Buying a large running system with no truck and few helping hands

[Aquavaj]

You have no truck but can easily rent one. You have one other person and only other help will need to be hired. This will be a complete running system at 120+ gal. and include everything. Distance will be roughly 70 miles or a little over 1.5 hrs with traffic.

How would you tackle this job without spending almost as much as the whole tank?

[first29gallon]

Prepare and make a list of all the items you need and the sequence of events and post it here . We will give your feedback. As long as the transition and set up is planned and organized it should go smoothly. A few questions to think about:

Will you use all the water from the old set up?
How far is the distance of the move?
How many fish and corals are there?



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[Aquavaj]

I have until this coming Sat to plan and prep. I have a midsize suv with folding rear seats that can be used for the smaller stuff. Here is my plan so far:

Supplies:
hand Dolly, floor dolly, (3) 32g brute trash bins, (6) 5g buckets with lids, seller has a few 5g jugs but don't know # yet, foam gym mats, blankets, rope

1. We haven't agreed on a time yet but I'm thinking arrive by 9am.
2. Drain half or 1/3 of tank and set aside. Will use this for fish and rocks.
3. Remove all live rock into the trash bins. Load them into truck/van and fill with water.
4. Remove fish into buckets and keep them aerated with battery powered air pumps.
5. Drain rest of water down to sand but leave sand in tank. Drain sump.
6. Load tank, sump, stand and canopy.

All suggestions and feedback welcomed

Edited to answer questions.
1. Undecided if I will use all the old water. That is a lot to transport.
2. Distance of move is 70 miles each way.
3. 8 fish. Largest 3 are 1 BT and 2 YT,

[first29gallon]

Are you making two trips or all in one?
If you will leave Sand in the tank have you measured all the doorways and stairs to make sure the tank can exit and enter horizontally?




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[nereefpat]

You won't need a hand or floor dolly if you have two reasonably strong guys. More hands makes it easier. Any stairs to navigate?

[Vinny Kreyling]

I would figure on new sand, really a pain to clean the old stuff & not worth it.

[LPS_Blasto]

You need to be set up on the receiving end first. Have about 30-40 gallons of fresh RO water on hand. Put a heater in there. A handful 40g Brute trash cans works great. At least 3 or 4 of them for a larger tank like this. Make up 40 gallons of new salt water and store it in one of the Brute cans with a heater and a powerhead. It's fine for a week.

Clear a spot for the tank. Have plenty of power available.

Plan your delivery route from the truck into your house. Stairs? How many? Are they slippery? Yes? Make them NOT slippery. Dogs and cats? Put them in a locked bathroom or bedroom. (handcuffs and locked closets work fine for children) :lmao:

Moving Day:
Drain 3g water out of the new tank and put it into 5g buckets WITH lids. Put fish in here. Number of buckets you need depends on number of fish. I wouldn't put more than 2 or 3 fish per bucket unless you have a way to provide o2 for the ride. Use lids.
Drain a bit more water and place forals in the other 5g buckets. Use Lids.

Remove the rock and place it in a tote(s), thats an easy way to carry it. If it's fully encrusted with corals, it's tougher. I'd still take it all apart and move it to totes. Transporting rocks inside the tank is very risky IMO.

Put some water in the totes and use some sacrificial bath towels to help keep it wet on top.

Drain off as much water as possible. Suck the sump dry with a small powerhead. Store this water in a 40g Brute cans. Take it home with you.

Move the tank into the truck. Don't forget the rest of the equipment... lights, pumps, skimmers, etc..

Drive cautiously

Unload when home. Rocks in first, then old saltwater from one of the Brute cans, then the new saltwater you mixed up last week.

Acclimate - DUMP the water you transported them in. For filling the tank, use the Brute full of old tank water, and your new Brute full of new salt water. Plan on making more new saltwater (this is why you still have 40g of RO sitting in a Brute trash can with a heater)

Add power

Clean up

Have a beer

And finally, release hounds and snot nosed children from lock-down condition. :lmao:

Probably not the best way out there, but it's worked for me. Somebody with a flame thrower will be along shortly, to tell you how stupid my post is. :thumbsup:

[mcgyvr]

Buy half a dozen plastic totes/garbage cans to put everything into..
Drain everything into said containers so tank is empty..
Put tank and containers onto truck..
Enjoy..

2 relatively strong people is all you need..


Use/buy all new DRY sand and rinse it VERY well before the moving day and let dry
Use existing rock..
Have roughly 50G of new saltwater ready at the final destination..

Once you arrive home.. Put tank on stand..
Fill with well rinsed sand..
Fill with 50G of new water..
Start transferring rock and all creatures.. .

Crack a beer roughly 15 times throughout the process.. enjoy..

