Moving a tank across the room

A

Aquavaj

New member
This is a 40g acrylic AIO, 40lbs sand, 40lbs or so of marco rocks. This will be carried by only 2 people.

I will move fish and shrimp into QT but planning to leave corals and rocks. Once drained it will be moved along with the stand to eliminate unnecessary stress on the seams. Corals will be out of water for no more than 15 mins. If this is risky I can move corals and rocks to QT as well.

I have an high estimate of about 180lbs total if I leave the rocks. Is this feasible for 2 guys?
 
My only concern would be having the rocks topple over during the move which would scratch the tank; you may want to consider placing most of the rocks in 5 gallon buckets. They sell flat Teflon type slides at Home Depot that you could set the stand on and slide it rather than carry it.
 
Good call on the rocks. Guess I'll just have to be extra careful moving them out because I have a couple of corals glued onto them. I'll look into those slides too.
 
A 40G tank can easily be moved across a room with 2 people without needing to resort to all that..

I moved my 40B/stand in one piece.. I only drained it down a few inches just to avoid splashing then used these..
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Waxman-8-P...tic-Carpet-And-Hard-Surface-Slider/1000372527

With socks if wood floor.. without if carpet..

Piece of cake..

I just used a crowbar to lift each corner of the stand to slide on of those under then EASILY slid it across the floor then added the few inches of water back..

Far less stressful that way..

Took me like 30 minutes or less..
 
Do you think a 180 could be moved? I would love to install a new floor but I have no idea on moving my tank. (wood laminate floor)

I am considering cutting out the existing floor around it and installing the new floor around it.
 
I have slid a 75 gallon with a roughly 25 gallons of water Sump along hardwood floor while fully filled. I only stopped the pumps so that the water level in the top would drop enough it didn't slosh.

I moved it myself, and I'm not a large or particularily strong person. I only needed to move it over about 5 feet though.

Wooden stand, with felt 'feet' on the bottom of it.
 
mcgyvr said:
A 40G tank can easily be moved across a room with 2 people without needing to resort to all that..

I moved my 40B/stand in one piece.. I only drained it down a few inches just to avoid splashing then used these..
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Waxman-8-P...tic-Carpet-And-Hard-Surface-Slider/1000372527

With socks if wood floor.. without if carpet..

Piece of cake..

I just used a crowbar to lift each corner of the stand to slide on of those under then EASILY slid it across the floor then added the few inches of water back..

Far less stressful that way..

Took me like 30 minutes or less..
Click to expand...

Well problem is, the tank is on a little riser I built to make the tank sit a little higher so it'll be almost eye level when standing. I don't think 2 of us can drop the tank when full.
 
Aquavaj said:
Well problem is, the tank is on a little riser I built to make the tank sit a little higher so it'll be almost eye level when standing. I don't think 2 of us can drop the tank when full.
Click to expand...

oh.. sure... Now you include that information.. ;)
 
hkgar,
Sometime in the future you would regret that decision.
If there was a spill the ends of the wood would be open & make it easy for water to enter.
Do it right by emptying it to 1/3 full & moving it across the room & back when necessary.
Even if it takes getting help.
 
Vinny Kreyling said:
hkgar,
Sometime in the future you would regret that decision.
If there was a spill the ends of the wood would be open & make it easy for water to enter.
Do it right by emptying it to 1/3 full & moving it across the room & back when necessary.
Even if it takes getting help.
Click to expand...

I agree..
 
hkgar said:
I think I will live with what I have. Not sure the corals could make it very long with out water and breaking all this down and figuring out how to reassemble seems a nightmare.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/g6Vayp22PKNzcCKa6
Click to expand...
What a beautiful tank! I think I hate you!

The corals could live out of water long enough to move the tank, but why bother? I was a professional maintenance guy for the past 20 years, and there's NO WAY I'd mess with it. You've got $1,000+ worth of corals there.

Only you and the Lord above will know the new wood laminate flooring stops at the bottom of your aquarium stand. Just think of the bottom of the stand as the end of the room.

Did I mention how beautiful your aquarium is?

To the OP - my 14-year-old stepdaughter moved my 125 (glass) reefer across the room. She took out the rocks and aragonite, and wrestled the tank to the other side of the room. By herself

A 40-gal acrylic is easy.
 
If the new floor is floating click-together laminate, just save a bunch of extra pieces and if you ever move or tear down the tank, plop them in it's place. It would take 10 minutes and you'd never know. Heck even if the new floor is hardwood or any other wood look flooring with individual pieces - just remove a few of the boards adjacent to where the tank was so you don't end up with a hard line of edges around the footprint. The only flooring that would really prevent you from doing this would be carpet or linoleum or something else continuous.
 
WVfishguy said:
What a beautiful tank! I think I hate you!

The corals could live out of water long enough to move the tank, but why bother? I was a professional maintenance guy for the past 20 years, and there's NO WAY I'd mess with it. You've got $1,000+ worth of corals there.

Only you and the Lord above will know the new wood laminate flooring stops at the bottom of your aquarium stand. Just think of the bottom of the stand as the end of the room.

Did I mention how beautiful your aquarium is?

To the OP - my 14-year-old stepdaughter moved my 125 (glass) reefer across the room. She took out the rocks and aragonite, and wrestled the tank to the other side of the room. By herself

A 40-gal acrylic is easy.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the compliments :spin1:

If I redo the floor it will not be a laminate, but hardwood.
 
My husband and I have moved my 30g around the first floor a few times using slides over carpet (that was then removed), tile, and hardwood. The hardest part it getting the darn slides under the stand. And getting over any thresholds between rooms.

If moving over hard wood, make sure you clean the floor before starting and don’t get anything on the bottom of the sliders that’s could scratch the floor.

We typically took a third to half of the water out to avoid too much sloshing. Also, before starting the move, I took some of the higher rock out and set them in the buckets holding the removed water. I already knew which sometimes moved when I was vacuuming the tank.
 
All of these success stories are great, but only up the that second you have the slightest bit of excess and un-equal stress on the glass or seams. Only SAFE way to move a tank, glass or acrylic, is to empty the tank move and refill, and that still comes with risk. Remeber, that the glass is flexible until it fails, and then its 50/50 whether its a crack edge to edge or catastrophic and everything is on the floor.

Take the time to empty and refill the tank. You will not regret the work when you are finished and your tank is safe.


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