Posledni Czar
New member
No... I'm not crazy, at least I don't think so...
I'm thinking about putting casters on the wood stand for my 55 gal. I do not intend to move the tank full, but I would like to make it easier to move. I will be moving this tank off its current metal stand this weekend onto a wooden stand, but I also know that I will be moving out of this house in the next couple months, and am thinking of ways to make that move easier.
The tank: this is an old-school 55 gal with the thicker glass (0.25" I think) and a large glass brace across the top. It is a freshwater planted tank that has been set up since 2004 and it is thoroughly grown in. When moving the tank in the past, I have drained the water down to about 1" but left the inhabitants, plants, and substrate in the tank. Man was is heavy to move!
The plan: My thought is to augment the stand with a piece of thicker plywood screwed into the bottom to reinforce it, as well as to provide a floor so to speak. Next I am going to screw a 2x4 frame with two crossbars at 16" and 32" along the long side. This is what I plan to mount the casters to, 300+lb rated casters from Lowes probably. I'm planning to have a caster in each corner, with two locking on opposite corners, as well as a caster where the crossbars meet the outer frame and 1 in the middle of each crossbar for a total of 10 casters. I will also trim the top of the stand to prevent the tank from sliding off of the stand, as well as trim the bottom to cover up the casters. My thought is that with a combined rating of 3000lbs, these casters will be more than sufficient to support the tank when filled at approximately 600-700lbs.
I do still intend to move the tank with an inch or less of water and the substrate, but I feel that this would make it much easier on me. This upcoming move will be about 18hrs driving distance, probably with an overnight stop, so I would at least partially refill the tank while loaded in the trailer and run a battery powered air pump. The current inhabitants are a couple Corydoras and a massive colony of cherry shrimp. I might try to catch the Corys, but that may prove to be a futile endeavor.
Please tell me why I'm wrong in considering casters, and possibly how to make this plan better or propose a different solution before I go dump a bunch of money on materials?
I'm thinking about putting casters on the wood stand for my 55 gal. I do not intend to move the tank full, but I would like to make it easier to move. I will be moving this tank off its current metal stand this weekend onto a wooden stand, but I also know that I will be moving out of this house in the next couple months, and am thinking of ways to make that move easier.
The tank: this is an old-school 55 gal with the thicker glass (0.25" I think) and a large glass brace across the top. It is a freshwater planted tank that has been set up since 2004 and it is thoroughly grown in. When moving the tank in the past, I have drained the water down to about 1" but left the inhabitants, plants, and substrate in the tank. Man was is heavy to move!
The plan: My thought is to augment the stand with a piece of thicker plywood screwed into the bottom to reinforce it, as well as to provide a floor so to speak. Next I am going to screw a 2x4 frame with two crossbars at 16" and 32" along the long side. This is what I plan to mount the casters to, 300+lb rated casters from Lowes probably. I'm planning to have a caster in each corner, with two locking on opposite corners, as well as a caster where the crossbars meet the outer frame and 1 in the middle of each crossbar for a total of 10 casters. I will also trim the top of the stand to prevent the tank from sliding off of the stand, as well as trim the bottom to cover up the casters. My thought is that with a combined rating of 3000lbs, these casters will be more than sufficient to support the tank when filled at approximately 600-700lbs.
I do still intend to move the tank with an inch or less of water and the substrate, but I feel that this would make it much easier on me. This upcoming move will be about 18hrs driving distance, probably with an overnight stop, so I would at least partially refill the tank while loaded in the trailer and run a battery powered air pump. The current inhabitants are a couple Corydoras and a massive colony of cherry shrimp. I might try to catch the Corys, but that may prove to be a futile endeavor.
Please tell me why I'm wrong in considering casters, and possibly how to make this plan better or propose a different solution before I go dump a bunch of money on materials?
