Moving a tank, suggestions?

[Nonfamous]

Its been a while so....hello again everyone!

I need to move my tank temporarily. We are having new carpet installed and I need to move my tank about 15 feet into an unfinished room in the basement. It's a standard 90 gallon mixed reef tank, wooden cabinet, 24 gallon sump and all the various other things that go along with a tank. I have a plan, let me know what you think:

Power down.
Remove hood and lights.
Pump sump dry keeping water in buckets.
Remove sump, ATO and all other items from cabinet base.
Pump about 1/2 of the water out of the display, maybe more?
Hopefully, lift display and base enough to put furniture sliders under it.
Gently push to temp location and reassemble using existing water.

Then I will reverse this after the carpet install.

What do you think? Will it work? Am I kidding myself about getting the sliders under it? Will the tank cycle when I put it all back together?


Surely this has been done before. Any suggestions?

 

[Nonfamous]

Okay, so not one answer. Ill tell you how it went.....


1. Emptied all gear from under stand.
2. Unplugged lights and removed top.
3. Powered down all equipment and unplugged from the power.
4. Using several 30 gallon plastic tubs;
a. Pumped out sump, removed rock and placed in tub.
b. Removed skimmer, heaters, return pump
c. Pumped all but 4 inches of water out of display tank. (Foxface was PISSED!!)
5. Pushing on the front of the stand, not the tank, we were able to lean it back enough to place sliders.
6. Pulling on the stand from the backside, we were able to place slider remaining sliders.
7. With some effort, the whole thing did move. We made sure that we touched only the stand, never the tank.
8. Moved it 15' and turned it 180* successfully.
9. Reinstalled equipment.
10. Refilled using existing water.
11. Powered up.

It seems to be doing just fine. Fish calmed down after about an hour. Corals seem no worse for wear. Don't be fooled, it was still extremely heavy, but it was manageable. My wife and I, with a little help from my son placing the sliders, managed this move in under 45 minutes. I finally discovered the fate of my snowflake clown. :( Her mummified remains were found behind the stand.

I'm redesigning the power connections to clean up the underside. I ditched the 4 powerheads in exchange for 2 much more powerful ones. That removes the need for 2 cords. I ditched one heater since the tank rarely has temperature changes, clearing yet another cord. So I'm down to 10 cords. This enables me to completely remove one power strip. I'm going to replace the two bulky strips with two 6 plug slim units thus streamlining the look and function. While it is out of the way, I painted the wall behind where the tank resides. It needed it!

Now, once the new carpet is in, I get to do this all over again.

 

[Big K]

How'd it go?