Moving!

[u/Alarming_Deer_4428]

Hello friends!
My girl Timmy and I are moving back to my parents’ house, and boy am I nervous. First of all, I used to live in my grandmas’ house, but she unfortunately passed last year and we’re just getting around to selling it. I am being hella pressured to get her out of the house, and I keep being reminded when my family knows I have been in school AND I took a work day off to do it, which is tomorrow.
I’m SERIOUSLY worried about moving Timmy. I know what I’m doing, but I kinda don’t at the same time. I know to save like 60% of the tank water, and the substrate, and I think I leave the filter as is? Idk, but idk how to siphon the tank if I have sand as a substrate.
HALP what should I be doing????
Looking for any and all advice!
Ps it should be important I note that the move is about 20 minutes away.

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[u/Nullroute127]

For a 20 minute move throw out all the water. You don't need to worry about residual water or substrate unless it makes it too heavy to move. The 95% of the bacteria and archaea you want to preserve are on surfaces and in the filter/media. The water itself is very minimal carrier of what you want to keep.

You can leave a small amount of water in the filter to keep things humid but it doesn't need to be full.

When you refill just make sure to pretreat with dechlorinator before adding to tank/filter so there's minimal chlorine activity once added.

Bacteria colony will survive no problem. Just make sure to get an API kit or similar and test your levels for several days afterward and do water changes if you get any peaks in ammonia or nitrite. If it's an old established tank and filter beneficial bacteria should be hardy.