Moving a Large Established Tank

[nerofiend]

Im not sure if this is the right area to post this so if not please move this mods.

I am purchasing a very large tank from a friend of a friend and its absolutly HUGE. It was custom built for him about 6 years ago and measures 125" L, 48" H, 24" W, From my calculations its about 620 Gallons.

The thing is made from 3/4" Tempered glass and a custom stand. He is selling it to me for 150 US$ as long as I come pick it up and move it. My main problems im sure are evident. How the hell do I move something this big? My second problem is even worse, its an already well established Saltwater tank with all the pumps, skimmers, Live Rock, Corals, and fish.

I know its a killer deal and I cant turn this down but does anyone have any suggestions on how to move this beast and not kill everything in it?

Im only having to move it about 30 mins from its current location to mine but im at a complete loss on how to achive all of this without harming the life in it. Im sure this thing weighs about 300 pounds in glass alone. That in itself will be a project.

Got a few tree trunks(Oddly large friends)to help me move it but now my main problem is whats inside. Im scared of losing the fish and other things that are alive in there.

Here is the list that the guy gave me that it is stocked with...

4 Hard Tube Coco Worms
2 Lavendar Mushroom Corals
1 Lime Zoos
1 Super Green Zoos
1 Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
1 Green Carpet Anemone
2 Orange Derasa Clams
1 Teddy Bear Crab
3 Sea Apples
12 Feather Dusters
1 Orange Frilly Sponge
1 Orange Serpent Starfish
2 Blue Urchin
75 Pounds Fijii Live Rock
2 Purple Queen Anthias
2 Blackcap Basslet
1 Midas Blenny
1 Blue Stripe Clownfish
2 Jewel Damsel
1 Chameleon Tilefish
1 Spike Fin Goby
1 Foxface
1 Black Tang
1 Mystery Wrasse

From what he has told me several of these species are very rare and really expensive and some(Think he said the foxface) are dangerous cause of poison.

I would really hate to lose any of them cause he has spent well over 5,000 in just the fish and stuff alone.

Sometimes divorces are benificial lol.

[Ninong]

Hi nerofiend,




Congratulations on your good fortune! That's a very good deal as far as the price is concerned.

You're accurate on the volume of the tank but I'm afraid you're VERY, VERY LOW on your weight estimate. If the tank is made of 3/4" glass, it weighs approximately 2,000 lbs give or take a hundred. The owner probably knows what if weighs.

You can rent portable jacks to move something like that but the safest method is to hire moving guys with the proper experience and equipment. If it's in a location that is accessible to a forklift (which it probably isn't), then you could borrow or rent a forklift to move it onto a flatbed truck to haul it to your home and then unload it.

Obviously it weighs too much to be carried manually by you and your friends. There are several threads on this and other boards with detailed photos of guys moving large glass tank but usually the cutoff is around 400 gallons or so. I'll look for a thread for you of someone who purchased a 415-gal glass tank made with 3/4" glass (122"L x 28"W x 28"H). If I remember correctly, his tank weighed about 1400 lbs. I think he used 10 guys to move it. Here's Nathan's home page with pics of his tank and the move into his house.

There are so many things that you will need to know before you can even begin to move a tank of that size, along with all of the live rock and livestock -- both corals and fish. If you have no experience in the hobby, you will really need to get some help from someone locally who can keep you on the right path.

Obviously, the tank must be moved dry -- completely empty with no water and no sand at all. All of the live rock must be moved into temporary holding tubs (cheapy plastic tubs that you can buy at Home Depot, etc.). These are usually pretty cheap (like $7 each) and sold for garden supplies, etc. They usually have handles on two sides and are about 28" diameter by about 16" deep, but anything suitable will do.

You will want to save as much of the "old" water from the tank as possible to use again when you set up the tank. You will also need a lot of new freshly made-up saltwater. This should be made up at least 24-48 hours in advance. You will need something to hold perhaps 300-400 gallons of freshly made up saltwater.

You will need to remove all of the fish and place them in some sort of temporary holding container while you move the tank and equipment and set it up in the new location. That could take you a good two or three days, assuming you have experienced help. I don't think it can be done in anything less than 48 hours. And that's assuming you have decent help.

