The Great Apartment Saga

[pica_nuttalli]

Ok, so after a significant sequence of potential roomates flaking out on me, I have been forced to relocate out of my spacious 2-bdrm apartment! *scream of terror*

so I currently have a 60g, a 20g, a 10g and a 2.5g--> all of which will need to be moved along with all of their fishy contents. this isn't 100% negative; i've been wanting to significantly alter the 60g setup and upgrade the filter anyways. but this is DEFINITELY going to be daunting, as several of my fish can/will severely damage each other if put into contact. (thank goodness for breather bags.)

however, part of my problem is going to be finding a new place to live. i found out today that yes, i will be let out of my current lease and i need to be out by August 5th. that gives me a little over a month to find a new 1-bdrm place. so far, all the ones that i have looked at might or might not have room for a 4ft, a 2ft, and a 1.5ft tank. but i'm not done yet!

however one bit of good news: all the realtors that i've talked to (except for one) said that fish are exempt from their "no pets" policies. as one of them put it, "fish are ok; fish aren't loud and they don't make a mess". obviously they've never had 4 HOBs running simultaneously or forgotten about a siphon!

 

[cometcattle]

Good luck!

Is this your 1st time moving the 60g?

I moved into a new 1br apartment about 2 months ago. I moved a 55g, 29g, 20g, 4 x 10g, 5.5g and my dog. I moved the small tanks (10g or <) a week before anything else. When talking to leasing companies, I just sort of mentioned I had "a couple of very small aquariums" as an afterthought. It was the dog that severely limited my choices. Most of the large leasing companies didn't really care about the aquariums.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

yeah, first time since i bought it i'll be sure to be doing some reading up before attempting it... but i won't be moving it with anything important left inside so if it breaks, it breaks. i'll just have to get a new glass box.

 

[jacblades]

oh come on-you can always find room for tanks!
just get rid of your fridge, washer, dryer, etc... you get the idea...
in my last apartment i pretty much chose tanks over furniture...
who needs a sofa when youve got a 60g?
i cant believe there are actually apartments still available in auburn amonth or so before the school year. or are you back in bham?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

nope, totally in Auburn. there's a mix of subleases and empty rentals, but they aren't the nice new places and they generally aren't in the premium locations.

right now, i'm planning on ditching my TV and most of my fun books. my bf seems to think that he wants a tank, so i'll probably be sending the 10g to live with him on a near-permanent basis (minus pufferfish, of course i'll probably add a badis or two instead).

i don't doubt that i can find a place for the 60g, its actually the 20g that i'm more concerned about. it's kind of a funny size, really, when it comes to integrating it into a living space. its not really big enough to be secure as a stand-alone piece like the 60g is and its too heavy to just plop on some furniture like the 10g.

ok, now this part is delicious. you remember how my lease runs out on the 5th? looks like my rental company is ahead of the game, because no one else is starting leases until the 12th.

can we say "cannister filter and 40 gallon storage tub"?

 

[SamUK]

if a 60 is all you have to worry about then youve got no trouble.


i have to move my 180G tank and before i even think, do i have space.

i need to think, will it fall through the floor?!?


wish i could take my concrete floor with me lol.

 

[CFC]

Youve got it easy, i moved house in February and had 18, yes 18 tanks to move including 3 over 150 gallons each! The move was only a mile down the road but took 4 days to complete with 3 of those being entirely dedicated to moving fish and tanks and requiring a team of 6 people to complete. Everything went smoothly and no fish died as a direct cause of the move despite the previous owners being 7 hours late in vacating and handing over the keys, although we did crack the base of the 200g in transit

 

[SamUK]

well i knew he had it easy and thats all that counts lol.


good effort by the way.

 

[McMurray]

good luck on the rehousing

 

[pica_nuttalli]

lol, i know it's not a big issue compared to someof you guys... but its just so unexpected is all! i'd planned on spending a whole additional year in my apartment and then selling off all the large equipment at the end of it. (i like simple solutions ) i'm mostly keeping this journal because (1) it might provide some life lessons to someone else in my predicament and (2) none of my other friends really want to hear "gah! where can i put my tanks?!?"

what sort of packing did you do for your larger tanks, CFC (or anyone else who's done this)? and did you use a moving van, a lorry, or just some poor sob's car?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good luck

we have to move Ians tanks in in a few months, thats a 3g and a 60g, cos of the space in the living room it means also moving two 30g tanks and all my living room furniture, that will be erm interesting to say the least. thankfully he currently lives with his parents so no deadline to be out of anything like that, then next yr we are gonna be looking and hopefully moving in the summer so thats 6 tanks to move. Were planning on keeping my little house on and renting it out though so hopefully we can take possesion of the new place and move the tanks across slowly, one a day or something. We will need a van for the big tank as it wont fit in the car, but the rest should go in Ians volvo so itll be lots of trips back and forwards and roping in as many helpers as we can.

 

[CFC]

We moved all the tanks in a rented van and just placed them onto a sheet of polystyrene to protect the base and packed old bedding sheets down the sides to stop them chipping against the side of the van.

 

[camshaft]

pica, im in huntsville. if theres something i can do to help lemme know. as in, take your tanks off of your hands so you dont have to worry about em

 

[Synirr]

I too am moving soon, moving into the new place August 5th to be exact, so it looks like we're in the same boat... tank list in profile

My potential roommates all bailed on me too, but I got a special look-and-lease deal on my apartment, so I basically got a 2 bedroom for $50 more than the price of your average 1 bedroom in the area (and a great looking complex too). It's still going to take some creativity to cram the tanks in I think, that's what the spare bedroom will be for... and we got me a place on the 1st floor by telling them my dad is disabled and can't climb stairs when he comes to visit (he does have a bad knee)

 

[aloaring]

And i thought i had problems moving my 15gallon and 5 gallon. My only worry is that I am moving to somewhere thats over 4 hours away. So i'm giving away some of my more common fish and just taking the rarer ones and my local LFS can supply with bags and a box and said they'll put oxygen in the bags. Still got to find a flat that will take a budgie and i'm only goign to have a day and a half to look around for a place !!