[Drigo72]

Hello,

My question goes this way I am moving a 4 month old tank to a different house (just about 2 blocks away). And I read from a previous thread that when moving a tank other than taking out everything you should discard the live sand from tha tank and replacing it with new live sand.

I am just confused ? is this really necessary?wouldn't it be just a waste of perfectly seeded live sand?IMO

[wozza]

i dont see any reasion to discard the live sand or live rock.
but if the live rock will be out of water for any lengh of time you may encounter some die off resulting in an amonia spike in you newly set up tank.

[almostdiva]

Not necessary. I have moved mine 2xs in the last 2 years. Kept all the sand (second time added additional b/c it does break down over time). Like Wozza said -- you might have an amonia spike when you set everything back up, so watch it for a week or so, and don't add anything new for a bit.

Rebecca

[Ninong]

If your sandbed is only four months old, you should be fine with reusing all of it. The usual recommendation for an established sandbed is to transfer no more than the top 1" layer and discard the lower layers. This is especially true with deeper sandbeds, those more than 5" deep.

However, I just took down a 120-gal tank with a 6" DSB that was exactly three years old and the buyers decided to reuse ALL of the 6" DSB. There was never any question about reusing the top 1"-1.5" but I was concerned that it might be risky to reuse the deeper layers. But, as they kept digging deeper and deeper and removing more and more of the sandbed they (and I) were surprised that there was absolutely no bad odor at all and there was evidence of life all through the sandbed, so much so that the helpers decided they would cut themselves in for shares of this live sand. That was when the live rock and live sand was sold. That guy left about a 1" layer of live sand in the tank because he was worn out and too tired to remove any more.

Then, about 10 days later when the guy who bought the tank showed up to pick it up, he and his helper decided that they wanted to keep this remaining sand because it was crawling with worms and Nassarius snails that had been left behind by the first crew. And there was still no odor coming from the sandbed even though it had been sitting for about 10 days with just a 2" layer of tankwater.

I was surprised because I thought that the lower layers would have been "stinky" based on what some others have reported but Dr. Ron Shimek assured me that what I experienced was perfectly normal for a properly functioning DSB.

I think the bottom line is that a lot depends on how long the sandbed has been established and, even more important, how well it was functioning. This is something that you will have to judge for yourself. I still think it's safer to not reuse the bottom layers of a deep sandbed that has been set up for years but maybe that's a judgment call?

[Drigo72]

Thanks for the info... I have a 65 gal tank and a 3inch sand bed . I have decided to leave the live sand in tact.. I will be leaving 1/2 inch of water in the tank to keep the sand under water and I have a base board under the tank(for support,i installed this when I initially set up the tank for instances like this... moving etc..) hopefully with this base board the weight of the tank will be even all throughout the base..

Also I am planning to reuse 50% of the tank water..Is it ok?

[Ninong]

Reusing 50% of the tankwater is certainly a good idea. Most people are concerned about moving tanks with sandbeds still in them because of the possible strain on the seams during transit. In fact, some glass tank manufacturers caution against doing this. I lot depends on how you handle it and also on the tank itself -- how it's made.

I wouldn't have dreamed of moving my tank with any sand or water in it but the two young guys who picked it up did just that. They moved it with a good 1" of wet sand and about an inch of water on top of that. So that was extra weight added to the empty tank's 320 lbs. The tank has a 3/4" bottom glass, 1/2" side glass on three sides and 7/8" rear glass. It was a very solidly made tank. How these two guys managed to carry this tank by themselves from the house to their pickup truck is beyond me. I think they were showing off!