Casters for a large tank maybe?

ukgoffer

ukgoffer

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2012
388
80
46
Westport, CT
I am setting up a 240 and trying to decide between two locations in my house - bar or office. One is carpet over cement and the other is hardwood. Empty, the base, tank and equipment will weigh about 600 lbs. full it should be 2500 lbs. has anyone devised or seen something that I should buildor incorporate to make it easier to move if ever I need to. I plan to have about 6" clearance behind the tank but if I needed to move it out a few feet for any reason (say partially emptied) what might make it easier? I thought about setting the base on top of a piece of 1" ply with carpet mounted on the ply facing the hardwood so that it might slide a little (very short tight weave etc.). I also thought of mounting industrial refrigerator casters every 6"-12". Any advice or ideas? I want to make sure that I don't create any pressure points. The base is 30" high oak cabinet supplied by tank manufacturer and the overall footprint is 72" x30".
thanks
 
ukgoffer

ukgoffer

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2012
388
80
46
Westport, CT
Zero for 56? I'd a thunk somebody out there came up with a plan here. I had a 120 acrylic built into the headboard of a queen sized bed. Very cool until the seam popped in the bottom middle on the back. Hence my concern....
 
rodger

rodger

Polypterus
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2008
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Kansas City
you got no response cause it sounds un-doable. Good luck.
 
xraycer

xraycer

Arapaima
MFK Member
Sep 5, 2013
5,383
2,571
203
Southern NH USA
That's a lot of weight and water to put on wheels. Fish tanks weren't designed to be constantly moved around....especially filled with water. Just a bad idea all around imho
 
Dan F

Dan F

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 10, 2007
3,889
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Oregon
I have seen some pretty big tanks on casters, but on concrete. Even empty I think that the casters would leave dents in your hardwood.
 
ukgoffer

ukgoffer

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2012
388
80
46
Westport, CT
Thanks - I'm not planning on moving it but in some unforeseen emergency, I thought by partially emptying it maybe two guys with a tow strap around the base we could slide it. The unforeseen cost me nearly 5 grand to fix when my acrylic blew. I could build a raised base that would allow a pallet lifter to move it. Woods makes all terrain casters that attach via suction but it would have to be on the base cabinet and not the glass.
 
M

MarineMike

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2014
243
1
0
Southern California
What I've considered doing is getting some of the 5" or 6" casters from someplace like Harbor freight with a load capacity of 600# each. With the bottom of the stand adequately reinforced place them 12" from the ends of the stand and another pair towards the center, more for a longer tank/stand. But I wouldn't want to have it only supported by the wheels when full and sitting for a long time so while empty or close to it is use a car floor jack to lift it and place supports (cinder blocks, 4" x 8" etc.) To keep the wheels from contacting the floor. This way if you needed to move the tank in an emergency, partially empty the tank, Jack up the s stand enough to remove the supports first on one end and then the other and move it to wherever you need to go. I suggest the supports because those wheels aren't meant to support that kind of weight indefinitely and would break down over time under constant load (probably when most inconvenient) and you'd be supporting a lot of weight over a small surface area of your floor.

Hope that helps.
 
DIDYSIS

DIDYSIS

Mantilla Stingray
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2012
5,542
307
1,946
West Jordan Utah
You would want some real quality wheels not some normal harbor freight I'll buy cheap to be able to replace if needed.

Sent from the Monster Fish Keeping App
 
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