[Uncle99]

Crack a beer roughly 15 times throughout the process.. enjoy..

^^^^this^^^^^^ LOL

[mysticobra]

Glass panel suction pads.
Not sure what you call them technically.
But we used them to move my 70 gallon and it made it so simple to move. Stuck them on the sides and they have a big handle for lifting. Instead of trying to lift the tank from the floor.
Also.
Save as much water as you can from the tank.
Never know you may need all of it.
When I made my transfer I used 80 percent of my old water and it was fine. But I wasn't moving that far.
Probably not much help but I thought I would toss this out.
I do have a move coming up soon.
I see some good advice to use when I do it also.
Thank you.
Richard.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Good suggestions so far.

Get pics of the plumbing so you can determine if it will be salvageable or if you'll have to cut it out and re-plumb or splice it back together. Sometimes when a tank is plumbed with pvc it's impossible to disassemble with the plumbing intact.

Get some shims on hand and a level so you can level the tank as soon as its in the new location and before it is filled. You don't want to be doing that a few days later once it's full.

I would agree with the suggestions to ditch the sand and have new clean rinsed sand ready to go at the new location. I once moved a 125 with the sand still in the tank. It makes it HEAVY and you can't maneuver the tank as easily - plus old sand usually means dirty sand.

[Aquavaj]

Glass panel suction pads.
Not sure what you call them technically.
But we used them to move my 70 gallon and it made it so simple to move. Stuck them on the sides and they have a big handle for lifting. Instead of trying to lift the tank from the floor.
Also.
Save as much water as you can from the tank.
Never know you may need all of it.
When I made my transfer I used 80 percent of my old water and it was fine. But I wasn't moving that far.
Probably not much help but I thought I would toss this out.
I do have a move coming up soon.
I see some good advice to use when I do it also.
Thank you.
Richard.

That's a great advice. Where on the tank would you stick them for best grip? And is the suction strong enough to have full faith in them?

[burrito]

i've heard the suction pads work great, get good ones. my only gripe with those suction cup things is if it fails the tanks is on the ground or a foot, if a grip is slipping theres some "warning" to put the tank down

[nereefpat]

Suction cups...? An empty 120 isn't THAT heavy.

[Aquavaj]

Suction cups...? An empty 120 isn't THAT heavy.

The ad states it's a 120 but the dims I'm given doesn't quite match the water volume. Seller says 60"L x 24"W x 35"H and 70"H total with stand and canopy. From pics the canopy looks to be about 5-6" high so that would make it a 30" tall tank and 35" tall stand. If that's the case it's a 187.

To me it looks like it's 4ft long 30" high and 24 deep so a total volume of 150.

The seller will remeasure and let me know tonight. Even if it's a 120, with sand it will be approaching near 300lbs.

[alton]

Not sure how much sand, but that could be a 100 lbs easy, remove and place in buckets and plan on not reusing. I helped a friend once and he insisted on using his car moving a 7' x 2' x 2' tank. I am guessing your friend will have a second vehicle to help haul the stand/items that do not fit in your suv?

[Aquavaj]

Well I got screwed over. After all the talk about the hobby and having to convince her that I had experience in SW tanks and it'll be in good hands she goes and sells it to someone else after already agreeing to hold it for me until this weekend. All for a measly $50 more? It was never about the hobby to begin with but about greed. It's good that she's getting out cause the community don't need people like her.
/rant

[ca1ore]

That sucks! I will say that there are tons of flakes out there, and as a seller one seems to end up dealing with all of them. Perhaps this person has had issue like that in the past. Agree she should have held if or you fi she said the would, but there may be other factors at work.

[Aquavaj]

I offered to send half through paypal or any payment system she prefers numerous times to show that I was serious but she declined and assured me she will hold it for me. If I would have known she could be bought so easily I would have made the sacrifice and drove the 2 hrs in traffic to drop off the deposit. She won't even let me do that now.

[mysticobra]

That's a great advice. Where on the tank would you stick them for best grip? And is the suction strong enough to have full faith in them?

It was a brand new red sea e max. Just stuck em on the sides.

[Subw00er]

get some heat packs and stick them to the buckets. They make ones with adhesive on them already.

[mysticobra]

Oh. Sorry.
Didn't finish reading through.
But the suction cups we used were industrial used in the galls installation area. They don't break loose unless you let them.

[mysticobra]

Oh. Sorry.
Didn't finish reading through.
But the suction cups we used were industrial used in the glass installation area. They don't break loose unless you let them.

[LPS_Blasto]

I spent over 3 weeks trying to arrange a time to meet a guy who was selling a brand new 125g tank. He kept flaking so I gave up. I went and bought a brand new 180g. People suck.

[saveafish]

Sorry to hear that. It seems you went through a lot to arrange it all.