The corals will all have to be kept in containers, too. In fact, everything inside the aquarium has to come out and be housed temporarily in holding containers. You have to make sure these containers are adequately aerated. At this time of year, you probably will be OK as far as water temperature is concerned. If you were doing this in the winter time, you would need heaters.

It is almost always best to start over with new sand for the sand bed. You may want to save the top 1" layer of the old sandbed but usually it's a good idea to discard the rest. I'm assuming the aquarium has a sandbed right now???

After setting up the tank in its new location, you will need to add the sandbed and begin to add the live rock. You will want to use as much of the old tankwater as possible. The goal here would be to use about half old tankwater and half freshly made up saltwater. Then you will need to run all the equipment to make sure everything is working properly and you have no leaks anywhere.

How quickly you add the livestock is a judgement call that can only be made by someone on the scene. A lot depends on how things go. You may have to wait 24 hours or so after starting up the tank before adding the livestock - corals, fish, etc.

The bottom line is that you should not attempt this move unless you can get at least one or two experienced local hobbyists to help out. You will need a lot more manpower than that but you need people who know what they're doing to help you avoid mistakes.

Good luck!



P.S. -- In case you're wondering, 600 gallons of saltwater weighs approximately 5,100 lbs.

P.P.S. -- Some guys have set up one or two inflatable children's wading pools to use as temporary quarters for their live rock, corals and livestock during a large tank move. This is usually done in the garage, for obvious reasons.

[Ninong]

OK, I overlooked the reference to the Foxface Rabbitfish. Yes, their dorsal, anal and pectoral spines are venomous. I love them and think they're great herbivores. They're not aggressive and won't go after you but you have to be extremely careful that you not come into contact with their spines.

Rabbitfish (genus Siganus) fins contain multiple spiny processes, all associated with venom glands. To be exact, there are 13 dorsal, 4 pelvic, and 7 anal spines. The spines have two deep grooves that contain venom glands along the distal third of the spine. The spine is covered with an epidermal layer that is ruptured by trauma, releasing the venom in much the same way as with stingrays. The pain is sudden and severe lasting for hours to several days and producing considerable distress. Like surgeonfish, the wound swells, becomes numb and pain radiates to the regional lymph nodes. The immediate area can become cyanotic with a surrounding red area.

P.S. -- The black tang is the most expensive of the fish in there. As far as the three sea apples are concerned, keep those separate. The stress of moving them could cause problems. In fact, I'm not a fan of keeping these in a tank with fish at all. If they get stressed and puke their guts, it could wipe out your entire tank, especially the fish. In my opinion, they are not worth the risk.

P.P.S. -- Make sure you don't touch the urchins either.

[Ninong]

Is that all the live rock he has in that 625-gal tank? Just 75 lbs???

If that's correct, you will need a lot more live rock. I don't see how you can get by with anything less than about 350 lbs for a 625-gal tank.

P.S. -- Make sure the sponge is not exposed to any air at all. And keep those two anemones separated.

[weez1959]

Wow, and I thought switching my tiny 75 to a 90 was a big job!
Looks like Ninong has everything really well covered except one little detail, I'm pretty sure you can't set this monster up unless it's on a concrete floor, or can you?

[FireEater]

Just remember to take things slow and meticulously. Set up all the holding tanks you will need first. This includes the water, salt, pumps and such. Make sure the holding tanks are set up for the long haul. You do not ever know what might delay things or how long it will take to tear it all down and re-set it all back up.

I wouldn't attempt to move any livestock until this is down. If all he has is 75lbs of live rock, that will make the move easier on the livestock. I would put that small amount of rock into a large holding tank for the fish. It will be less stressful on them while you set up everything.

If you do end up adding the amount of live rock Ninong suggests, you need to take into account the cycle period. Especially since you will need to add lot's of new sand.

If you order the rock from TampaBaySaltwater.com then you will not have to worry to much about cycle time plus the curing of the rock. They dive in the morning to collect your rock, pack it up and ship it out to you within hours. So the rock can go directly into your tank.

If you wait to add rock later,Tampa Bay will still be a great choice because you can add it directly to your tank without curing it. This is also good if you buy and add a little at a time.

