Moving a tank down the hallway

[Mikemilly245]

Hello all, I’ve seen numerous threads about transferring tanks long distance, but was wondering if there’s an easy way to do a move inside the same house.

I need to move my 16 gallon Biocube into a different bedroom on the same floor. Is there a practical way to do this? I immediately thought of just removing a lot of tank water to reduce weight and carrying it down the hall then adding water when it’s in place, but worried about breaking or cracking the bottom glass. Is this even something to worry about? Or do I really need to completely drain it and put everything in buckets? That’s last case scenario in my eyes….

 

[brandon429]

You'd begin a disassembly cleaning run but set it back up in the new place

You wouldn't skip the specialized cleaning run because to skip it makes your tank have a worse outcome vs the ideal one. Sloshing any degree of old waste from the sandbed around in the tank isn't beneficial even if your stuff looks the same afterwards

Getting assembled in the new place completely clean is refreshing in all cases, allows for strong initial feeding in all cases which really helps with coral mass building after the assembly

 

[Cell]

Small tanks are easy peasy. Drain it. Walk it down the hall. Refill it. Try not to disturb your sandbed if you have one.

 

[Cell]

Brandon's method is safest, I just don't think the risk is all that great and easy to mitigate with such a small volume of water. I had to move my 10G tank several times when we got carpet and didn't worry about replacing the sandbed.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Just remove live stock, drain the water and move it. Done and Done. No need for anything fancy.

Keeping the sand in is fine, but dont make the glass support water weight as well while moving, 1 or 2 inches of water is fine, but not half full or anything.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all, I’ve seen numerous threads about transferring tanks long distance, but was wondering if there’s an easy way to do a move inside the same house.

I need to move my 16 gallon Biocube into a different bedroom on the same floor. Is there a practical way to do this? I immediately thought of just removing a lot of tank water to reduce weight and carrying it down the hall then adding water when it’s in place, but worried about breaking or cracking the bottom glass. Is this even something to worry about? Or do I really need to completely drain it and put everything in buckets? That’s last case scenario in my eyes….

Something like this I drain down to 1/3 level and slowly carry it or roll on a cart- salvage some of the water and top with new ..... like doing a major water change
Ive seen one person place a 29g on plywood and he and his buddy carried it like a stretcher (LOL). but it kept the tank and bottom stable

 

[brandon429]

the truth is most nanos are not true dsb, oxygen has permeated their layers easily compared to a 200 gallon setup with 100 lbs of sand

and made that resulting waste less impactful via oxygenation/digestion by aerobes in the sand on waste

those present less safely when unclean moved

if a nano reefer doesn't take time to rinse they skip cycle transfer anyway 99% of the time or better, but they're +1 increment aged instantly towards a little more outbreaks and a little quicker overall eutrophication vs the prior sinked system before disturbance of the waste.

I know if aquarists can be talked into rip cleaning we'll have more examples and they'll start clean every time.

but lets say a reefer was very controlled in their bioloading and feeding

and they added pods in a unique way above most efforts, perhaps even actual sandbed organisms that can be bought nowadays/worm bundles etc such as garf grunge used to be

and they had special grain sizes or mixes or zones in the bed as a strategic manner

or say they had a plenum going like our friend in the recent tank build posts, we wouldn't rip clean a plenum. those are instances we wouldn't move them

for res publica's reef we can get such good mileage off a rip clean it's fun to sell them all the time. they've just been sitting there catching waste this whole time, let's flush them out via reef dentistry and send that mouth to the other side of the home shining.

 

[Tim'sReef]

Something like this I drain down to 1/3 level and slowly carry it or roll on a cart- salvage some of the water and top with new ..... like doing a major water change
Ive seen one person place a 29g on plywood and he and his buddy carried it like a stretcher (LOL). but it kept the tank and bottom stable

I did exactly the same with a buddy of mine and my max nano. Filled it back up and put the fish back inside. Took less than 3 hours in all.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I did exactly the same with a buddy of mine and my max nano. Filled it back up and put the fish back inside. Took less than 3 hours in all.

And bacteria is still alive

 

[Tim'sReef]

And bacteria is still alive

Yes rocks where only out of water for 10 min max. Sand left undisturbed and left a little bit of water for the crab and shrimp. My awfully cable management at the time was the hard part.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Yes rocks where only out of water for 10 min max. Sand left undisturbed and left a little bit of water for the crab and shrimp. My awfully cable management at the time was the hard part.

This is the way LOL. Not a whole ordeal of a rip clean because thats the only way it can be done...

 

[Mikemilly245]

Something like this I drain down to 1/3 level and slowly carry it or roll on a cart- salvage some of the water and top with new ..... like doing a major water change
Ive seen one person place a 29g on plywood and he and his buddy carried it like a stretcher (LOL). but it kept the tank and bottom stable

Yeah I’d love to do something like this if I could, plywood on a rolling cart is a good idea. Guess all I’m worried about is the coral I have epoxied higher up on the rocks that would be out of water for a little. One is a Kenya (that will be fine lol) and the other is a torch. You think I should take that out or will it be fine out of water for a short period of time ?

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Drain it down to the sand, pick it up, move it and refill. It's a 16g tank, not a lot of rocket science on this one required. All you need is a few cheap 5 gal buckets to hold water/livestock while you move it.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah I’d love to do something like this if I could, plywood on a rolling cart is a good idea. Guess all I’m worried about is the coral I have epoxied higher up on the rocks that would be out of water for a little. One is a Kenya (that will be fine lol) and the other is a torch. You think I should take that out or will it be fine out of water for a short period of time ?

Like with tides, coral out of water several minutes will be fine but best to take down and place back once tank refilled

 

[Signalhead]

This is how I moved my 60 gallons cube:
Got a new 180 gallons
Cycle it
New fish
Relocate old fish into new tank
New purse for wife and life is good again.