Moving Tanks need help

[Chameleon]

Hey yall,
I will be moving all my livestock from one tank to a new one this weekend. The big question I have is if its ok to move my shallow sand bed. It is well vacuumed and I was thinking if I move a cup or two of sand a day I wouldn't have any significant spikes. Can I move it faster or should I not move it at all. I thought about going bare bottom on the new tank but my goby would hate me so shallow sand bed it is. What are your thoughts?
Also any generic tips for transferring livestock from one tank to another would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Cham

 

[dmatt88]

I have successfully moved a number of tanks and sand without issue. I do use all new water though and allow the dust to settle before adding fish from qt.

........what, me worry?

 

[Steelerfan747]

I did this a few years ago when I went from a 90G to a 120G. I had them setup right across from each other and while I do not recommend this, I found that I did not have any issues. I used all the water from the 90g and just added what I needed to make up the difference. I added pretty much all the sand from my it as well.
The water was completely cloudy that nothing was able to be seen but yet nothing died.

Again, I am not advising you to do this I am merely posting my experience.

Good luck

 

[cdness]

I wouldn't recommend moving the sand, especially if it has been set up for a long time... This is a cheap thing to just replace to eliminate the possible issues with the moving of the sand.

 

[k2parkstar]

I moved my tank from one apartment to another a couple months ago. I had a fairly deep sandbed as I used to have a jawfish. When i moved my sand I rinsed it out with clean saltwater and then reused it. I let the tank run for a week or so keeping all my livestock in a qt. I didn't notice any spikes, and had no losses in the transition. Good luck. Moving a tank is work for sure!!

 

[Chameleon]

Hmm all my livestock in quarantine...think I have a bit to much for that...lol. Well I think Ill go with new sand if that is what yall recommend. I just didnt want to loose any of the good bacteria and things in the old sand which could take time to grow in new sand and cause my bioload to be excessive causing nutrient issues. This is why I wanted to use the old colonized sand.

 

[turbo21]

I wouldnt move the sand. It seems like all of the tanks i have moved and reused the sand in took forever before things would settle down. I would fight trates and phos for months after. Just use new sand and add a few cups of old sand to seed the new stuff and your good to go

bob

 

[allabout]

Yeah when I moved tanks I moved the sand and regretted it. It caused major algae outbreaks and even dinoflagellates (can't say it caused dinos but within a month of moving I had dinos, never had before). You could always seed the new sand with a few cups of your old sand if you wanted to keep some of the stuff in the sand.

 

[Chameleon]

Ill probably go that route then.