Moving Fish Tank

[Ryan5]

I am in the middle of moving and tomorrow I am moving my fish tank. I have a pretty basic idea of what my plan of action was going to be tomorrow but I was wondering if anyone else on here had some helpful tips. I had read that it was a good idea to change out the sand in the tank now and put new sand in the tank. Is this actually a good idea or not? Thanks for any help

 

[Ewokbuns]

Im not an expert on this kind of stuff, however it would be a good idea to if and only if you had the sand in there for a long time. Atleast thats what I have found myself through trial and error.

 

[bribo12]

I would definitely trash the sand if you have had the tank longer than 6-8 months. Who knows what nasties have built up under it. Why take the risk? Just save a little to seed the new sand bed.

 

[Ewokbuns]

I would definitely trash the sand if you have had the tank longer than 6-8 months. Who knows what nasties have built up under it. Why take the risk? Just save a little to seed the new sand bed.

Totally agree with you here.

 

[Ryan5]

I would definitely trash the sand if you have had the tank longer than 6-8 months. Who knows what nasties have built up under it. Why take the risk? Just save a little to seed the new sand bed.

About how much would you save and seed for the new sand bed? A half, a third, a quarter of the current sand?

 

[Shirtlessbill]

I understand why people are saying this and I know the "dangers". I just wanted to share my experience in this. I had a 120 where the front pane began to fall off. In an emergency I had to move it into a 75. I pumped the water out, scooped the sand and re placed it into the new tank. Granted, this "move" was only feet but I'm happy to say I lost nothing. Just a counter story in case something happens to not go as planned

 

[Bray84]

About how much would you save and seed for the new sand bed? A half, a third, a quarter of the current sand?

few cups worth should do the job

 

[alco1]

I moved my 280 gallon tank that's been setup for about 3 yrs from one house to another about an hour away... it was an absolute mission. I never replaced the water with new water and never replaced the sand either. I had a smaller tank that I put all the fish in for a few weeks. cleaned all the sand filled up the tank with the original water that I kept in a few big drum. let it all settle down for about 4-6 weeks and put the fish in. nothing died and everything is perfect, it may be more beneficial to replace the sand and everything but i'm too cheap to spend money on a 4" sand bed on a 280g tank. may not work for everyone but it worked for me quite well and didn't spend anything BIG on the move. that's my experience

 

[TheTodd]

I think if you rinse the sand really well, it should get rid of the nasties. You are back to regular, non-live sand, but free versus buying all new makes sense to me. I did this with what came in my 240g. It was nasty, but I just kept running water through it until it was clear. Started off with a trash can full, scooped out bunches at a time into a plastic container and blasted water through that until no more floaties appeared.

 

[alco1]

exactly what I did thetodd, just got a wheelbarrow put a bit of sand in there and kept stirring up the sand with water and kept rinsing it until it was clear

 

[Gibb72]

I upgraded from a 55 to a 90 used the same sand just rinsed it really well and have had no problems at all