it vacant?
As a rule, you'll want to remove any large items to avoid damage, and drain out as much water as is practical. Obviously, if there are fish in the tank then it complicates things, but if it's vacant, then you could drain it right down without causing much trouble. I don't personally think you need to empty the substrate out - I've moved my tank a couple of times without ever touching the sand and I've not noticed any problems as a result.
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Hi Thanks.
Yes there are fish but not many I've sorted transportation for them. A couple of 5 gal lidded containers and I've got a couple of battery air pumps to attach to them.The fish will then be put in a friend's isolation tank till I get this back up and running and checked the water parameters are ok.
The plants i will wrap in paper towling and put in tank water. But it was just media I was concerned with and whether carrying tank to van with substrate in.
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Media will be ok for a few hours as said previously I would empty the filter of water and wrap the whole filter in cling film - there will be enough oxygen and water left then to keep the bacteria happy. Re the tank - the best way of moving a tank I have personally found (though have to science to back up my method) is to move the tank onto a stiff board which is used to carry the tank... don’t know how practical this is with a tank of this size though? The most I’ve done it on is a 60litre. I would take out as much water as possible from the tank - I believe is the water sloshing that does the damage to the silicone seams
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Well the move all went ok apart from the platform I had for it was 20mm to short in length and did not want to risk it breaking.
So today I gave tank a complete clean including pump light lid and she came up like new.
Not sure if the media will retain it bacteria as cant set tank up till Weds. So I set a mini tank up in a 5 gal bucket with media and sponges in and put a pump in and flowed original tank water through the sponges and media . Not sure it will work but worth a try to get it cycling quicker.
Got it for bargain price of £150 with lots of extras including new API master test kit amongst it.
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Tank looks as good as new. Well done. :cheers:
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Thanks.
It was totally gunked up with algae and slime yet when I went to empty it it looked fine. Found reason why when I went to test light. They had blue light set on for 8 hours a day at 100%
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As long as the media is even just damp the bacteria will be fine for quite a while. They do not die without food for a few hours as used to be thought. They can go a few weeks without food, then they go into a dormant stage before finally dying after a few months.
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Well got the tank set up with 1st stage of planting just need to decide on the back plants. Any suggestions welcome.
Just got to put my cycled media in and get it going.
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Happy to give loads of suggestions should you wish but I would recommend highly vallisneria and think it would look ace in your tank.
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Looks lovely and plants very lush. :cheers:
Limnophila sessiliflora might be nice too and could drape over the wood at the back, or hygrophila guanensis, but Matt's got an aquascaping eye that I lack so may consider these not good options.