Moving a planted tank

Hi everyone
What I know about planted tanks is next to nothing so this may be a stupid question but here we go anyway. . .
After seeing all the awsome pics of people's planted tanks I want to have a go at it and am going to change my 100lt tank to a planted tank. However, I am going to be moving house towards the middle of the year and was wondering how the plants would react to the move (uprooting and replanting). Would it be advisable to wait until I've moved until I start the tank or would it be ok to uproot and replant already established plants?
Thanks

 

IMO wait - as moving a tank with a load of gravel might break
some plants don't care , others do

 

I would be removing all gravel from the tank before moving it.

 

Agree with the others - remove the gravel and move as empty a tank as possible. I've mucked about with my plants a LOT (up-rooting, re-planting, etc) and they keep growing strong roots within a few weeks of the disturbance.

You can quite happily float most aquatic plants so maybe remove all the gravel, leave a little water in the tank and keep the plants in there. That should keep them alive long enough for the move.

 

If you using a plain gravel with no caping then it will work

 

it would be fine but just make sure that you move it there and set it up as quickly as you can

 

I would recommend before you move and plant just use plain silica sand then once you move use a Palm peat fiber capped with silica. Because the peat will be a mission to get out the silica when you move!

 

You can uproot and replant established plants quiet easily. In my experience when I rescape,I often trim roots and neaten up the plants, and they seem to grow very well thereafter.

I would however DISCOURAGE moving a tank with anythin in it. I would seriously consider moving the tank completely empty. I.e take the substrate out.

Get a few buckets and a big plastic container form a plastic warehouse place. Move the fish across to the new place the night before you move. Put them into the plastic container, and leave them in there overnight with filter and heater running. Move the substrate in buckets, (preferably sealable buckets) and then the tank with the big move.

You could leave the fish in the container for a day or 2... which I advise so that you can settle all the furniture into the house before finalizing the fish tank's position. The last thing you want to do is set up the tank, and then disover after it's full that you actually want the tank against another wall. (Moving a tank should only be done when it is empty.) If it is full, you can twist and put unnecessary stresses onto the tank. Trust me.. I've lived through a bust tank... and it ain't pretty- or nice smelling!

 

Thanks everyone for the informative answers. I was planning on completely emptying the tank, substrate and all, before I moved it which is why I was concerned about disturbing the plants.
Freaksa, thanks for the tip about adding the peat fibre after the move.
Anyway, I've just moved my fish out of the 3 foot into a 2 foot while I start sorting out the 3 foot and make a few modifications (want to add glass sliders) and upgade lighting ect. Will post pics of the progress.
Thanks again.

 

I did a big move recently, but I set up a fresh tank at the destination about 2 weeks before.

Moving the fish and plants was relatively easy though, all I did was drain half the tank water into a big cooler box and put the fish and plants and filter media in there. I then put in a few oxygen tablets and moved the lot. As for the remaining tank, I vacuumed out all the sand as if I was doing a water change, but I topped up a few times. In the end I kept my expensive Seachem Flourite by scooping and filtering and threw out the cheap playsand and bought more.

So for me the important thing was to get another tank to set up into at my mom's place a month before the move. Moved the fish and plants in a big cooler box. Kept my expensive, and ditched my cheap substrate. Set up at the new place and moved the fish after the tank was stable.

Unfortunately this requires you getting an inbetween tank, but that shouldn't be a problem because there's lots of unused tanks on the forum for sale or to borrow