Planning a "movable" DIY Stand

[reelss]

Hi Folks,

I am doing a build of a 180 gallon rimless tank, with a DIY stand. The tank is going to be in the living room which is currently carpeted. We plan on redoing the floors in a couple of years, once the kids grow up a little. However, I am dreading having to break the tank down when that happens.

I have been thinking over a few options on how to make it easiest to slide the tank and stand out of the way to get the flooring done, and back in its place.

The option I am leaning towards is as follows, for when the tank and stand needs to be moved out of the way:
1. Drain the tank to where only the sand bed and very little water remains. Obviously, rock and livestock will need to be moved out.
2. The stand will be resting on swivel mounts like these: https://www.mcmaster.com/6111k83
3. Raise the stand to get some clearance for a few furniture dollies to be placed under.
4. Move the stand out of the way, and then back in place once flooring is done.
5. Add rocks, water and livestock.

The tank will be resting on the stand for the entire duration.
It will still have a wet sand bed.

Thoughts? Has anyone done this before? Am I overthinking this?

 

[AlexG]

Yes that method can be used to moved the tank as long as the stand is built with this in mind. The swivel mounts will do a good job of keeping the tank level but it might not be easy to raise the stand using those alone with the weight of the tank with sand and some water still on the stand. That added weight is going to put a lot of pressure on the threads of the swivel mounts and might cause damage. I would opt to make a removable side panel on the stand to accommodate a lever that can lift the tank up a few inches to allow a dolly to be slid under the stand. I had to do something similar when I needed to move my 720 gallon tank over a few inches. I added a video of the move on my tank so you can see what I did. The lever can be made with some lumber and takes away the difficulties of a direct lift on the tank that might cause an injury.

 

[reelss]

Yes that method can be used to moved the tank as long as the stand is built with this in mind. The swivel mounts will do a good job of keeping the tank level but it might not be easy to raise the stand using those alone with the weight of the tank with sand and some water still on the stand. That added weight is going to put a lot of pressure on the threads of the swivel mounts and might cause damage. I would opt to make a removable side panel on the stand to accommodate a lever that can lift the tank up a few inches to allow a dolly to be slid under the stand. I had to do something similar when I needed to move my 720 gallon tank over a few inches. I added a video of the move on my tank so you can see what I did. The lever can be made with some lumber and takes away the difficulties of a direct lift on the tank that might cause an injury.

Thank you for sharing...that's helpful. The side panels are already glued and nailed in unfortunately. Perhaps I could build something on the front side, where a pallet jack could fit. Need to do more research.