ever had to move your tank?

[beadlocked450r]

Like the tittle says has anybody ever had to move there tank?say to re-carpet?is there an easy way to do it with out draining the water and removing all the rock?

 

[csarkar001]

tanks with water in them cannot be moved.

 

[James77]

No, not really. It is not all that bad completely emptying the tank- great chance to give all the rock a good cleaning. I've done it to refinish wood floors, and I have also done it just to get a fresh start.

 

[beadlocked450r]

Thanks that's what I needed to know

 

[T Diddy]

Plan on living there a while? You could always have the installer cut around the stand...just a thought, I hate moving tanks. The upside is, if you move it, it will be an easy move. Save as much water as possible.

 

[aleonn]

You'd need lots of Brute Rubbermaid trashcans depending on how big your tank is, along with powerheads and heaters for each. It's much easier to move within your house than to another house, which I thought was the case from your thread title

 

[kev24k]

This is how I moved my tank once for just a few hours while I had the garage concrete cleaned. You're going to want to have enough salt water ready and to temperature before you start the teardown.

1. Put tank water into rubbermaid containers w/out exposing the rock in the tank to air. Once I had enough water in the container(s) I put rocks in them quickly. Didn't want to risk dieoff.
2. After rocks are gone, I put the livestock in a separate container with a few pvc pipe clippings to act as hiding spots. Dropped in a small powerhead for circulation.
3. Emptied tank but left like 1 inch of water above the sand bed.
4. Lift one end and slide dolly under. Lift the other end and move the tank to where its going to be while you're doing whatever youre doing. Get help if you need it. Once you can move the tank back just put it down, and slowly add your new saltwater. Put a few plates/bowls down over the sand to help it from going everywhere. Fill it up 3/4 and then add ur rockwork. Try not to expose it to the air for too long.
5. Get the tank as stable as possible. Make sure to match salinity and temp before adding your livestock back in.
6. Toss in your livestock

I'm sure people are going to disagree with part of the way I moved my tank for a few hours but it worked for me. No losses.

 

[aleonn]

Great points, Kev! I would only add that you should be as careful as you can to not disturb the sand bed. Kev already alluded to it, but we don't want any trapped gasses and such to escape into the water.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

I slid my 75 gallon tank out 2 ft away from wall to slide the new sump in the rear of the stand.
I first siphoned the gravel and rocks, along with 15 to 20% of the water as if a water change. Then, I drained the water (from display and sump) into two large ice chests. I pulled the old sump out the front. Slid the stand out from the wall and installed new sump in rear. I slid the stand back and refilled tank. I incorporated the water change in the process.
I can say, the stand did not like being moved with a tank full of sand and live rock still on top.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

I just moved my 120 from one room to another,I caught all fish,then removed live rock.I drained all the water except enough to cover sand bed.Then drained sump,I used furniture movers under each corner and I barely could slide it.It was a 4 hour ordeal.

 

[anbosu]

Great points, Kev! I would only add that you should be as careful as you can to not disturb the sand bed. Kev already alluded to it, but we don't want any trapped gasses and such to escape into the water.

This is really important. I moved my reef tank across a room once and basically ended up nuking everything in the tank.

 

[Agu]

This is really important. I moved my reef tank across a room once and basically ended up nuking everything in the tank.

If it's an old sandbed it may be a better choice to just replace the sand.

 

[LawmanRob]

I'm building a new stand, I plan to drain the water but do I need to take the rock out? I'm only goting to lift the tank and slide the new stand underneath. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[JeF4y]

Depending on how large the tank is you may be able to make this a little easier on yourself.

If it's a smaller tank (say under 100 gal), what I would consider doing is have the carpet guy remove all the carpet and when he is laying the new stuff in the tank room, at that point, drain the tank down, remove the livestock and any dramatically unstable liverock. SLIDE the tank onto a braced cart (or something which is SOLID and FLAT). Move the tank on the wood/cart, have the guy replace the carpet, move everything back.

You could likely do this in a day. It would probably take 4 people to do it, but it could be done...

 

[Alysiak00]

I'm building a new stand, I plan to drain the water but do I need to take the rock out? I'm only goting to lift the tank and slide the new stand underneath. Does anyone have any advice?

this could get very ugly very fast. if you have all the weight (rocks) in the middle and all the pressure on the sides (from lifting) it could crack the tank in two right down the center. just depends how much weight is in the tank. Having the tank on the stand spreads out the weight.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

If you can slide it from one stand to the other without lifting or lowering, I might try it, but seriously doubt it. If you have to lift it, empty the rocks or majority of the rocks. Why take the risk of a rock falling and cracking the glass. You will no longer have the water in the tank to help stabilize the rocks stacked on one another.

Warranty of any tank is considered void if moved with substrate inside it. The tank should be completely emptied when moved. We take a risk just leaving the sandbed.