i'm going to be moving in about a month...i'm kind of worried about preserving my bb's and cycle along the way. I was wondering, aside from keeping the filter media in aquarium water for the trip, should i store most of the gravel in a plastic container filled with aquarium water as well? should i even save some of the water? it's a 40 gallon tank. any thoughts would be appreciated, Thanks!

There aren't really any BBs in the water-- almost ALL of it is stored in the filter media. You should take the filter media out of your filter and put it in a large container (ziplock, etc). Make sure it's securely fasten/double-bagged to prevent leakage.

Only some of the BBs are in the gravel. You could take some, or all, of your gravel in a contained with just enough tank water to cover most of it. Not taking your gravel could cause a bump in your cycle when you restart the tank, but it would recycle within a few days.

Other than that, you won't need your old tank water.

How far are you moving? Do you have a plan for moving your fish?

If the water in your new place is very different from your current water, it may not be a bad idea to save as much of you current water as possible so you can adjust them to the new stuff a bit at a time. But if that's too much of a hassle its not entirely necessary.

But joy is right, the water won't effect preserving your cycle, except to keep the filter media & gravel/rocks wet in transit.

i don't have to move too far at all, about 15 minutes away, it's just that i'll be staying at a place for 3 weeks between when my old lease is up, and when i can move into the new place, so i'll have to move twice....and i didn't want to stress my fish out too much. i think with my media and gravel in water i should be fine and anything will work itself out in a few days after the moves, thanks for the advice!

That's a short move, so they should be fine. Long-distance moves take a bit more work and equipment, but 15 minutes is nothing. I have to do exactly the same thing with my fish in a week or two. Moving to thoughtsofjoy's place while I wait for my new lease to start . Are you in college too?

i just graduated, it's not the best idea to buy a 40 gallon tank and decide to cycle it a month and a half before moving......but this stuff is kinda fun and i couldn't wait

I know what you mean wampire! I told myself that keeping fish in college was stupid-- what will I do when it's time to move?

My 3rd year at university, going into my last year: I have two 20 gallons and one ten gallon, and my boyfriend (whom I got addicted to fish) has a 26 gallon, and soon to have a 30 gallon, too.

We're addicts!

i moved in march -- about 6 miles away -- and my tap water was completely different from the old place. pH out of the new tap was waaaay higher than the old water. i moved about 3 gallons of the water (what i moved the fish in), and he seemed to handle the transition well.