# moving day!



## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

hi everyone! i'm going to be moving back to my school's campus on Wednesday and i wanted to know what the easiest way to move my betta's tank was? when i moved out of my dorm last semester, someone told me not to drain all of the water from my tank because my beneficial bacteria would all die out or something like that (and it had just finished cycling like two weeks prior). honestly, that turned out to be a huge mess and i was hoping there would be a better way to do it this time around.

for the record, my tank is five gallons and it has one betta, a black mystery snail and some live anacharis & water wisteria.


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

Air mail


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

i guess it would have been beneficial for me to add that my school's only a two hour drive away, huh?


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

Put it in a box and for the betta see if your pet store has any spare Betta cups.


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

ChoclateBetta said:


> Put it in a box and for the betta see if your pet store has any spare Betta cups.


that's what i did last time. except i left about 20 percent of the water in there because someone told me to and it ended up spilling out of the tank and made the box a soggy mess. x.x needless to say, i don't have said box anymore.

and Bandit always goes in his little cup when i drive back and forth from school. i have two of them now, one for him and one for my mystery snail.


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## jeremywadejunior (Jul 11, 2012)

I will be transporting my betta and his 5 gal tank to my school which is an 8 hour drive. I'm planning on keeping the substrate in there with a small amount (maybe just barely enough to cover the top of the substrate) of water. Also, I will stick the filter media in there. I've heard this will keep the beneficial bacteria in your tank, since a majority of them are in the filter and the substrate. 
And then just keep the fish in a cup and keep the temp constant.


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## ChoclateBetta (Jul 22, 2012)

Good


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

jeremywadejunior said:


> I will be transporting my betta and his 5 gal tank to my school which is an 8 hour drive. I'm planning on keeping the substrate in there with a small amount (maybe just barely enough to cover the top of the substrate) of water. Also, I will stick the filter media in there. I've heard this will keep the beneficial bacteria in your tank, since a majority of them are in the filter and the substrate.
> And then just keep the fish in a cup and keep the temp constant.


that's EXACTLY what i did last time. i guess i'll just do it this time, too. maybe i left too much water in it last time, who knows?


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## puppyrjjkm (Aug 2, 2009)

Hi there! Another NC person! What school you headed to? I'm taking my 10 gal and 5 gal with me on Thursday. It would be easiest if you could drain the amount of water you want to keep into a bucket with a lid to prevent the water messes. I plan on just leaving enough water in the 10 gal to cover my live plant roots, or just allow the plants to float. I will put my boys back in their cups, and set them inside the empty 5 gallon, but since you only have 1 you could put him in your cupholder to keep it steady. I moved my boys 2000 miles this summer by car, and only had them in 1/2 gal tanks for the trip and didn't bring any tank water with me, and all adjusted fine when we got here. Best of luck!


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

I'll be in the same position May of next year, and I'm planning on keeping just enough water to cover the substrate. Otherwise, you could perhaps get a really really big tupperware container that can fit your filter and all of your substrate, then put it all in there so the tank itself is empty, but the tupperware won't spill the water because its capped?


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

Agreed, just keep enough water to cover the gravel & dont let your filter cartridge dry out. Very few beneficial bacteria live in the water itself. 

Good luck!


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## Rerram (Aug 6, 2012)

I will be making the four hour drive to Clemson from my dad's house this Friday. Thanks for these tips. I was nervous about it.


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## Ant10a (Jun 16, 2012)

I have a 4 hour drive plus about a 1 hour wait time until I can set everything up. I don't have to worry about the cycling process being ruined though because they are all in 1 gallon bowls, which I change the water by hand because my 10 gallon broke, but I wouldn't have had room for it anyway in the dorm room.

I have bags, and I fill them about halfway, then make sure they have a lot of air in them, tie em up, and lay them in a picnic cooler type thing to keep the temperature from drastically changing. I have 3 bettas to transport, so they all get a spot, divided by cardboard, and then in the dark and away we go! lol


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

my phone has been going off ALL day from all of these responses guys, haha. thanks for all of these! you've all been really helpful!


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

question!

i moved in yesterday and there wasn't a mess or anything with the tank like there was last time. HOWEVERRR, my tank is now showing that i have ammonia? it's been cycled since the end of April, so i'm not really sure what's going on here.

my ammonia reading is at .25, nitrites at 0 and nitrates at 0. usually, it's ammonia: 0, nitrites: 0 and nitrates: 5. is my tank cycling all over again? x.x 

i use seachem prime conditioner. i heard that sometimes messes with things, but i thought that it would give you an ammonia reading of 0 when you actually had ammonia in there.


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

colorxmexravyne said:


> question!
> 
> i moved in yesterday and there wasn't a mess or anything with the tank like there was last time. HOWEVERRR, my tank is now showing that i have ammonia? it's been cycled since the end of April, so i'm not really sure what's going on here.
> 
> ...


Prime only detoxifies ammonia, so if your water has ammonia in it, it will still read as having ammonia. It just will not harm the fish for 48 hours.

Does your tap water have ammonia in it?

Something is defenitely going on with the cycle if you have no nitrates.
Did your filter media get rinsed in any tap water?


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

teeneythebetta said:


> Prime only detoxifies ammonia, so if your water has ammonia in it, it will still read as having ammonia. It just will not harm the fish for 48 hours.
> 
> Does your tap water have ammonia in it?
> 
> ...


I haven't tested the water here as of late, but I think the very first time I tested the water here I didn't get a reading for ammonia. And my filter media was buried under the substrate (which was covered with tank water) the entire time I was traveling/away from the apartment. :/


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

Hmm.. Well it might be going through a "mini cycle" so test the water regularly and we will just have to see what happens!


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

teeneythebetta said:


> Hmm.. Well it might be going through a "mini cycle" so test the water regularly and we will just have to see what happens!


ugh, that's what i was afraid of. x.x any idea how long mini-cycles last? or does it just depend on the tank?


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

colorxmexravyne said:


> ugh, that's what i was afraid of. x.x any idea how long mini-cycles last? or does it just depend on the tank?


To be honest I'm not sure. Try PM'ing OldFishLady


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## colorxmexravyne (May 8, 2012)

teeneythebetta said:


> To be honest I'm not sure. Try PM'ing OldFishLady


will do, thanks!


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