Can I leave substrate in 240l tank while moving house?

[Libpete]

I have a Juwel Rio 240l tank that ill be taking with me, its only a mile away. Can I leave the sand/gravel in the tank when its loaded and unloaded from the van to the upstairs of the new house?

Would this cause any stress on the seams or is it okay with this size tank? Theres likely to be some water sloshing when its carried upstairs from the inch of substrate. It would save me so much time. The tank is at least 6 years old.

 

[RampageRR]

If you're only going to leave the gravel in and remove all the water, I think you'll be fine. I wouldn't recommend leaving any water at all though (except for maybe the tiny bit you can't vacuum out while removing the water). As long as you don't have like 50 lbs of gravel in there moving around, I don't see any issue with it.

Edit: I just looked at the conversion from liters to gallons, looks like a 60-65 gallon tank. I'd assume there would be 50-75 lbs of gravel then, which may be a lot if there's still a bit of water, too. If you do decide to leave it in, make sure you keep the tank absolutely level when going up/down the stairs. I've moved tanks like this before, but it's not 100% guaranteed to be safe for the glass/silicon.

 

[Libpete]

Yeah UK/US gallons are different but litres are the same so you got the size right. There isnt alot of substrate but could be a problem on the stairs like you say. Think ill just get the majority out.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I personally do not move tanks of more than about five gallons with substrate in place, not even for short distances around the house. I have always removed the substrate and any other stuff. It seems to me that the extra weight will make a difference and feel it could make handling a tank harder as well as increase the chance of causing a leak.

 

[Warborg]

When I got my 75gal from my buddy, we moved it with 3inches of gravel. Then when I moved 2 months ago, I left an inch of gravel in it (got rid of 2 inches permanently earlier). I think you will be fine.

 

[HungDang]

it's ok, just heavier to move it like that.

 

[jhc7685]

Depends on the gravel, it we're talking about river rocks or inches of aquarium gravel I would recommend you remove them before transport. It would make the tank much lighter for transport.

When I got 2 used 90 gallon from a lfs, he didn't want to remove the gravel and it took 4 guys just to lift the tank off the rack and onto the truck...

 

[Libpete]

Cheers for the input all. Its mainly sand about an inch depth and there is only about two cups full of pea gravel in there. The driftwood is going to be kept wet in a bucket to help with the bacteria some. Im going to move my 100L tank with 2" of sand in but going to get most of it out of the 240L as thats going upstairs and cant take the risk of a leak, no back up for that tank at all.

Im glad I dont have a monster tank at this point in time, these two are headache enough to move.

 

[Libpete]

Well im moved and both aquariums seem to be fine. The 240L I ended up removing most of the substrate and the 100L I left all 2-3" of sand in when I moved it, basically because I couldn't catch all the guppy fry so they stayed in. Both tanks have been running again for a week and all is ok so far.