Cross country fish transportation

[dannypd]

Hey guys, I made it...so did my fish!  but thats really what you cared about eh? 

I'm now in Seattle, with my 5 year old puffer.

The magic to this trip was not the long drive itself, but I needed a compact aquarium that would last minimum a month for my puffer fish.  Also, the tank needs to be portable and small to fit easily in my car.

I will post pictures from pre-move, but here's a summary of what I've done:
-Purchased a small "chemical free" rubbermaid-type container. I went for 15-20 or so odd gallons. (chemical free means they dont have the words: "algea free", not for food storage, etc.
-Found my old submersible Fluval and set that up in the corner.  Pumping is set to max, but only in the short direction of the "tank".
-2 airlines were installed, one connected to the Fluval and to remain operational as long as the fluval was "on", and the other "glued" to a airstone set in the middle of the tank.
-The entire tank around the top has been sealed, openable, but leak-resistant (resistant is a loose term...).  There is a 1 inch hole in the centre-lid of the tank, but it is filled with wires and fish should not be able to get through.  It is also where excess air leaves (from the airpump).
-AIRPUMP.  A very powerful and dependable airpump is needed.  There is almost NO surface air/water connection going on, so you need to pump as much air as you can (without the obvious pushing the fish out of the way).
-Heater.  This may not be needed, but I put one in there.  I set it for the minimum the fish can handle and 2 degrees higher.  This should keep it just right, but not heat it when the day is getting warmer.
-Electronic water tempurature reader.  Remember, you're DRIVING a car and the tank is most likely in the trunk (dont even try putting this in a seat, its very dangerous).  Run the temp reader wire through your seats and have the alarm set for 2 degrees ABOVE the minimum your fish can handle.  Also, set the MAX temp to 2 degrees LESS than the maximum your fish can handle.  This ensures you can take appropriate measures if the temp gets too hot.
-(bonus)An extra step I never got around to was using a Peltier heat pump instead of a heater.  This would allow me to "switch" from cold to hot on the fly.  The only downside to this is it would be manually controlled using the alarm.  The advantage here is water takes a LONG time to get cold, and hot, so you would have plenty of leeway.  In theory, you'd ONLY turn it on if it got too hot, or too cold, and leave it off during normal usage.

Pictures are to come!

[dannypd]

Sorry, I dont have the harddrive with me that the pictures of the tank are stored in, but I do have a recent picture from the Seattle aquarium and pictures of the current in-use transportation tank (the pics I wanted to show were the tank in construction and without water).  The cam I used for the current tank in use are REALLY small..I only have my laptop camera.

---

Also, a picture from Vancouver I liked... so many pictures that I liked, I'll create an album labelled "CROSS COUNTRY", from Ontario (blah...garbage from Ottawa, to Timmins, To Thunderbay!!), Manitoba (nice highways, clean, neat views), Saskatchewan (flat...really...really....FLAT, but still neat!!), to Alberta, (flat + rockies...neat again), to BC (hilly....too hilly!!:)), to Washington state (see BC).  Over 3 gigs of pics taken....some decent looking, others blurry (something about that "driving" thing...)

[attachment deleted by admin]