Like I said, try not to rush the move. With a tank that size, you definitely want to set it up right the first time. The good thing is if your friend is not in a big hurry to get it moved, you can sit down and plan everything out from the beginning to the end and not be rushed.

Good luck and keep up posted.

[Ninong]

In reviewing your livestock list, I see that there are no stony corals at all, just some zoanthids and mushrooms. This will make the move a whole lot easier than if you had hundreds of stony corals to deal with but it will still be a heck of a lot of work.

Naturally you will need to test your freshly made up saltwater to make sure that it is as close to the old tankwater as possible, especially in pH, salinity and temperature. Even if you manage to save at least half of the old water, you will still want to avoid having any drastic differences between the old water and the new water.

That size tank is usually used for fish-only or fish-only-with-live-rock (FOWLR) aquariums. One of the reasons it's difficult as a reef tank is the 48" height. The minimum adequate lighting for a tank that tall would be at least four or five 400w metal halide lamps.

Be sure to check with a structural engineer to make sure you can handle the weight of this tank and all its equipment in its new location. You're looking at approximately 400 lbs/sq. ft. because of the relatively small footprint due to the tall height of the tank. Total weight of the tank, stand, equipment, water, live rock, etc., will exceed 9,000 lbs.

[nerofiend]

Thanks for all your advise, Its a lot of help so far. I go to pick it up tomorrow and have/am setting up 4 refuge tanks at my house to tranfer things into when I get it here. Got 15 plastic totes to use to bring everything home in and rented a large moving truck with a lift gate to make things a little easier.

Im hoping that I can do this in a smooth enough manner that nothing dies from shock but im only a novice at saltwater and only have a small 55g Fish only SW tank. I cant believe the size of this tank its so HUGE.

From my math I should be keeping about 225 Gallons of the old water for transport and use when i set it back up. As far as the substrait goes unfortunatly its Live Sand and I dont think I will be able to keep it all or transport it. I dont know for sure how much is in it but with about a 4 inch layer im sure its a lot and i dont think ill be able to transport all that.

Thanks for the help so far, its very much appreiciated

[weez1959]

Keep us posted on your progress, we're all nosey when it comes to setting up tanks

[FireEater]

What you could possibly do with the sand is do as Ninong and save the top layer. Then take the rest and wash it really really good.

Do a little at a time and get it nice and clean again. Then just treat it as sand you would buy in a bag. Layer it all on the bottom and add the saved sand across the top of it.

I have seen this done with no adverse effects providing it is cleaned well enough.

[rjs5134]

Well, I'm anxious to know how it's going. I won't ask how it WENT because I'd be shocked if he was even close to done. Patience will definately be the key here. I really hope noone gets hurt here.

[nerofiend]

Well got the tank moved, OMG was that a project. I really should have looked at the tank before I said yes to it(not that i would have turned it down for that price).

Took 7 people to move it and about an hour of time to get it out of its original home. I had set up 2 75 gallon tanks at my house and let them cycle with new water and set up and when it came time to move the new tank i added the old water and substrate. Most of the life seems to be doing ok in its temporary home while the new tank is being set up and stablizing.

this was a MAJOR piece of work, the tank was super heavy and oddly shaped at that. The measurements I was given were way off as the tank is designed to wrap around the corner of a large room. The new calculations I have are about a 780 gallon tank that takes up about 3/4 of my basement living room(Yes getting it into the basement was something i dont want to talk about anymore, Ouch).

Hopefully Ill be able to start adding the stuff back into the tank within the next couple days and I will get some pictures posted as well, its gonna be beautifull.

Im adding some extra filtration to it as I do not think what came with it was as good as I would like it to be and an extra protein skimmer as well. I have a sump system to add to the exsisting one that should put me at about 6500gph. I hope thats enough.

[Hebert2580]

Its not easy to move any tank, Just be very carefull when doing so, use as much as the same water as you can, and be very very carefully about water temp, I made my mistake when I didnt let the water temp even up and I put my fish in to early, I lost them all.. Also I would add when you move you tank, and if you need to add water, Use CYCLE with it, It will knock the bad things down and keep all the good things up.. Thanks