Moving Tank & Stand For Painting

I'm not totally sure if this is the right place for this question or if it should be in maintenance, but here goes...

I've been planning on getting a 29 gallon and stand as an upgrade for the family goldfish. The current 10 gallon would stay up and running with its current inhabitants and become a tropical tank for something else yet to be determined. The 29 gallon would most likely go in the dining room because we have a lot of wall space and the perfect outlet location in the middle of the wall.

The problem is that we plan to paint the dining room...eventually. Which would mean moving the tank & stand away from the wall temporarily. I searched the forum and most posts were related to moving from one house to another, moving from one tank to another, or a similar large move.

Since nothing is finalized for the tank plans yet, I want to figure out an easy way to move things back and forth that I could set up ahead of time. I thought about wheels but figured it would weaken the tank stand, and I haven't seen any that have them included. Then I thought about doing those little felt thingies for the bottom of the stand since the floor is hard wood, but I wasn't sure if that might have the same problem as doing wheels.

So has anyone done something similar before? And if so, how did you do it? I'm assuming a large amount of the water would need to be removed before any kind of move is done no matter what for weight issues & safety.

Now I'm sure the biggest question is "why not just paint the dining room first?" I'd love to do that first, but we've been planning on doing some painting since we moved in over 4 years ago. The only rooms we've managed to paint so far are our daughter's room (found out I was pregnant right after we moved in, so of course the baby room had to be painted), and the master bedroom. The master bedroom was done at the beginning of November, so it wasn't too cold yet and my fiance was the only one home anyway. Now it's ridiculously cold out, so cracking a window to air things out isn't possible. Knowing Michigan, it probably won't be guaranteed to be a decent temperature until sometime in May, and I'd prefer not to wait that long to put the goldfish in his new home.

So any ideas?

 

If you have wood or tile floors, what if you put those felt feet on the legs that are made for furniture?

You could drop down the water level real low, and possibly move the stand a few inches away from the wall to paint, then slide it back.

 

If you have wood or tile floors, what if you put those felt feet on the legs that are made for furniture?

That was one of the options I was thinking about, but I wasn't sure if it would cause stability problems.

 

I would go with the felt pads. When it is time to move it out just remove at least half of the water. The lighter you make the tank the better. I don't think the pads will cause any stability problems since all of them should compress the same amount.

 

Depending on the flooring your best bed would be those felt pads or you can take out about 80% of the water and slide it that way. I do not think the pads would cause stability issues because they are so thin and would distribute the weight.

 

I had to move my 60 gallon tank into another room to get a new carpet.I drained 80% of the water and took out a lot of the gravel to make it as light as I can and me and my bother in law slowly picked it up by the stand and put in on a dolly and slowly rolled it into the next room, those sliding pads didn't work even when the tank was half empty maybe the metal stand was to much pressure for it .Since your tank is 29 gal they should but if you don't want to use them,you could just drain 80% of the water and have 2 people pick it up by the stand and slowly move it to the next room or use a dolly,but make sure you make the tank as empty as you can,moving a tank that's to filled risks loosening the seals.I also put the same water back into the tank when I moved it .

 

How many feet are you going to move it? Just a couple feet from the wall? And how quick do you think you can move it back?

I had to move a 46 a few feet to get a huge washer/dryer out of my bedroom. But I was able to put it back immediately. So the fish stayed in the few inches of water I left in it. We picked it up by the stand and moved it a couple feet.

 

With my 65 I put furniture movers under the stand because we are in the process of painting the house as well..we just each grabbed a side slid it out painted and put it back.

 

I regularly use those super sliders to move tanks up to 220 gallons (after draining half the water of the 220). I don't think a 29 will be an issue. I mean, you could always drain 2/3rds the water and pick it up too.

 

How many feet are you going to move it? Just a couple feet from the wall? And how quick do you think you can move it back?

I'd imagine we'd just move it a couple feet and it would stay there until painting was complete, so a couple days?

 

I'd imagine we'd just move it a couple feet and it would stay there until painting was complete, so a couple days?

Ok, if it'll be a couple days, then obviously you can't leave the fish in a couple inches of water like I did.

If it were me, I would drain as much water as you can without removing the fish. Move it away from the wall as far as you need to and then refill it. I would probably cover it with a sheet or something while doing the painting. Then when you are done painting....drain, move and refill.

Two people should be able to lift the tank by the stand and move it a few feet. A 29 gallon with a few inches of water shouldn't be too bad. And as long as you lift by the stand and move very slowly, you shouldn't affect the integrity of the tank at all, even with a few inches of water in there.

 

Ok, if it'll be a couple days, then obviously you can't leave the fish in a couple inches of water like I did.

If it were me, I would drain as much water as you can without removing the fish. Move it away from the wall as far as you need to and then refill it. I would probably cover it with a sheet or something while doing the painting. Then when you are done painting....drain, move and refill.

Two people should be able to lift the tank by the stand and move it a few feet. A 29 gallon with a few inches of water shouldn't be too bad. And as long as you lift by the stand and move very slowly, you shouldn't affect the integrity of the tank at all, even with a few inches of water in there.

Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking after reading everything, so it's good to hear that's what you'd do too. Now I just have to convince my fiance to let me get things NOW instead of waiting until someday when painting gets done like he wants. Or maybe I'll make him pick a color and I'll paint the part of the wall where the tank will go now and save the rest for later. XD

 

Or maybe I'll make him pick a color and I'll paint the part of the wall where the tank will go now and save the rest for later. XD

That's not a bad idea