Urgent HELP needed to move VERY large tank this Sunday, October 4, in PORTER RANCH

[bvysochin]

WHAT: Moving 1200 lb glass tank (120" x 36" x 30")
WHERE: Porter Ranch, CA
WHEN: Sunday, October 4th, @ 10:00 AM
WHO: As many people as possible!!


Hi guys. As soon of you may have heard, George, (aka kinggeorge818), who lives in Porter Ranch, has sold his house and is moving. For those of you who haven't seen, or are aware, George has a beautiful, stunning reef tank in the San Fernando Valley. He has a new build in progress, for his new home. As far as his old tank and system, the new owner of the home does NOT want it (who knows why--it should be a crime to dismantle such a system!)

I have committed to helping George remove his old tank, and I plan to re-use it in my upcoming build (build thread to follow later). I need AS MANY PEOPLE as possible this Sunday, October 4th, in Porter Ranch. I have a plan in mind on how to remove this tank, and there should be minimal lifting involved, but a tank this size will require lots of spotters and people to help hold stuff in place, etc.

The tank is 10 feet x 3 feet deep x 2.5 feet tall. It's made entirely out of 3/4" glass. We estimate it weighs just shy of 1200 lbs. I do have multiple hydraulic lift tables that I have purchased, just for this move. If any one is able to come out, and help, it would be very much greatly appreciated. We are in a time constraint, and the tank needs to be out of there by Sunday (the 4th), as George needs to repair the wall and clean everything up, before giving the new owner the keys on Wednesday (the 7th).

The three main important things are going to be safety, safety, and safety!

#1 -- Personal safety: We do not want anyone getting hurt, so, if you have a back condition or are not capable of lifting heavy items, please stay at home. We appreciate the offer to help and supervise, but we really need to get this done, and need able bodied people to work quickly, safely, and efficiently. We will, however, need people to help steer the dollys, watch out for obstacles, help grab tools, clean up, and etc.

#2 -- Home safety: The home is SOLD, so we need to make sure it stays in great condition, as we cannot leave a huge disaster when we're done extracting the tank. The front half of the house is on a raised foundation, with a portion of the floor being tiled. I am taking steps to avoid damaging the home. Blankets on the floor, OSB across the entire surface to help protect wood/tile floors and distribute weight, etc.

#3 -- Tank safety: This tank is glass, and obviously heavy and somewhat fragile. If the tank gets damaged, or cracked, or broken, then this will be all for nothing.

I plan to get pizza, drinks, beverages, whatever you guys would like. I can't list the address here, but it is in PORTER RANCH, CA. Approx 20 minutes from the 101/405 interchange. The tank is still running, and we plan to get some work done ahead of time, and I will be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'd like to shoot to have everybody there by 10 AM on Sunday. If we don't get enough people, I plan to get laborers, if necessary. With all of the prep work being done, and everything necessary in place, I don't estimate it taking longer than one hour, maybe two at most.



Here are photos of the system.

Here is a link to the build thread: http://s.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2086915

Any help would be greatly appreciated... Please PM me, or reply here, and I will try to coordinate with everybody.

 

[bullitr]

Are you taking the tank crystal?

 

[bvysochin]

Yep

 

[bullitr]

Very nice
It will be amazing

 

[1panman1]

amazing tank. not sure if I could watch TV in that room. I would be distracted. I say hire laborers, not worth beer and pizza.

 

[ChefZilla]

I would be more of a burden than help... :-/ ohh when you guys get the tank empty... save me "spots" the leopard wrasse please

 

[triggreefer]

Beautiful. One can only dream.

 

[dodgerblew]

Back and shoulder issues or I'd be more than willing. I'd be Illini anyways but respect you respecting people's health Crystal. Such an amazing system!

 

[SanClementeEric]

How many hydraulic lift tables did you buy for this?

 

[WayneL333]

Hi Crystal,

Sorry, I can't make it on that date and time, but I wanted to offer you some advice from my move. My tank is about half that size and we used one 1000lb. table top hydraulic lift to move mine. It was pretty convenient since the lift had wheels too. Once we got my tank on the lift and leveled with the stand, it only took 2 people to push the tank from the lift to the stand.

With a tank as large as yours, I would imagine you'd need at least 2 or 3 lifts. Also, if things started to go south for some reason, I don't think it would matter how many people you had there just because of the size and unwieldy size. You may want to look into some heavy duty glass suction handles. There are many kinds rated for different weights. Aaron at the SPS Store had several that are rated for like 600lb. each. He only had one working during my move but that's all we needed. You may want to contact him to see if he could lend them to you or let you know where to get them.

Anyway, good luck with your move.

 

[pciscott]

I have the Off road Expo in Pomona both days this weekend for PCI, or I would offer a hand. I would guess the tank closer to 1500lbs, that is a Monster! Good luck with the move and Age of Aquariums has several sets of the high quality suction cups and the hydrolic carts. These made moving my tank much easier. We used the carts to carry the weight, but had to lift up a few steps and over thresholds, without the suction cups someone will get there fingers crushed. Take pictures, awesome tank, jealous!

