need advice on tank move

359 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by zergling, Aug 14, 2007

btodd43

Discussion Starter · Aug 14, 2007

Hey all,

It's time to move my 60 gallon cube-to an apartment,yikes I'm scared to death on this one:

Heavily planted, tank at one time had bulkheads in the bottom for intake and return,I've since ran hoses from the barb fittings and plugged them. So now I have these 2 hoses hanging down from under the tank, so it's not like I can just lift it off and set it on the floor without breaking something, If I leave the tank on the stand and try to move the whole thing I think it easily weighs 400# +. and afraid to use a dolly on it ( tipping to the side is scary).

Also how do you deal with the plants/live stock? The substrate is Flourite and the root stucture is completely rooted as 1 big clump, Help

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Digsy

· #2 · Aug 14, 2007

I recently moved a 58 gallon to my new house. I just removed all of the fish that I could catch and kept them in 5 gallon buckets to transport separately. I then drained all but 1" of the water and left the plants as is. I had to do a ton of replanting when I set it back up as the whole tank had shifted a lot and made quite a mess but, I didn't want the hassle of removing 50+ plants.

Removing all but 1" was probably a mistake. I should have tried to drain more as the tank was still ridiculously heavy and could have caused a leak. Thankfully, it made it ok. There's no way to move a tank of that size safely without emptying it as much as possible. Good luck!

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btodd43

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 14, 2007

Thanks Digsy,

That's what I thought,no shortcuts. It'll be fun I am sure....

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zergling

· #4 · Aug 14, 2007

Those less than 10g I basically just take the fish and water out and move it.

As for anything 10g or bigger, I break it down -- take off all plants, fish, equipment, substrate and water. Why? I have seen tanks as small as 10g even with only substrate on it start having leaks after relocation, typically the leaks come from the seams at the bottom corners. I have even seen some that cracked on the seams. I've seen this with my dad's tanks too many times when I was younger so I dare not risk having a leaking tank in my home.

A day of hard work is worth not having to worry about x gallons of water on your floor.

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