The move (Part 1)
And it is done.
There was blood, and sweat, but no tears.
So many things went wrong!
What went right was the actual physical movement of the glassware, water, and livestock.
What went wrong was just about everything else.
Where to start.........
On Friday there was a big drama at work, which meant that I was already a few hours over time before I even got home. The signs were not good, but I had to press on.
Saturday started according to plan, feeding the cats, myself, and doing the maintenance on the downstairs tanks.
After finding the planned tools, hammer, drill, wire cutters, socket set, screwdrivers and tape measure then I was under way.
The first move to the temp stand, blocking the beer fridge worked well, even though there was something I thought I had forgotten to do......
Then the first of the issues started to emerge.
The first time I did this, I just shut everything down, moved everything, and then powered everything up. Net result, a good move, but many many deaths, therefore a bad move.
This time I was going to power up every tank after its move.
The issue, that for some strange reason simply didn't occur to me as a time consumer (doh) was that in order to get power to a moved tank I would need to reclaim power from where that tank had just come from. This necessitated an un-wiring of the electricity supply that the tank had, and a temporary re-wiring where the tank now was.
This was easier said than done!
The next issue came about when the first stand was due to be moved. Somehow I had managed to store a ridiculous amount of stuff under the stands. I chose not to move this stuff from the room, or else I would not be aware that it needed to all go back somewhere. However this made navigation around the room more difficult, and meant that things needed to be moved several times. More time consumed.
When I went to take some photos, the camera battery was flat!
The sliding of the tanks between the stands worked really well, although I did need to remove the water. More time!
Then it was time to deconstruct one of the stands, and reassemble 1/2 of it for the p1 tank. Well .... that was a complete destroyer of time. The existing stand did not break apart correctly, and I could not remove the connector parts.
Pliers would do the trick.
Hmmmmm which box are they in. The tool box?
Unpacked my way to the tool box, but they were not there? Found them by the TV, with the other wire cutters, and stuff like that!
Unpacked my way back into the garage and the pliers were useless!!!
Lots of swearing out loud, to make me feel better.
I figured out that if I inserted a connector from the underside, into a point that already had a connector, then the "stuck" connector would come out, and I was underway again. I lost hours here! A few good swings of the hammer and pow - A really sharp bit of metal (about 2 feet long) came flying from somewhere, and struck me in the temple about an inch from my eye. (This is the blood bit) There was blood flowing, but not enough to stop me, because I was on a role and loosing too much time!
Needless to say bleeding, sweating profusely, and swearing quietly, I am sure the fish were in more danger of busting something from laughing too much than they were from being moved.
At this stage I was starting to have great difficulty finding my tools. I don't have a builders apron thing, so I would use something, put it down, move some things, and then not be able to find what I was using........
I started to fill up the pockets in my cargo pants with the equipment I was using, but no matter how tight I did up my belt, my pants kept slipping down.
At this point I knew that I was not going to make my time limit, and was very pleased that each tank was actually operational.
So I thought that while I have the "hood up" so to speak, then I should do a spot of cleaning. I then started to clean all the hoses for the canister filters, not the filters.
When assembling the canister filters to their new (temporary) positions the hoses are all the wrong lengths, so it was tricky to get the filters working correctly without actually cutting the hoses. This also consumed time.
At this point everything hurt. I had almost finished phase 1 and the sun was setting!
So I decided that finishing phase 1 was all I was going to get through today..........
On to tank s1, and a quick measure, because it looked a bit bigger from the new angle....... Sure enough it was about 1.5 inches too long for the stand. Crap! Loud swearing noises. Well it had to change orientation, and it had to fit in the position I had designated, it just wouldn't be at the correct height, so it was not the end of the world, but an unexpected trip up. I decided to stop at the end of phase 1, 10 hours elapsed.
Luckily my hands had not become swollen, the gloves were fantastic. My feet on the other hand were a different story.
Time to re think the rest of the move, now that the starting point is different, and the physical movement of the tanks is not hard.
Lessons:
Plan for every item in the room, not just tank associated items.
Measure EVERY tank, even if you think you know its dimensions.
Keep all required tools with you at all times.
Gloves are great things.
Proper footwear is good.
Smoke breaks consume a lot of time!!
... 
. I have a house, a job, and a fantastic addiction (plec's). 
, geez, you're brave too.
