How to move a 55g?

[Fatman]

My dad wasnt exactly thrilled with the 30g idea, so he asked me to move both tanks to our small office. Its about 25 feet, but the 55g isnt exactly light lol. So I was wondering if anyone had any tips. I was thinking of emptying the water but wouldnt it still weight alot? or could 4 guys move it with 50lbs of rock and 70lbs of sand? Plus the tanks weight too.

[spookey]

hey fm i had move my 55g just me and my gf i just empty everthing thing out.... and just left the sand it still weight a little but it can be move with just 2 ppl




chrish

[dakar]

If it's on carpet try those little round 'moving men' disks and slide it where it needs to go after you've removed as much weight as possible.. I know they sound silly but they really work!

[Fatman]

Nope no carpet =/ Going to have to look for a big container too to hold all the water.

[carpenterwrasse]

i would just empty the sucker less likely to damage the tank and you'll most likely have to reaquascape it anywise with all the moveing you are going to put it through

[hummer]

well you could remove almost all the water and get two furncher scooters that thay use too move heaive things like pool tables and panio's talk too a furnisher moving co. then all pick up a corner of the stand and have some one pit the scooters under it slid it over and take it off all done ...whew .. now wasant that easy....lol...lol...hehe

good luck bud what ever you do go slow....

[melev]

Be VERY careful. 55g tanks have 3/16" glass typically, and are easy to shatter. You can use those furniture sliding disks (they are similar to teflon). You'll need to remove all LR, the canopy, as much water as possible. I'd leave the sandbed and get 4 people to move it.

If you have the room to do so, I'd consider opening the doors and running 2x4's through the stand to lift and carry it like they carried the Pharaoh in Egypt. You'll have to create specific cross braces that have the full support to hoist the tank on its STAND and not angled against the trim on the front side.

A couple of cheap $7 trashcans from Home Depot can hold all the water and LR/fish for the move. A pump with 10' tubing will quickly refill the tanks. When you pump water into the tank, pump it into a cup to avoid blasting the sand. Let the cup overflow inside the tank.

I do have a tank moving article, but odds are you won't need to worry about most of the stuff discussed:
http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

[Fatman]

Be VERY careful. 55g tanks have 3/16" glass typically, and are easy to shatter. You can use those furniture sliding disks (they are similar to teflon). You'll need to remove all LR, the canopy, as much water as possible. I'd leave the sandbed and get 4 people to move it.

If you have the room to do so, I'd consider opening the doors and running 2x4's through the stand to lift and carry it like they carried the Pharaoh in Egypt. You'll have to create specific cross braces that have the full support to hoist the tank on its STAND and not angled against the trim on the front side.

A couple of cheap $7 trashcans from Home Depot can hold all the water and LR/fish for the move. A pump with 10' tubing will quickly refill the tanks. When you pump water into the tank, pump it into a cup to avoid blasting the sand. Let the cup overflow inside the tank.

I do have a tank moving article, but odds are you won't need to worry about most of the stuff discussed:
http://www.melevsreef.com/moving_a_tank.html

Actually rather than 2x4s why not get schedule 40 (or higher) pvp pipe to run it like logs and "roll" it to the other room!? I'll let you guys know how it goes, and thanks for the tip on the glass.

[pass1over]

if you go the rolling route, just be su re to go real real real slow so it doesnt get away from you

it sounds like a big pita to remove everything from the tank to move it just 1 ro0m over, but its the safest way to do it imo

[hummer]

like passover said go slow it worked for the peramids... why not a tank

[melev]

Um... they didn't exactly move a pyramid. They moved a huge stone block at a time. An aquarium on a stand is a little more topple-prone.

Please be careful. If you have a stand that can handle the stress of rolling across PVC pipe, using schedule 40 pipe that won't crush. More is better. Have extra people on each side to make sure it doesn't fall over to either side.

[AuntKaren]

So.....How did the move go?!?!?!

[Reason]

i moved a 75 gal setup stand and all on 3/4 lenghts of pvc.

you have to remove as much wateras you need so you dont get drenched but rolling iton the pvc workedgreat.

when in doudt do as the romans do!
or was that the egyptians?

[Fatman]

So.....How did the move go?!?!?!

Have not done it yet , truthfully
A) Super worried
b) Super Busy
c) waiting for the rest of the "guys" to be available for the move.
d) Gotta buy the equipment for it.

[peregrinus]

i just moved a 55 from one side of the room to another. emptied all the water and live rock. left the sand bed. and just lifted it to its new spot. it was not as heavy as i remember the first time i moved it by my self.. lol but i had help this time..

[ramoth41]

I moved my 55 to a 125 12miles away.... EMPTY THE TANK!! water is heavy and like some one else said the glass can/will break! Then you have a HUGE mess!! We collected every bucket,box,bag, and newspaper we owned and filled um up! Fish in the buckets, rocks in the box. You arent moving that far and it is soooo not worth taking the risk. Empty the tank with a pump into a garbage can.. you can get one of those little can dollys.. make it way easy to move ... just roll it to the next room we use one for water changes. Leave just enough water to cover your sand and then it shouldn't be as bad as you might think. Just make sure you have all your "tools" I forgot the stupid net! Had to make a run to the Drug Mart and they didn't have one??!! Had to improvise (no lfs near me) It took us 8 hours to move ours!! I don't think I'll do that anytime soon!! (Oh and it was a 2nd floor walk-up apt!)

[Fatman]

It will probably be happening this weekend. Plans changed after the room they wanted me to put it in reached 90+ degrees one day with the A/C off. So Im moving it to a room with 2 windows and will put a mini a/c in it.

[hummer]

good luck buddy on the move ....take pics.....


90 degrees ...aw it been frezzing here