moving a reef tank?

[Mpls reefer]

i have to move my 75 gal reef tank and was wondering if anyone has moved a tank before?
some people i've talked to have sudjusted to remove all the corals, remove fish, drain the tank, and leave all the sand and live rock in it, my lfs has done it that way with a 90 gal and said it can be done,
so i'm wondering if there are any other ideas out there
what ive thought of was to try and roll the tank on steel pipe across the floor, i only have to go about 6'.
thanks for all the help.

 

[Anonymous]

Doable, and I did it myself. You do need to remove most of the water and critter during the move, and you may need to construct a custom dolly for the purpose, as well as a jack or two to put the tank on the dolly.. If it is glass tank, it is more difficult.

 

[bleedingthought]

6 feet is not much. I say drain some of the water in the tank (maybe half of it) into a large container and drain your sump also into it. Lift up one side (might need about 3 strong people) and slide the pipe in then do the other side. Roll it and reverse.

I've never had to 'move' my tank but I'll have to in a couple of weeks/months and that is the strategy I plan to use. I've had to "slide" one side of my tank out about 2 feet to get to a phone jack in the wall behind it and 2 people helping me made it a breeze. 8)

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[Mpls reefer]

thats what i was thinking as well, i talked to the lfs and they sudgested to take all the rock out of the tank?
would you do that or leave it in there?
is there a possible of flexing the tank by lifting it up about 1-2" ? with it siting on the stand? the tank is a (oceanic)
the stand is made of 2x4s
my brother also thought of these slide blocks that slide heavy furniture , suposto anyway, on hard surfaces, i have hard wood floors. just a thought

 

[Mpls reefer]

6 feet is not much. I say drain some of the water in the tank (maybe half of it) into a large container and drain your sump also into it. Lift up one side (might need about 3 strong people) and slide the pipe in then do the other side. Roll it and reverse.

I've never had to 'move' my tank but I'll have to in a couple of weeks/months and that is the strategy I plan to use. I've had to "slide" one side of my tank out about 2 feet to get to a phone jack in the wall behind it and 2 people helping me made it a breeze. 8)

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

when you say moving the tank out from the wall...did you drain the tank ?? how much water did you leave in the tank ??

thank you for all the help

 

[bleedingthought]

When I just moved it away from the wall I didn't take anything out at all.

I also have an oceanic 75. And my stand is also 2x4s. But when moving it sideways, I would definitely drain a good bit of the water and just be prepared to pump it back in. Drain all of the sump first, then half of the tank water. Leave the rock and fish in and see how it goes. Be prepared and have at least 5-6 people with you to do this.

 

[Mpls reefer]

i was planning to drain the water out of the sump then out of the tank and taking the fish out as well, with leaving the rock in i wasen't sure of because of it going all over the place in the tank ?
what do you think everything would weigh with the tank , sand , stand , and about 135-140 lbs of rock.
thanks

 

[Mpls reefer]

When I just moved it away from the wall I didn't take anything out at all.

I also have an oceanic 75. And my stand is also 2x4s. But when moving it sideways, I would definitely drain a good bit of the water and just be prepared to pump it back in. Drain all of the sump first, then half of the tank water. Leave the rock and fish in and see how it goes. Be prepared and have at least 5-6 people with you to do this.

what do you mean by being prepared to pump the water back into the tank ??
why would you have to do that?

 

[Anonymous]

Just move your house 6 feet in the opposite direction

 

[Mpls reefer]

now that was a good one!!

 

[Anonymous]

If you live in California, the earthquake will move it for you.

 

[bleedingthought]

It probably weighs around 1200 pounds total. Be prepared to pump the water back into the tank from the container/trash can to get things up and running again as soon as possible.

 

[Mpls reefer]

how long would you say i could keep the corals and everything out of the tank, i hoping it wouldn't take too long, i would think i could have a couple hours too be ok?
thanks

 

[bleedingthought]

I'd keep a heater in the container that everything is in along with a powerhead or two for oxygen. If done like that, you could take as long as you wanted, really. But if you only took a good portion of the water out (the water is the heaviest) and left the rock/corals sticking out of the water then you'd have to put the water back in fairly quickly, kind of like doing a water change.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

A lot of LFS will have styrofoam boxes you could use, otherwise you can get styro coolers for cheap at walmart.

 

[Anonymous]

it should only take an hour to move and setup.

Drain as much water as you can out of the tank when you move it.

Corals and fish go into rubbermaid bins. Rock into another (any rocks that will fall over.

Move tank,

Put in rocks.
put in water, corals, fish.

B

 

[Mpls reefer]

kool, thanks for all the ideas, i'm planning to move the tank this weekend , hoping that everything goes well.

 

[bleedingthought]

kool, thanks for all the ideas, i'm planning to move the tank this weekend , hoping that everything goes well.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Mpls reefer]

i sure will....

 

[Mpls reefer]

I MOVED THE TANK!!!!
it was a succesful move, it took all about 1hour to move,
the way i moved the tank was to take all the corals out, take out most rock that would fall, then drain the tank to about 6" left in the bottom of water, i was then able to lift the one side of the tank up to have my brother put some 5/8" pipe in 5 sections under the stand, after that i moved the tank across the floor, it worked very very well, not a problem.
after that i then set the tank back up and replaced corals and rock all took about 3 hours to completely do.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND IDEAS!!!!!