Tropical Fish Tank water

[imd123]

Hello

I am moving my fish tank and am setting up a smaller tank to house my fish whilst I do so. Can I just transfer my existing water to the smaller tank and transfer the fish straight away or do I have to leave to stand for a few days. Also I am setting up with sand. Any idea how deep this should be please.

Thanks in advance.

[CT]

Ask at your local fish shop about a transport box. You'll probably get a load of bags, which you can transport the fish in. The bags go in the box, well packed in. It's polystyrene so the fish are well protected for the trip.
I'd use the same water. Less danger of the fish going into shock, (mind they are probably more hardy than you'd think). If you can get some sort of hose then you should be able to siphon the water from one tank to the other, or into a bucket first.

[lilgoodgirl]

tranferring that water to the smaller tank would be a good thing to do but you might also want to get you some (stress coat) from walmart to keep from stressing the fish in the switch.

[imd123]

Thanks for help so far.

When I say 'moving' by the way I don't mean moving house just across living room.

Would it be a good idea to vacuum some of the crap out of the gravel as well?

Thanks again

[Reefwatcher]

It will be ok to use the same water so long as everything has not been churned up.Like lilgoodgirl stated,use a little stress coat when moving them,they are going to get confused,frightened and stressed.Keep the lights off too and use a decent sized net to capture them and dont chase the fish around,remove all rocks/ornaments/plants etc before this task.Sand is best to kept to around 1 inch thick as it absorbes all the waste causing all your ammonia/nitrate levels to creep up.Best of luck.