I need to move my tank from one side of the room to the other. 14 feet maximum. It is a permanent move. I have been reading various forums etc and seeing conflicting advice. I want to do it with minimum disruption to my fish and the ecosystem in the tank and obviously with low risk of damage to the tank. Some places I've read empty everything including gravel in other places I've read leave fish in with a small amount of water and just lift keeping all 4 corners supported. I'm sure people must have done this what would your advise be? It is 125 litre tank and has tetras and danios in it.

Thanks

Rob

This won't be what you want to hear but I would never recommend anyone move a tank that has any water / gravel / fish in it - I tried it once years ago with a 200l tank, I reduced water down to a minimum and tried to move the tank with a friend. Believe me, even with the minimal water level the tank weighed an absolute mega-ton and we could only move it a couple of feet before giving up, we ended up stripping the tank down to move it and this ended up being the best course of action anyway as the fish were pretty stressed by just that 2 foot move we managed.

It is risky to move a tank with any amount of water / gravel in it as you run the risk of it cracking, it's not worth the worry or the risk of permanently ending your tank for good.

Even though you are only moving it a small distance, I would advise stripping the tank down to bare glass and moving it sensibly and then setting it back up again, it shouldn't take too long and will actually be less stressful for the fish really.

Do you have a container to keep the fish in while you move it? Your filter bacteria should survive provided you don't drain all the water out of the filter and the process doesn't take several hours (I am assuming you have an external filter but if you don't it would be even easier with an internal as you can just put that in the container with the fish).

As you say not necessarily what I wanted to hear but it is what I was thinking would be the case. I have an internal filter system. It's a jewel tank with a jewel bioflow. I may have to rethink my plans as I was going to pace my tank by a door but having done some reading it seems this can scare the fish. However when I do find somewhere suitable to move them I will take the fish out and syphon all the water out. I plan to keep as much water as possible to put back in. I was going to get a few large containers but I'm thinking maybe smaller more manageable containers may be the way forward unless anyone has any tips for getting the water back in as obviously can't syphon from the floor up into the tank so need to be able to lift the container I would assume

You can however pump from the floor into the tank although given the volume you want a small pump, not the pond pump people with large tanks use for water changes. Have a look on ebay for small submersible pumps and some tubing, see if the cost is worth it.