Moving a 225 Gallon tank

[waynemah]

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase a 225 gallon tank and wish to move it from one place to another (tank, stand and sump only). The problem is lack of large truck/trailer, manpower and over flowing pockets of money. If anyone can give me some suggestions based on experience, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Issue #1.
The tank/stand would be moved from a fairly easy location (within 30 min from my place) to my basement, 1/2 flight of stairs with a sharp corner at the end, down the hall a bit. The stairwell is somewhat narrow.

Issue #2.
The tank will be located in an area that is 7'3 wide and 9'4 deep. I would need to get it all together in a very tight area or slide the 6 ft wide tank/stand in place without killing the floor. Luckily It's laminate and I can pull most of it up if dragging is necessary!


Thanks in advance for any advice.

[ALang]

Congrats, Wayne, on the new tank!
Hope it goes well for ya!

Watch that sharp corner, I've had friends who took out the corner and the adjacent wall to fit tank through because they were half way down the stairs and cannot go back up (ran out of gas). So they had to do that and it still couldn't fit, didn't want to knock the whole wall down.

Ended up calling more friends to tie/drag it back UP the stairs. Huge repair bills, never mind a few scraped-up friends. Sold the tank to another guy.

Sometimes it's worth have a tank/ stand build on site for that exact reason. Esp if you want to keep all your friends!
Keep us posted. Hope to see you at the meet this Saturday!
Lenny.

[waynemah]

Thank you! Although, I'll need to figure this out before I go forward with anything.

Safety is first, I believe the tank *should* have no problem with the sharp corner. There is a landing area at the bottom of the stairs and the sharp corner is part of a hallway. My concern is the width of the stairwell, I wouldn't want to be one of the two guys at the bottom of this thing if it slides down.

I'm 100% sure the stand wont fit in my house after measuring it a few more times. It will need to bust it down and rebuild it inside the house. Or I purchase a metal one (anyone know of a good place?).

[Madreefer]

You should'nt have to pull up your flooring to drag/push your tank. Just put your tank on a blanket. Good luck.

[Transcend]

what u might want to try is make a mock tank out of cardboard(frig cardbord box) and see if it will fit around the sharp corner. something it looks good until u do it, plus the tank weighs a tone.

[Pescador]

I talked some movers into lugging my tank downstairs, after the first try they said it wasn't going to fit down past the pony wall where the stairs take a u-turn. I grabbed a skilsaw and said hang on a minute and made some adjustments to the pony wall. It's now a nice oak removable handrail instead.
But they used straps on it like they use to move appliances, but not much room to get many guys on it going down the stairs. So get a big guy for an anchor.

[Jfish]

Went through the exact same problem over the past couple months. It was a 200 gallon rimless tank with 19mm glass. Dead lift off the ground at least four man job, had to be at least 600 pounds. It had to be moved in through garage, down eight steps, bend around corner, down another eight steps to a sharp 90 degree bend. For the stairs we laid down blankets and slid the tank down to the landing, stood tank on end, bent around corner and then slid tank down the other stairs. For any sharp corners we had to stand the tank on end and slowly wiggle it around the corner. Believe it or not was done with 2 people except for the lift onto the stand which took six guys.

Carpet on the stairs made sliding the tank down fairly easy. We used blankets to cushion the tank for any sliding which could also be done on laminate. With lifting straps or tow straps it would have been a lot safer. Couple guys at top of stairs hold straps and slowly ease it down as one or two guys hold it from the bottom (just don't get crushed).

For any of the corners we just stood the tank on its end and wiggled it around the bend. It was actually pretty easy, although time spend on that end was minimal as im sure there was lots of pressure on the glass from its own weight.

Im sure it seems like a huge task but it helps to break it down into stages. One the first day I had friends to help load the tank and unload it in my garage. Next day I managed to get the tank into the house and beside stairs by sliding it on blankets by myself. Another day I had a friend come and help me guide it down the stairs and around the bends, and beside the stand. On the last day had five other guys come over to lift it onto its final spot. It was actually spread over a couple weeks due to everyones schedule but was just too heavy to do on one day. The grip strength and pull on your forearms from lifting the tank really burnt you out fast. Beer and pizza bribe ended up being a lot cheaper than moving company (200-300$ from garage down).

[waynemah]

I'm feeling much better about the tank at this point, the straps and blanket seem like a really good idea. Anyone have experience with the suction cups?

Apparently I don't know what a sharp corner is. I measured about 6 ft from the last stair to the hallway, 43" is the width of the hallway. The tank would slide down each step, be stood on end and wiggled into the hallway where we could re-gain control and move it freely.

Now I just need to find a good stand builder or modify the old stand to fit.

Thanks for everyone's help so far! any more suggestions are appreciated.

[lastlight]

Take a sledge to that thing and start fresh. I can't imagine the doors are going to work as well as they once did having been removed/moved a few times. Plus it weighs a literal ton I think.

[waynemah]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Take a sledge to that thing and start fresh. I can't imagine the doors are going to work as well as they once did having been removed/moved a few times. Plus it weighs a literal ton I think.

I'm sure it would take more than a sledge hammer to tear this thing apart... It's a beast.