 

[triggreefer]

That's one gorg setup. GLWM

 

[bvysochin]

How many hydraulic lift tables did you buy for this?

I bought two. The original plan was to get 3, but I think two is going to be plenty, since we may not even end up using them.

Back and shoulder issues or I'd be more than willing. I'd be Illini anyways but respect you respecting people's health Crystal. Such an amazing system!

Thanks! George did a beautiful job with this system.

Hi Crystal,

Sorry, I can't make it on that date and time, but I wanted to offer you some advice from my move. My tank is about half that size and we used one 1000lb. table top hydraulic lift to move mine. It was pretty convenient since the lift had wheels too. Once we got my tank on the lift and leveled with the stand, it only took 2 people to push the tank from the lift to the stand.

With a tank as large as yours, I would imagine you'd need at least 2 or 3 lifts. Also, if things started to go south for some reason, I don't think it would matter how many people you had there just because of the size and unwieldy size. You may want to look into some heavy duty glass suction handles. There are many kinds rated for different weights. Aaron at the SPS Store had several that are rated for like 600lb. each. He only had one working during my move but that's all we needed. You may want to contact him to see if he could lend them to you or let you know where to get them.

Anyway, good luck with your move.

Thanks for the advice!! I ended up purchasing two very similar flat top hydraulic tables that you used. They're rated for 1000 lbs each, and have casters. The original plan was to push the tank out on the carpet side, but the plan has changed a bit.

Today, I picked up two of these Genie Lift's. They're material lifts and have a decent rating. These are what George actually used to install the tank in the first place, if you look at page 4 of his build thread. So, instead of re-inventing the wheel, I thought, why not!

The hydraulic lift tables will be just extra support. Even though those genie lift's look tiny in the back of the truck, they are about 7 feet tall, and capable of lifting loads to roughly 20 feet up.

Today, after purchasing over $750 worth of lumber, we are going to construct a pretty epic platform/rolling crate for the tank. It's going to have three 6x4 beams on the bottom, with multiple 4x4 crossmembers, with a struc 1 osb base, and 1" insulation foam for padding. It'll have 10 heavy duty 5" casters, rated for 330 lbs each. It's going to be quite overbuilt, but after my last poor experience transporting a 225, I'm not taking any chances this time.

Also, I'm very fortunate to have Steve, from Precision Aquariums, coming out with me on Sunday to assist with this move. Since he is a professional glazier, he has access to suction cups at work, and will be bringing a dozen heavy-duty commercial grade ones. Thank god! As a side note, the original plan was to cut the tank into pieces, on-site, as it was going to be the only possible way of removing it. Steve was then going to re-assemble the tank. After much consideration, it was decided that was not a feasible option. After that, we considered pushing the tank into the back yard, to avoid going across the raised foundation. I called and received multiple quotes to rent a 40-ton crane with a 100'+ boom, to hoist the tank up and over the house. But.. after consideration, it was determined this was not a feasible option either. :hmm5:

I have the Off road Expo in Pomona both days this weekend for PCI, or I would offer a hand. I would guess the tank closer to 1500lbs, that is a Monster! Good luck with the move and Age of Aquariums has several sets of the high quality suction cups and the hydrolic carts. These made moving my tank much easier. We used the carts to carry the weight, but had to lift up a few steps and over thresholds, without the suction cups someone will get there fingers crushed. Take pictures, awesome tank, jealous!

Thanks a bunch for the advice!! Enjoy the off-road expo, sounds like a blast!!



Here's a few more progress pics from today.

If we can get this tank moved successfully in one piece, this will definitely be motivational for us to get our new building done that will house this system.. Stay tuned!

 

[pandimus]

Dumb question, but where is George moving to and how big is his new system going to be?

 

[bullitr]

George is getting a smaller system

 

[bvysochin]

It's all done. The mission was a success. Couldn't have possibly gone any smoother. Very, very, very special thanks to Steve and Joey from Precision Aquariums, as well as Cory and Sean. Without them, this wouldn't have been possible. No damage to the home, no injuries, no broken equipment. Definitely a large undertaking, and valuable experience!

Here's some photos of the move.

Driveway was a little tight.. so we had to move the trailer manually. Fun!

 

[bvysochin]

The hardest worker of them all..

The trip home was good. But, we underestimated the weight holding abilities of those casters. 3 completely buckled by the time we got home. We added 8 more and replaced the broken ones when we got home.

Unloading was fun. Thank god we own two Bobcats for situations like these!

Luckily the crate and platform was built strong enough. I think if we had made it any weaker, there's a good chance the tank would have cracked, as when 3 of the casters on one side buckled, the entire weight shifted over to one side. The 6x4 beams helped keep everything nice and rigid, and with 1" foam on every side of the crate, we were lucky!!

 

[vuqchu]

What a beast of a tank. You guys have some serious tank moving skills. Nice work! Looking forward to seeing the build thread.

 

[dodgerblew]

Bravo Crystal and Bogdon! Really happy it went as you had hoped and planned. Vu is right when he says y'all have serious tank moving skills

 

[m0nkie]

amazing job... kinda curious what would be the price of hiring a professional company to move this tank? does anyone know?