Temporarily moving a tank

[rdd1952]

We are going to have to put down new flooring in the kitchen/dining room area. Unfortunately, the 75 gallon sits on that flooring so it will have to be moved long enough to put the floor down. I assume this will only be one day but could possibly be 2. This is a heavily planted tank so I not only have fish to consider but also plants.

I have a 16 gallon tub that I have used to soak driftwood that I could move the fish (in signature, angels are small, about 1.5") to temporarily. This tank has canister filters so I will have to put a temporary filter on that tub. I am currently running two filters on my 29 gallon. I could take one off for a day. I ran the other filter on that tank by itself for 4 months so it can definitely handle it. I had thought of draining the water from the tank and then getting 3 more people to move the entire tank - gravel, plants and all. I know I put six 20 lb bags of gravel and sand in it so I will have the weight of the tank plus 120 lb of gravel plus what ever water is still in the tank. That's probably still going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 lb.

I think all this will work but welcome suggestions. I'm sure I'm not the first one to do something like this. The main question I have is should I save the water (or most of it) that I take out of the tank, refill the tank after moving it and move the fish back in just incase it takes 2 days? Using the water just removed would only be so that the fish would be going back into the same water rather than having to be acclimated to new water. I realize there isn't any bacteria in the water. If I don't fill the tank back up, all the benefitial bacteria on the plants and tank walls will dry out and die. May not be the best thing for my plants either if the tops dry out.

As I said, I am looking for suggestions or soneone else's experiences. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[canarsie11]

It seems you have a good plan, that is half of the battle....

However, with the best plans this process will still be a bitc*, Good Luck to you.

Few months back I had to move a 75 gallon tank, it was hell, but good experience Isuppose

 

[leafs]

I'm going to have to do the same thing with my tank. I have a 30 gal with a lot of plants. I'm going to put all the fish in a big bucket with the filter running, empty all but an inch or so of water, move the tank (if it's not too heavy) fill it up and then put the fish back in. I was thinking of using the same water to fill it up again, but I think I'm going to just use new water. If the water that you'll be emptying is clean, then I don't see a problem using fresh water to fill it up again. All I know is that it's a pain in the butt.

 

[rdd1952]

I was thinking of using the same water to fill it up again, but I think I'm going to just use new water. If the water that you'll be emptying is clean, then I don't see a problem using fresh water to fill it up again.

The only thing I'm concerned about with using fresh water is that my tank pH is about .2 to .4 lower than my tap water (because of CO2 and driftwood) so I don't want to have to acclimate them during the change over. Just the experience in itself will be stressful enough for them without having to be bagged and acclimated. The really fun part is going to be how to net and catch them, especially SAEs and corys, in a heavily planted tank with lots of places to hide.

 

[leafs]

I see what your saying. I'm not sure about the pH, but do you think it would make a big difference? I never mess around with the ph in my tank so I'm not sure. I tried to catch my SAE's once to try to move them to another tank, but I got so fed up I just left them in. When my tank is almost empty it should be a lot easier to catch them. Good luck with the move.

 

[leafs]

rdd1952, this is a little off topic but are you putting down hardwood flooring? I'm changing my floors from carpet to hardwood. I have a wooden stand for my tank. Do you know if I should put anything under the stand to protect the floors?

 

[rdd1952]

It is linoleum (sp?) now. I'm not sure whether we will go with hardwook or not. That's up to my wife but I think she is leaning that way. Once the flooring is down, I dont think you would have to put anything under the stand. The weight from a wood stand will be pretty well distributed and it's not something that you will be sliding around to scratch the floor. I've heard of some people putting a plywood pad under the the stands that have legs rather than a cabinet type but I think that was mainly to help reinforce the floor and spread the weight rather than to protect the floor.

 

[leafs]

Thanks. My wife will kill me if I damage the new floors. It will definitely be more stable than carpet. The weight of the tank and stand shouldn't be a problem.

 

[itZme]

Hi,
My experience is with a much smaller tank but may help you out. I did everything as usual as if I were doing a 30% water change/ gravel vac. Then after removing the dirty water (I was using buckets for this one) I drained all the water into the buckets until there was barely enough water to cover the fish (in my case 3" or so). Then had help to move the tank (carefully as a sudden drop would cause all that gravel to break the bottom glass)
After moving the stand/tank I used the water from the tank first then just topped off as in a usual water change. This was the least stressful method I could devise for my situation. Of course yours would still weigh in the hundreds of pounds as you said so a few strong ppl would be needed. Sounds like you should have a "tank moving party" where you invite a few friends over for beer and then say "Hey while I have you guys here..."
Hehehe
Good luck with your move/ new floors

--itZme

 

[rdd1952]

Sounds like you should have a "tank moving party" where you invite a few friends over for beer and then say "Hey while I have you guys here..."
Hehehe
Good luck with your move/ new floors

--itZme

It might be a tank moving/floor laying party as i will end up being the "installet" of the new flooring too. Thanks for the advise. I might consider doing that with the fish rather than putting them in the tub. The weight of the water would be the issue. If my calculations are correct, 3" of water is about 11.25 gallon or a little les than 100 lb. Thanks for the advice.