Moovin'

[eeyrg]

how would one go about moving a 58 gallon tank?
and if you say carefully, i'm going to cry. honest.
here's how i'm thinking of doing this. please let me know what needs to be changed or modified:
1) remove all LR and place in 5 gallon buckets w/lids and some water
2) drain tank (use water from tank for buckets containing rocks
3) disassemble filter/skimmer/etc.
4 ) Transport tank (blanket wrapped) with sand and enough water to cover sand.
5) re-assemble when at new place, add rock, add water, pray.
Is it feasible to move the tank with that much sand and some water? Or is this a bad idea?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[pa reef pig]

Probably a bad idea to try to move tank with sand and water still in it. It may crack the bottom. That would suck big time! When I moved my 75 gallon, I removed everything, sand and all, and reassembled when I gto it to where I wanted it. Everything turned out ok.

 

[pa reef pig]

p.s. Praying doesnt hurt either

 

[worm]

that is pretty much how i moved my 55 gallon, E. one thing you might want to do is have freshly made water waiting at the place where you are moving to. what's going to happen is, you will have buckets with just water that you will be filling your tank with. Then the rock and so forth. but in order to get your tank cycling (pumps running, skimmer, etc.) you will more than likely have to add water that you have made. Which will mean you will discard the left over water that held your fish/inverts/coral/etc. it's what i did and it worked pretty well. I am sure others can give you examples of how they moved theirs.
But honestly .........carefully works too

 

[eeyrg]

Originally posted by PA reef pig
Probably a bad idea to try to move tank with sand and water still in it. It may crack the bottom. That would suck big time! When I moved my 75 gallon, I removed everything, sand and all, and reassembled when I gto it to where I wanted it. Everything turned out ok.
Thanks. Did you leave water in with the sand, or did you just scoop it out?
I know the tank will cycle again, but I'm hoping to preserve some of the life in the sand bed, if I can.
But good point re: the tank cracking. That would certainly make me very sad.

 

[pa reef pig]

I bought a large rubbermaid tub (25 gal?) from walmart and just scooped the sand into that. I do think I had some water in with the sand. Maybe enough just to cover it. HEAVY!
This also allowed me to add a little more sand when I got the tank to its destination. I wanted a deeper sand bed anyway.

 

[overanalyzer]

Never moved a salt water tank but my moving expereince with a fresh water tank (using sand/mud mixture) was a nightmare. 29 gallon tank cracked and I only had a very small amount of water and silt in the bottom .... it was a mess (messy tank to begin with) - but I would recommend NOT moving the tank with anything in it!