Moving a Biocube aquarium while laminating...

[edikpok]

I am laminating my apartment floors and I need to move the aquarium for about 1h while I am laminating underneath it and then put it back. Any idea how to move it? It is a 29g Biocube with the original stand.

I was thinking to remove about 5gal of water, move it about a meter or two away, laminate underneath it and then put it back and fill it up with some new water. Please note that it is quite well stocked with corals so dumping all the water is not quite an option for me and I do not really want to reaquascape...

Are there any tools that can go under the stand to move it (perhaps something from Homedepot?)? there is a little clearance underneath it...

Thanks so much for the advice!!!!!

[Ian]

I bought a couple small dollies from Costco (25 $ each) and then just lifted my BC 29 onto it and rolled it to another spot when I did hardwood this summer....was no big deal what-so-ever.
BTW my wife slide the linked dollies under whil I did the lifting.

[lastlight]

You can buy furniture moving pads that are either rubber or fabric one side, hard smooth plastic on the other. I drained my 34g Solana about halfway, tipped one end up and slid the cups under two legs then tipped other end up and did the same. Sliding the tank is easy with 2 people. Slow and steady movements. If your tank doesn't have legs maybe get flat pads and not cups. Worked great for me in fact the tank is running on the pads right now lol.

[edikpok]

Ian - can you please send me a picture or a link to the dollies you used? did you empty it first? how much did you have to lift it? did you move it tilted?

Brett - where did you buy these pads and what are they called? my tank has 4 legs...we will be two people as well so moving it should be easy

[lastlight]

Got them at Rona. If you ask them for the furniture moving cups they'll direct you to them. Can't recall brand or whatever.

[gobytron]

The simplest way would be to empty all the water, move the tank to where you need to and then fill er back up with the same water which should still be the same temp.

then just repeat when you're read to move it back...

Not a bad time to have some fresh SW ready for a change as well.

[edikpok]

Thanks Brett, i will check Rona...


Dumping all the water is not an option as I have both fish and corals in there and there is no need to stress them more than the absolute minimum required in order to move it....

[rstar]

Whatever you end up doing, take pictures, i would love to see how it pans out!

[gobytron]

Thanks Brett, i will check Rona...


Dumping all the water is not an option as I have both fish and corals in there and there is no need to stress them more than the absolute minimum required in order to move it....

I have moved more tanks than I can count, but there is nothing wrong with being overly cautious in this hobby.

[lastlight]

I'll be if you carefully lift with a person on each side even with the tank mostly full it won't be a problem as it's less than 29g of water. have a third insert the cups and then slide as I said. good luck.

[gobytron]

I'll be if you carefully lift with a person on each side even with the tank mostly full it won't be a problem as it's less than 29g of water. have a third insert the cups and then slide as I said. good luck.

water weighs 8lbs per gallon, so this tank will be approx 240lbs.
I would only caution that even the sturdiest of stands are not made to be mved around with that much weight on it....so you might wind up with a wobbly stand after the fact.

[lastlight]

Yeah good point. I'd do it but after more thought I wouldn't recommend it lol. My solana stand...the door does seem to shut a little differently now but then again it's on more level flooring in the kitchen so I'm not sure I messed the stand up any.

The top piece should be a solid wood tho. Mine was which is why I think I didn't think twice. Is this stand particle board or solid wood?

[edikpok]

Pheeww... so the aquarium has been finally moved and this is how it was done:

First of all I bought from HD some of those furniture moving plastics that come with some fluffy material that you can put on them to not scratch the floors. We laminated all the way to the aquarium. Then we needed 3 people.

We put a piece of laminate under both sides of the aquarium and pry bars underneath them (the laminate to not damage the stand and to distribute the force applied by bar). Both people pushed the pry bars slightly to lift the aquarium just enough to move it onto the ready laminate to put the plastic fooot under it. Then we did the same to the pther side. And finally to the back legs. When all four legs had thplastic things underneath them, the aquarium was sliding like a charm. Then finished the laminates and moved it back, tilted ever so slightly to get rid of plastics. Overall, took about an hour to move and. No water was drained...

Thanks for the suggestion!

[lastlight]

Glad to hear it went well!

The biocube has less seams to worry about does it not? I thought the front an sides are one curved piece but I may be wrong. Either way I'll bet you're relieved it's done.