Not exactly a DIY, but I did it Myself

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Yellowlab

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2008
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Fort Walton Beach, Florida
I have been buying tanks and stands for the past two weeks. The tanks are 66 Gallon, 65 Gallon, 55 Gallon and a 29 gallon. Each tank came with a stand. Fortunately, when I purchased everyone of the tanks, I have had help loading them into my PT Cruiser, but unfortunately, I have had to unload each and every tank by myself. Getting them out of the PT Crusier has not been overly difficult, but when it comes to getting them into the house and then situating them onto the stands, it has been an engineering nightmare. It is amaizing how heavy a simple 65 gallon tank can be. Here is my solution for moving tanks across the lawn and up the step up into the living room.

Since I get off work at Midnight, I have ended up moving each of the tanks at 2:00 am. (Although on different days) On the first tank I pulled out my handy hacksaw and grabbed a 1" x 10' piece of PVC. I also cut some 1 1/2" and some 3" PVC pipe to a length of 24". This became my roller system for moving the tanks across the lawn and then angling them up the step and into the living room. But how did I raise each of the tanks to the 32" tall stands?

I am not Hulk Hogan. I raised one end of the tank 12" and slid a wide Step Stool under this one side, then I raised the other end 24" and with my foot I awkwardly slid an empty 24" tall Storage bin (from Wal-Mart) under that end. I followed this with two more empty storage bins to get the tank level at 2 foot off of the ground. One more foot to go. Here is where it gets real dangerous. I will let you figure out the last 12" adventure, but I will tell you, it is far better to have friends that will help you at 2am. I kept my cell phone right next to me and I had 911 already dialed in so all I had to do was punch one button.

The 66 Gallon has a 48 Inch base, the 65 gallon only has a 36 Inch base.

If you raise either end of the tank another 12" the upside down storage bin will fall over, roll over, collapse, or shoot out from underneath the tank. Just 12" away from success. (I did succeed)

The other tanks were a breeze. I think I am ready for a 90 gallon. Bring it on. Glass tanks are serious business, so take my advice, do NOT try this at home. (I am 53 years old and should know better).

When I look at all of the 150 Gallon Glass tanks that everyone seems able to effortlessly move up the stairs and from room to room, I scratch my head and wonder just how in the world they are able to do it. Friends or no friends, getting a glass 150 upstairs must earn you an engineering degree or a compressed disk.

I know a moderator is going to move this thread to the proper area, but I did do this foolishly all by myself. So, this is a DIY in a very real Indiana Jones kind of way. (In Indiana it must be hard keeping up with all the Jones's)

I hope each and every DIY'er makes a mental note to never, ever do something like this without friends. You always need at least one extra person to open doors and dial 911 when the time comes. If you will just spend some of your leisure time giving away even a few of your unwanted fish, sooner or later you will have plenty of friends who will be there for you. Hopefully, you will never have to do something like this ever by yourself. (Even at 2am). Get involved, be involved and get others involved. We all need friends and support.

Yellow Lab

:screwy::iagree:
 
It's amazing that if a person wants to do something badly enough how they will ALWAYS find a way! A furniture dolly or an appliance dolly wouldn't work?
 
I personally love the thread title. I think it should be a stick just because of that!! haha
 
And this is one of the reasons I love acrylic tanks. I'm 16 and I can carry my 55gal by myself with ease.
 
Furniture Dolly might have been a good investment. An appliance dolly prolly would have cracked the glass going up the step. As far as levitating the tank 32 inches off of the floor, I probably could have used a super conductor/magnet thingy, but getting it to 32" would have generated a magnetic field a 1/4 mile high. At 2 in the morning I would have hated to disrupt the neighborhood in such a negative way.
 
Heh, reminds me of when me and mom brought my 90 gallon upstairs.

16 year old me with hip issues and asthma, and my 56 year old mom with back issues, grunted a 90 gallon tank and stand out of a suburban and up a flight of stairs. inch by inch, step by step.

by the time we got up stairs, we just let it sit there, passed out on the floor and layed down for a good 3 minutes. then continued to push it into my room.

well worth it though :)
 
Yellowlab;2565531; said:
Furniture Dolly might have been a good investment. An appliance dolly prolly would have cracked the glass going up the step. As far as levitating the tank 32 inches off of the floor, I probably could have used a super conductor/magnet thingy, but getting it to 32" would have generated a magnetic field a 1/4 mile high. At 2 in the morning I would have hated to disrupt the neighborhood in such a negative way.

Don't those levitation super conductors require liquid nitrogen to super freeze them or something?

Yellowlab;2565187; said:
When I look at all of the 150 Gallon Glass tanks that everyone seems able to effortlessly move up the stairs and from room to room, I scratch my head and wonder just how in the world they are able to do it. Friends or no friends, getting a glass 150 upstairs must earn you an engineering degree or a compressed disk.

I know exactly what you mean, these guys make it look to easy.
 
Your Mother must really really love you. Most parents would FREAK at that amount of weight on the floor of the Upstairs. Is the Dining Room table directly below your Bedroom? :-) Or even worse, the Living Room Couch? Anyways. 90 Gallon Tanks are Awesome.
 
When I realized that my OLD 150 gallon tank (300+ lbs) had to go to the basement, I sold it. There was no way I was going to do that. Heck... my lightweight 125 was a pain.
 
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