Preparing For Sudden Construction

[bronzefry]

We will be having heavy digging/construction outside our house on Tuesday. It'll be on the septic system and the fish tanks are near the exterior walls. This is about 10-20 feet from the digging. Has anybody dealt with vibrations from heavy equipment, i.e. front-end loaders and the like near their tanks? Any experience/preparations would be valued.
Thanks,
Amanda

[MatsP]

We did have a digger digging up the ground when I was younger, and I had my 160 liter (40 gal) tank at the time. It may have been a bit more than 10 feet away, but surely no more than 20.

I would have thought that it's not a big problem unless either:
1. the ground is really solid (rock) and the digger is somehow trying to dig into that.
2. you are actually doing something to the house itself (or have a digger collide with the house).
3. the foundations of the house are really poor.

Sure, the fish may not appreciate the vibration, but I wouldn't have thought it's a problem for the tanks themselves.

Obviously, if there will be A LOT of dust and stuff, you may want to keep the windows and doors closed, etc, etc. But you'd want that anyways to avoid having to clean the house...

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Mats

[Birger]

I do not think it will be a problem Amanda, should just be using a back hoe, maybe a truck or two moving around...unless you are sitting on bedrock like some places here and then the chiseling from these machines are really irritating or unless there is a bad operator who backs through your wall but really most of these operators are quite good.

Birger

[bronzefry]

Thanks guys. We need the pipe from the house to the septic system replaced(no sewer system-quite old fashioned). No fun waking up at night to a few inches of water beneath your feet. Who knows what was in that water. And you think cleaning fish tanks are fun...
Amanda

[MatsP]

racoll just reported back on facebook that his 8 tanks survived the 7.4 earthquake - compared to that, I'm sure that a bit of digging in the garden is pretty mild. racoll is fine too!

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Mats

[snowball]

If you are worried about stress on large tanks then perhaps dropping the water level to half would reduce risks, but unless there is a pile driver in operation I wouldn't be too concerned. The glass and silicon joins are flexible enough to take up most vibrations.

I would be more concerned about the fish being stressed and possibly bashing themselves in the corners or trying to jump out, but even then I think they will handle it. Perhaps leave the lights off to help settle them.

[bronzefry]

I'm really glad Racoll is okay! That is a very good example of what tanks and people can tolerate(and what good building codes can do). I also think lowering the water levels a tad is a good idea, too. It's supposed to be a small excavator-no pile driving. Just waiting for the "Dig Safe" folks to get here to spray paint the road and driveway with the utility locations. Electricity is no mystery(above ground). But, the water and gas are underground and close together. It'll be interesting to see what the water main looks like and what condition it's in. Wish us luck.
Amanda

[MatsP]

Good luck, and hope they use nice colours when marking the ground - nothing worse than finding that they have used an ugly purple or pink all over your drive-way... ;)

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Mats

[bronzefry]

All done, finally! The outflow from the house was less than 1/2" in diameter. We have no clue how we averted a complete disaster in the first place(like a 2' flood). There was a large tree root growing into the outflow pipe, cutting off most of the flow. A new 6" outflow is in place and working. The heavy duty clean-up is almost done. I'm also back to my regular water change routine and the fish are breeding again.
Amanda

Mats, the colors were orange, white and blue.

[Barbie]

Hey, what's wrong with purple?

I did have a friend lose a stingray that was in a built in pond in her basement during construction where they hooked her onto public sewer, but her floor had to be jackhammered in a 4 x4 foot area about 15 feet from the pond. They didn't realize the rays were that stressed because they were eating well, just a little skittish. I haven't heard of anyone losing anything else from the vibrations. My 18 tanks had no problem with the 6.8 earthquake in Alaska a few years ago.

Barbie