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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #527
Randy wrote:
>Can anyone give me some advice as in what is the best way to move
>a very heavily planted tank half way across town.
>my tank is a 60 GAL. tank 3 SAE. 6 Otocinclus, 6 panda cory's
>and so many plants you almost cant see the bottom.
>My biggest concern is the fern's growing on the driftwood.
I moved a planted 70 with lots of ferns on lots of driftwood a few months ago, so I have some relevant experience here.
1. Pull out rooted and floating plants. Depending on the size (and how many spare buckets you have) you can put them in bags, buckets, or whatever. Just about any closed container will keep plants for a few days unless it is really hot.
2. Pull out driftwood with plants attached. You need a plastic container big enough to hold your driftwood. (In my case, huge!) Target usually has a good selection. Inspect driftwood closely for critters that shouldn't be out of water, such as clown loaches or dwarf african frogs. (I can attest that a clown loach can live for at least 45 minutes or so in a damp crevice out of water, but it really isn't a good thing.) Cover with a wet towel.
3. I was a little uncomfortable with changing to a different water supply and changing all the water at once, so I siphoned about 25 gallons of water into 2.5 gallon water bottles like the kind you buy at the grocery store. Even if you have to buy the water, this is one of the cheaper ways to get decent and clean water containers. Together with the water that I transported my fish in and all the displacement of the gravel and driftwood, the final result was like a 30% water change.
4. Net fish and contain as desired. I used 5-gallon buckets, since I have way too many fish and bagging them would take all day. In your case, bags might work. But I like bucets because they're more thermally stable.
5. Substrate in more buckets. Good buckets with handles are really nice when you're trying to move 50+ lbs of gravel. (For my last move, I used one of those big round tubs with rope handles that we used to put the keg in back in my college days. That thing was too heavy and too awkward to move around.)
Give yourself plenty of time. I had a 10-minute drive and moving the tank took me 8 hours. Fewer fish should take less time.
David Ozenne
Fremont, CA
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