Moving a tank

[ebosshard]

Have to move my 220gallon tank. Know i need to take out water and live rock. can I get away with leaving the 100lb of sand in the tank? 220 gallon, glass tank.

thanks!

 

[ChrisRD]

IMO, if you could move the tank with the sand in it the tank would probably hold-up fine, but keep in mind that 100 pounds of wet sand is going to weigh a lot more than 100 pounds. Considering how heavy the tank is already, I couldn't imagine adding a couple of hundred pounds more to that. I'd plan on taking it out.

 

[ebosshard]

my real concern is the risk of the tank breaking when we move it, sounds like that is not an issue.

In terms of moving the sand, i assume i need to keep it wet (there is a bunch of live sand in there).

i am planning on moving the water into two big garbage cans and keeping powerheads and heaters in those garbage cans so the water stays in good shape. can I get away with the sand sitting in room temp water (trying to keep the garbage can water clear rather than sift the sand through it)

thanks

 

[ChrisRD]

My guess is that the tank weighs well over 400 pounds empty. With that additional water and sand in there you may be closer to 600 pounds. I would take it out.

Besides, IMO you'd be better off getting new sand and just taking some old sand to seed the new bed with. JMO...

 

[ChrisRD]

Besides the difficulty of dealing with all that excess weight, a tank that has sand/water in it becomes much more unweildy as you can't really tilt it to get it up/down stairs, around corners, etc.

 

[ebosshard]

Tank is three weeks old. with that the case, i assume i am ok to keep the sand as i described?

 

[Anonymous]

Tank is three weeks old. with that the case, i assume i am ok to keep the sand as i described?

3 weeks and you're already moving it....that's not good....if you do take the sand out be sure to return it to the beach and release it to the wild...

 

[Len]

Abu, I don't think he needs a lecture. I'm sure he has his reasons why the tank needs to be moved. And returning sand to the beach is not a good idea. It's never a good idea to dispose of live material in areas that it wasn't collected from.

If it were me, I'd remove all the sand and place it in a bucket with some saltwater, covered so the sand stays moist. I wouldn't move the tank with sand in it; the tank will likely be ok if it's well-built, but it's not something I'd chance with such a large tank. Besides, it might be too heavy to move with wet sand in there anyhow

 

[Dubge]

I would think if you had enough help and you didn't have to go up/down stairs or around and sharp corners you could do it! Are you talking a move from one side of the room to the other or from one house to another? Why not get another barrel to put the sand in with some water/heater/air
I almost had to move my 75G just after I set it up and remembering what it was like to carry that thing up a large flight of stairs alone when it was empty, I was definatly not looking fwd to it.......thank God I didn't have to

Ray

 

[ChrisRD]

Tank is three weeks old. with that the case, i assume i am ok to keep the sand as i described?

If the sand has only been in there three weeks I'd save yourself the trouble and take it out. It's not a mature sandbed anyway. I'd do as Len recommended and just keep it in a bucket(s) submerged in old tank water during the move.

Of course, as pointed out above, if you're just moving the tank to another room on the same floor or a different part of the room, maybe it's not worth the trouble of removing the sand (if the total weight is manageable). If you're moving the tank out of the building, I'd just take the sand out - it's going to be a LOT easier to move that way.

HTH

 

[Carpentersreef]

If there's a bunch of guys lifting it, I would be concerned about the flex in the glass and joints. I would take it out to be safe.

Mitch

 

[ebosshard]

thanks for all the replies here.

To answer the question, my pump came unplugged on day 2 and i sent 50 gallons of water onto the carpet the tank sits on. I have now made the change to avoid this in the future (shortened the pipe that returns water to the tank from the sump). Now i have a wife who smells mildew on the carpet under the tank. gonna move it, put down tile, and then move it back.

Gonna put the sand in a bucket with water from the tank. have the manpower to move the tank but dont want to risk a seem breaking when we move it.

will keep you posted on how i do with this move

thanks again for the advice

 

[ChrisRD]

will keep you posted on how i do with this move

Yeah - let us know how it goes.