Moving away means some of your items will be left behind, while others will need careful planning in order to be moved properly. Moving with pets can come as a challenge if not planned properly. Depending on what kind of a pet you hold, you may or may not need help from professionals to easily move them. Obviously, the easiest pets to move are cats and dogs. All you need to do with them is place them in a kennel, put them in your car drive them to the destination of your new home. With some well-trained dogs, even a kennel would be unnecessary. Other pets, such as fish or snakes, will require more careful planning. Given their habitat, you should make sure you have got the right intel on how to move an aquarium.
Get informed
First of all, get to know your fish. Ask your vet whether any of the species that you have demand any specific nurturing when they are being moved. If they do, plan your move accordingly. If they do not, well, lucky you. Also, if you are hiring professionals to move it for you, read through long distance movers reviews on our website and make sure you are hiring a trustworthy company to move an aquarium for you. Following are good practices that you should follow when you are about to move an aquarium.
Here are some of the most popular states for long distance aquarium moving:
Save the water from the tank when you need to move an aquarium
One of the most important steps in a successful move of an aquarium is not to throw away the water from the tank. Obviously, you will need to empty the tank in order to move it. The easiest way to do this is to drain it with a siphon hose. Water from your tank means life to your fish. When you change the water entirely, your fish may not get accustomed to it and suffer. Some may even die. Therefore, drain the water into buckets that you can carry with you. Once you arrive at your destination, you will be able to return your fish to the same water that they are accustomed to. This will reduce the stress of the move that they will go through.
If you are moving far away and you are not able to save the water from your tank, then a different approach is needed in order to move an aquarium. When you arrive at your destination, refill the tank. Do not put the fish inside right away though. The new water that you will pour into the aquarium does not have the same bacteria as the water that your fish are used to.
You should do your best to make it as similar as possible. Therefore, put the stones and plants back into the aquarium and leave them there for a week. In the meantime, you should keep the fish in plastic bags or buckets that you had used to transport them in. After one week of having new water in the tank, the water should be in good a state as to accommodate the fish.
Preparing the fish for the move
Aggressive fish should be transported separately
Getting the fish ready in order to move an aquarium is important due to them being very sensitive to changes. In order for your fish to survive the move, you will need to use the water from the tank to transport them in. Depending on the length of the move, you might want to pack your fish either in plastic bags (perfect for the short move) or into larger buckets (for a longer move). If you will transport them in plastic bags, you should pack them singularly. This means that they should be packed with one fish per bag. If you will be using larger buckets, then you may put some of them together, but you will need to pay attention and pack aggressive ones alone.
Prepping the tank
This is not the proper way to clean your aquarium
As we have already pointed out, try to save as much water from the tank as possible. You should use some of the water to transport plants from the aquarium in it. When the time comes to handle the plants, be careful not to hurt their roots. If you take good care of their roots, they will not get hurt and you’ll be able to put them back into the tank when you set it back up. Rocks and other aquarium formations should come with you as well. You should not worry about them. Just put them in a plastic box and return them into the tank later. Once you have drained the water, clean the aquarium thoroughly. This is your chance to get it all done and be worry-free later on.
Packing and loading
Once you have cleaned the aquarium, disassemble it entirely. This doesn’t mean that you should take it apart all the way. You should take it all out of it so that your tank is sitting completely empty at the end. Pack your filter, pumps, heather and other detachable items from the tank separately. You can use newspaper for the first protective layer. You won’t need many layers though. Afterward, put them in bubble wrap and they will be ready to go.
This is how clean your aquarium should look like after you have moved and assembled it again
There are some tricks of the trade that only professional long distance movers can share with you. If you are moving a large tank, contracting some professional help to guide you through the move is a very good idea. I understand that you may not have planned to spend money to move an aquarium. Still, spending money can save you time and nerves. Professionals know their job and will make sure you don’t grow one grey hair because your fishes are coming with you to your new home.
After all, moving to a new home should be an exciting experience. It will surely be energy-draining and time-consuming, but you can do your best to make it as easy as possible on yourself when you need to move an aquarium. Ask for help and help will be provided.