Once you decided to move, you probably started planning it step by step. This is a must if you are planning to pack and move a fish tank as well. Moving your aquatic friends might be quite a challenge, but it can be done in such a way that fish won’t feel the stress. You just need to be really careful and organized. Make sure you do your best to avoid harming the fish while moving. No matter if you decided to pack and move by yourself or not, you must do everything so the move goes smoothly.
Rules are here to be followed
Do not try to move a fish tank by just putting it in the car or moving truck. Water will spill out every time you hit a bump and some of the fish might do the same. You need to be really careful when you are moving your fish. Moving to Orlando is great and you won’t be stressed if you follow the basic rules of fish tank moving.
Before the move
There are different stages of moving the fish tank. Before you start, you want to make sure you have everything you need:
- Plastic baggies or plastic containers, depending on the size of your fish
- Net for catching the fish
- Stress coat, or water conditioner
- A cardboard box that can fit your fish tank
- Wrapping peanuts and duct tape for packing and moving a fish tank in
- A box to fit all the remaining rocks, castles, filters, pumps
- Equipment for water that balances pH and other water parameters
Packing the fish
This should be done at the very end of moving, once you packed absolutely everything else. The fish will be less stressed if they spend as little time as possible out of their home, that they are used to. If you are not sure how to pack and move a fish tank, you might want to consider hiring professional packing service to do it for you. Using the net, catch each fish and put them in a plastic baggy. Make sure you put seaweed or any other plant inside each baggy to maintain water purity. Make sure you leave enough air in each baggy as well.
Your fishes are large or can pierce a plastic baggy?
In this case, get plastic containers. They can be used for another purpose later on. Get each fish, and put them in the container filled with water. No harmful chemicals should be stored in these containers before the use. Once you placed the fish in the container, wrap them with a couple of layers of duct tape so the lid won’t come off during the move. Put some kind of water plant in each container to make sure water stays pure.
Stress coat can make the journey easier on the fish
You can get them in any pet store. You just put a couple of drops in each container and you are ready to go. It will relax the fish so the move won’t be as stressful for them.
Everything else must go, too
Once you removed all the fishes, you should do so with plants, snails, rocks and everything else you have in the fish tank. Make sure you pack and move a fish tank with all of these things so it looks and feels like it was before you moved. This is important for the fish. All of these things are important, and if your fish tank is large or expensive, and you have other valuable belongings, like pool table, find top pool table movers Florida, they can move all your valuable things.
Next up, the fish tank
The hard part is done, well kind of. Packing and moving a fish tank is next on the list. Now that you safely placed your fish inside of the plastic baggies or bins, and all the other equipment that comes along, you need to pack the fish tank. First, make sure you removed all the water from the tank, especially if you are having a long-distance move since it can get moldy. Mold can be dangerous for fish so you don’t want to risk.
Once you dried the fish tank, fill it with packing peanuts. Make sure you put enough so the tank won’t break in case you have a bumpy road trip. Now that you filled the fish tank, take a cardboard box and put packing peanuts on the bottom. The box should be a little bigger than the fish tank, so you can fit the tank and packing peanuts inside. Put the fish tank inside of the box and fill the remaining space with packing peanuts until you can’t move the fish tank inside of the box anymore. Put the packing peanuts on top of the fish tank and close the box. Wrap it with duct tape so it holds tight.
While you are moving
Make sure that the movers know that you are moving the fish tank. Since you are putting the fish tank into the moving truck last, make sure there is enough space inside of the truck. If the fish tank is hitting other objects constantly, it might break. If there is not enough space for the fish tank, try to pick something that you can leave and come back for later. Ask a landlord if he agrees that you can leave something behind for a short period of time. In case he is not fine with this, try to find a storage space to store it in and pick it up later. It must cost less than a new fish tank in case you broke this one.
After the move
Once you come to your new home, make sure to get the fish tank out first and set it up right away. Wash it out and fill with water. Wait until the water temperature, pH and other values are optimal. Once you made sure everything is ok, place the fish inside.
Moving can be stressful for you and your pets, but there are always some steps you can take in order to make them feel less stressed and help them get over it quickly. If you do this right, they will forget anything happened at all in no time.
