For me, getting this tank out of the house would be impossible. We had to cut it apart at the seller's house and assemble it in our house. We tiles the bottom and back walls with travertine and then hubby cut a couple of hundred pounds of live rock on his tile saw and siliconed it to the back walls. Then we had our stone mason friend put real stone on the outside bottom of the tank... I don't think it all could come out of the house to be honest. Then it is plumbed to three additional tanks in the basement... there is miles of plumbing and whatever else you can think of. I have over 500 pounds of live rock in the entire system, so it keeps up with the bioload at this time, and I don't even ever have to touch anything... just clean the skimmer and change the carbon. When we first set it up I was doing tons of water changes since I stocked the tank quickly. Now the last fish was my Achilles and he was added in May of last year.
The tank is behind my desk and I like the sound it makes and I relax and watch my fish watch me. I have watched them grow and get accustomed to tank life in the past 14 months, and am pretty attached to it. If worse came to worse and I had to sell this house, the tank would have to go. I would have no choice. This house can fit this 7 foot wide tank no issues. I can;t see that working out in a smaller home.
Lets just hope things turn around before we have no choice but to put the house on the market... so far the ship is sinking, but the strainer I am bailing it out with, is keeping up. Lets hope I can keep up until thing come around. We do tile and now the houses are being built again. We just have to wait for them to be in the finishing stages so we can go in and do our work. We are the best at what we do, and this is the only reason why we have managed to stay afloat.
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Originally Posted by lastlight
I should add that if I thought I could afford to run a big tank in the future I would have kept my high-end skimmer and light as they are simple enough to move. I know that no time in the near future if any can I see that happening so i fire-saled it all. The tank and stand had to go as my stresses at this time are huge,wanted to list and show my house asap and my new place has no space for something that large not can I move it myself.
I won't mind startup (again) with my small cube. I can take it wherever I go and won't have to give it all away.
If you can manage fish only I'd do it. But keep in mind a tank that size when you're under financial stress is not just a stress on the pocketbook. It has this... presence... in your life that could contribute other stresses. I know my relief was huge as I drained mine. You may possibly be more attached to yours since it has life in it...tho I had a long TIME into mine and still had no issues tearing it down. I think when priorities change you will thank yourself for lowering the priority or removing it...if all along maybe it was a little too high on your list and you always knew it.
This is just me tho =) I hope you get you situation under control.
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