Moving an Aquarium

[tmdavies]

Ok I'm thinking of moving my tank from my bedroom into my living room. I know the safest way would be to completely strip it down an to move it but i've just finished decorating it and I'm really happy with the way it looks. The tank is 120cm (47") long, 44cm (17") wide and 55cm (22") height. Would it be safe to remove all the water only leaving the gravel, plants and wood in the tank while its carried to the living room. The tank has roughly 30kg of substrate in give or take.
So what do you guys think? Has anyone here tried this before? Will the tank hold?

 

[BigJim]

I've moved several tanks by draining most of the water and leaving everything else. Be sure to have some muscle available. I can handle moving a 20H by myself in this manner, but that's about my limit.

 

[skiweeangel]

You should be fine just draining most of the water out and leaving everything else in there. just make sure to take your time and as said above have good muscle around. I have a thick substrate level and it adds a lot of weight to the tank. We had to move it once to fix the base board heaters in the room and we needed one more person because my husband is much stronger than I am! It should be fine though.

 

[tmdavies]

Thanks to both of you will embark on it tommorow

 

[LyndaB]

How many gallons is this tank?

Almost 70 lbs of substrate, I sure wouldn't want to move that. I wouldn't risk it. Depending on what type of substrate you have, all you need is for it to slide to one end and have the tank develop stress fractures. Not my idea of a good time.

 

[tmdavies]

Ok i moved the tank, i severely under estimated how hard it would be. Everything survived and the tanks still in one piece thankfully.
I wasnt able to move it without taking the decor out but i did leave the substrate in. I wont be doing this again in a hurry lol

 

[skiweeangel]

Glad to hear it went well.