moving tank with live sand?

[Allen Michelle]

How do you guys move a tank with live sand?
when moving a tank you'd disturb the sand and cause the trapped phosphate? ammonia? nitrate? to be released into the tank...
will it work to drain the water to the minimum and put a mesh over it to keep the sand steady?

or add chemicals to remove the released toxin?

 

[DaveG99]

Moving a tank with sand in it is going to be hard. Especially if its big. I have moved a couple tanks and I always added new sand and just put the old stuff in buckets and sold it. You could also put the sand in buckets then rinse it thoroughly. If you try to reuse the old sandbed its going to be nasty. Have you ever taken down a tank and smelled the sand after the water has been removed? its nasty

 

[Wes]

removing the water down to nearly nothing would be fine for short moves, lilke somewhere else in the house, but a long move say to a different house i would remove the sand and then rinse it clean like you would new sand

 

[Guest]

if it is under 3" i would just leave it in the tank. if it is over 3" i would be very careful and if it was my tank i would use new sand.

 

[melev]

How big is the tank? How deep is the sand? How old is the sand?

 

[Allen Michelle]

@Marc wrote:

24gallons, so it's small. Just thinking whether should leave the sand in there and if it's possible to keep it undisturbed. not much sand in there and i'm not sure how old. I bought the aquapod and i'm bringing to houston to my sister.

 

[Glenn]

That move is a bit long, I would not keep the sand without cleaning.