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Re-carpeting with fish tanks


Jaide

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My landlord wants to re-carpet my place which is all well and good, but I have quite a few tanks so emptying/moving them is mission impossible.

Can anyone else please share their experiences of recarpeting and what you did about your tanks?

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How bad is the existing carpet. Given my recent experience with my 450 litre tank bursting and totally ruining the carpet in the lounge of the place we rent, perhaps your landlord would be open to just recarpeting the rest of the house in the meantime. He/She could always purchase the carpet for the lounge but just not lay it.

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He wanted to recarpet last Winter and I said no and explained about moving the tanks (emptying, moving and refilling again and what was involved with that), I have a tank in every room where the carpet is - he saw the light and thought he'd like to try again at Summer time which is all well and good but to move all my tanks in one day and refill them all is mission impossible, besides - my hot water tank isn't big enough to fill them all anyway.

I've had my share of tank accidents with water - one broke and flooded the place and I did a woopsie with a cannister filter just in the weekend and flooded the place again :roll:

The Landlord knows nothing of this of course but I'll be paranoid about it happening if new carpet is laid.

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I don't see any other alternative than emptying the tanks, moving them and refilling them once the carpets been laid, just buy a few 60-80ltr storage tubs from the warehouse, mitre 10 etc. and put a heater and airstone in them. The fish will be fine like that for quite a long time.

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He wanted to recarpet last Winter and I said no and explained about moving the tanks (emptying, moving and refilling again and what was involved with that), I have a tank in every room where the carpet is - he saw the light and thought he'd like to try again at Summer time which is all well and good but to move all my tanks in one day and refill them all is mission impossible, besides - my hot water tank isn't big enough to fill them all anyway.

I've had my share of tank accidents with water - one broke and flooded the place and I did a woopsie with a cannister filter just in the weekend and flooded the place again :roll:

The Landlord knows nothing of this of course but I'll be paranoid about it happening if new carpet is laid.

I suspect he will know if you have your tanks on a cabinet, the moment you move the cabinet. If you have them on stands you are lucky. When we last had our carpets done it took several days. Maybe it will this time, perhaps they could do room by room

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What size are the tanks? You might be able to get away with dropping the water level to a low enough level to be able to lift the stand while the carpet is dragged out from under.

And how long does the process take? If it goes room by room at your convenience then maybe you could move the tanks affected into the kitchen or bathroom or another lino/floorboard location and move them back when that room is done.

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One tank is over 400 litres and is sitting on a large walnut cabinet - so that will have to be emptied to be able to move it and the cabinet, another is on a rimu base and will be far to heavy to lift both base and tank (but could lift tank if all substrate is removed and I do plan to do that over Summer - swap it out for white sand, so might do it then), so maybe that one won't be too much of a problem. Actually thinking about it - it's only those 2 that will be the problem so may not be as bad as I realise.

I'll talk to the LL and we'll come up with a plan of action :)

...and then once the new carpet is laid, I'll be terrified every time I need to fuss about with the tanks :tears:

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When it came to re carpeting our old house, I didn't want to move my 350 Ltr Tank so the Carpet Layers cut around it, laid the new carpet upto the tank and we kept the piece that would have gone under the tank.

When it come time to move to the house that we built, once the fish tank was moved into the new place, we got the carpet layers back to lay the piece where the Fish Tank had been, worked a treat.

Good Luck

Lynda

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What I'm planning on doing (over the next week or so) is to move all the fish from the 430L into a ~170L and a 1/2 wine cask on the porch and plumb them together, this is the cold water tank so I'm lucky there. then move the 3 x 2ft and the nano tanks out to the shed, two of these are heated, the other two are cold.

I'll have to leave room in the shed for the bookshelves, lounge suite, computer desks, bedroom things...

then when the carpet is dome move every thing back...

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You need to talk to the landlord and explain the dificultly of the situation, hopefully he/she will be understanding. In my experience none communication creates bad feeling.

in my experience landlords do not always give a hoot about what the tenants would like to happen, regardless of their obligations

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i think it will be quite easy, all you need is a large container like a chilly bin of around 80 or 100L for the 400L. set up a large chilly bin as a tank somewhere where it won't be in the way, put the water and fish in it with a filter and heater and they'll be fine for as long as you want.

for the smaller tanks you need smaller chilly bins. How many tanks at what size have you got?

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Just emptied my 430L and move the fish to their new temp home, the giant kokopu look a little crowded in the 170L and the torrent fish don't seem to like their new home :dunno:

Good luck with your tank moving.

I think I would get hold of a few 50+L fish bins from the warehouse or the like.

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My LL is very understanding, when he said he wanted to recarpet in the middle of Winter last year, I said no... then I explained why so he said we'd try again in Summer. He's very keen to get new carpet laid.

I don't have spare storage to put the tanks so that won't work for me. I think I'll need to talk to the LL and carpet layers and see what we can come up with. If they will do half the place in one day and half in the next - then I can empty and refill the two large tanks on the spot, one tank per day (using the bath to put the fish in in the meantime). One of my tanks has very large fish in it so I can't use temp accommodations for them. It will have to be on the spot I think - god it's going to be a nightmare!

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One of my tanks has very large fish in it so I can't use temp accommodations for them. It will have to be on the spot I think - god it's going to be a nightmare!

I got a 200L tub from the Warehouse for my daughter's toys. It's big enough to fit her inside it, and she's six. I doubt your large fish will have a problem with it, if it's only temporary. Worse case scenario, buy a few.

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