Moving day for my 240!

[justgeorge]

Well about 10 days ago I had a leak in the plumbing to my external skimmer; water on the floor and carpet. Dried it up as good as I could. Went on a long weekend, got back and the room isn't smelling too good. I had planned sometime in the next 6 months to move the tank to the basement which I'm finishing, where it will be an in-wall tank. Needing to completely dry the carpet moved that date up to today.

I bought 7 32 gallon trash cans (which I'll take back) and a brand new 75' garden hose. After rinsing the cans and the hose, I siphoned the water out the window and into the trash cans in the basement. Moved all the LR into tubs, caught the fish and put them in another big tub with some LR, a heater, and a powerhead. Emptied the crushed coral into more tubs and then finished draining the tank.

Right now I've got the sump out of the stand and moved down to the basement and I'm waiting on my neighbor to get home to help me move the tank and stand. The tank isn't too bad (it's acrylic); the stand is what is really heavy. I built it using 2x6 horizontal and vertical bracing; 2x4s every 12" across the top to support the 3/4" plywood top. Then it was covered with 1/2" oak plywood stained to match the doors (purchased). So anyway, it's really heavy.

In the new setup what was the back of the stand will be up against the wall (on the backside of the viewing area) and will now be where the front of the tank will sit. I had built the wall with the 8'x25" opening at the same height as my stand so it should just be a matter of setting the stand flush with the wall; the doors of the stand will now be at the back of the tank. The tank will be sitting on the wall opening and most of the stand (on a styrofoam sheet).

I won't need the canopy any more; I'm going to figure out a way to suspend the lights (4x48" 40W NO lights) from the ceiling with a hoist of some sort to lift them up out of the way. I'll also leave the skimmer outside the stand for easier access for cleaning.

Here is a picture of it sitting empty; I'll be cleaning the tank more while I'm still waiting on my neighbor.....

I'll post more pics as I get it all set back up later tonight. I'll be using my submersible skimmer pump to pump water from the trashcans up into the tank. I'll end up with about a 20% water change most likely.

Here is the wall opening:

When I sand the drywall and paint I'll have to cover the tank, although it will be protected behind the wall and not really exposed. I had intended to have that done before moving the tank but the water accident blew that plan!

George

 

[Titan*69]

Hope all goes well,looks like a big job. I hate moving tanks.

 

[SW1TCH]

Good luck with the move its alot of work. I moved my 75 than set up a 72 and a 40 all in one day.

 

[justgeorge]

Well it's not going as well as I had hoped. The drain line and return line in the overflow had fittings that extended down about 3" and interfered with sliding the tank directly into position due the the tight fit in the wall opening. I had to remove part of the fittings and also take out the styrofoam under the tank to get it to go into position. Then of course I couldn't get the styrofoam back in place by myself, and it's late at night and my wife was long asleep so I had to quit for the night.

Right now though I've set up the rockwork and transferred all the saved water into the tank. The problem is that because the water sat in my basement all night it's a chilly 67.5 degrees in the tank right now. I've got every heater I have in the tank warming it up while I'm also making up more RO water to finish filling the tank. Which will make it even colder since the new water will be tap-water cold. So it looks like the fish will spend most of the day in the plastic tub.

Here are more pictures:

Collection of tubs and trashcans:

Fish in the plastic tub (dogface puffer is hiding); lionfish, bluethroat trigger and cardinal (and lionfish poop) are visible:

Mostly filled tank, heaters in the tank instead of eventual home in the sump.

 

[tah532]

good luck to ya! I just switched tank last week from a 90 to a 75 with all new filter system, did in a day and was exhausted, so i can only imagine doing a large tank like that. have fun!

 

[justgeorge]

Well the move is complete although I'm still making new water. The tank is full up to the line of just starting to enter the overflow; no water in the sump yet. Guess that will be tomorrow. The fish are in the tank and happily eating. My bluethroat even comes out more and hides less; caught him and the volitans in this picture:

It's pretty small with the 50k size limit.....

Here is just the volitans:

Tomorrow I'll be mounting the light canopy. I'm going to use the old canopy but mount a bike hoist to it to raise it out of the way when needed. This is the bike hoist:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.htm...879240-8973411?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B00006JBL3

Also to make sure it never comes crashing down I'm also attaching vinyl-coated steel cable to the hood and the ceiling so if the bike hoist fails the cable will keep it from crashing down onto the tank.

 

[Cockatoo]

nice

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very impressive...